Denver’s government just got a little bigger.

Housed within the Denver Office of Human Rights and Community Partnerships (HRCP), the city has created a new division that officials said would help get more than 270 registered neighborhood organizations (RNOs) more involved in their local government.

And it’s housed within the human rights office to ensure its eventual work aligns with “diversity, equity and inclusion” goals, officials said.  

But officials at a Feb. 8 community meeting could not answer answer basic questions from attendees, offered no solid details about what the division would do or how it would achieve goals, leaving it all for a yet-to-be-hired director to figure all that out. 

Officials indicated the new division’s mission is to help launch more community-led projects, share important information directly with neighborhoods and help gather feedback regarding how zoning and other ordinances might affect them.

Perla Gheiler, executive director of the HRCP office, told people who gathered at a church and online that efforts are underway to find the new division’s first director, who will build the new division from the ground up.

According to Mayor Mike Johnston’s 2025 budget, the director position’s annual salary would be $140,642.

“When we hire this person, we really want that person to help us build out what this (division) looks like because they’ll be leading it,” Gheiler said. “And so we hope to post the job by the end of February. It’s currently being reviewed by the mayor and HR.”

Once the director is in place, that individual will work with various stakeholders to develop the plan, a more defined vision and eventually request a budget expansion to launch that plan in 2026, Gheiler added.

District 6 Councilmember Paul Kashmann has been a driving force behind the idea for years, first pitching the concept to former Denver Mayor Michael Hancock. 

He then pitched the idea to Mayor Mike Johnston, moving away from the concept of an office of community engagement to more of an office of community empowerment.

“Engagement is too easy to check the box,” Kashmann said. “Empowerment means you’re going out of your way with an understanding that we have 13 members of City Council. We’ve got a mayor, we’ve got 12,000 city employees, and most of them do a great job, but we got 730,000 people in the city and county, and if we’re not mining that community, we’re missing a lot of great ideas and a whole bunch of great volunteer resources.”

Denver passed the Registered Neighborhood Organization (RNO) ordinance in 1979 to give neighborhoods a voice in how they are developed and maintained. Residents and property owners who meet regularly form those RNOs.

RNO contact information is kept on file with the city’s Community Planning and Development Department, where notification of proposed zoning amendments, landmark designation applications, planning board and board of adjustment hearings, liquor and cabaret licenses and other activities occurring in the neighborhood are shared.   

“At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is be more collaborative, more understanding, have better communication, and really empower neighborhoods,” Gheiler said. “I think when we say empowerment, it’s like giving you the information and the tools that you need to go out and do what you need to do in your neighborhoods and us not really getting into the weeds of that but really supporting the work that you’re already doing. That’s how I see and envision this division.”