The tab for reforming the Denver Sheriff Department is pushing $1 million as the city hires multiple consultants and special investigators to deal with the fallout of excessive-force cases that already have cost millions in legal payouts.
At this point, it’s impossible to figure out how much the costs eventually will total because at least two consultants have base contracts that allow them to bill the city for travel and other expenses.
So far, the city’s contracts with three consultants and six on-call investigators, all of whom are directly involved in the sheriff’s department reform, have totaled $879,000, according to copies of contracts obtained by The Denver Post.
The reform effort is the result of a series of excessive-force complaints filed against the sheriff’s department, including two that led to federal lawsuits and this year cost the city $7.9 million in payouts to former inmates and their families.
On Monday, City Attorney Scott Martinez will ask the City Council to approve a $6 million transfer from a contingency fund to settle the Marvin Booker case.
In October, a federal jury awarded Booker’s family a $4.65 million judgment after deciding four deputies and a sergeant used excessive force on the homeless street preacher, who died while in custody.
If approved by the council, the $6 million will cover the entire jury award and $1.35 million in attorney’s fees that the court ordered the city to pay.
In July, the city agreed to settle a lawsuit by former inmate Jamal Hunter, who was choked by a deputy and beaten and scalded by other inmates, for $3.25 million. Hunter had to pay his attorneys from that pot of money.
Denver has hired 10 outside law firms to assist its city attorney’s office in the litigation and negotiations involved in the Hunter and Booker cases. Those bills have not yet been finalized.
As for the sheriff’s reform, observers are taking a wait-and-see attitude on whether the cost is worth it, but they are hopeful, said Rudy Gonzales of the Colorado Latino Forum’s Denver Chapter, which has been critical of the reform process.
“If they eventually effect change in the culture, then I think it’s worth it,” Gonzales said. “It’s very expensive to bring in all of these consultants.”
In October, Denver hired Hillard Heintze of Chicago and OIR Group of Los Angeles to conduct a review of the sheriff’s department for $295,000. Consultants working for those firms will bill the city for their travel to and from Denver as well as hotels and meals while they are in town, according to their contract.
The consultants have been staying at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel while they are in town to tour the department’s jail and to meet with deputies, city officials and community members, said Daelene Mix, a spokeswoman for the Denver Department of Public Safety.
The consultants must follow federal per diem rates, she said. In Denver, those rates are $163 per night for hotel rooms and $66 per day for meals and incidentals, according to the federal General Services Administration website.
Hillard Heintze is the sole holder of the contract to review the sheriff’s department and to recruit a new sheriff. The other consulting firm, OIR Group, has negotiated an undisclosed amount with Hillard Heintze, Mix said.
In September, Grayson Robinson, the former Arapahoe County sheriff, signed a $90,000 contract with Denver to run the sheriff’s department’s internal affairs bureau, according to his contract.
The bureau has a backlog of about 189 cases, and it takes months for any investigation to be completed.
To help with the backlog, the city hired six part-time investigators at $69,000-a-year salaries to help the internal affairs department, said Mary Dulacki, records coordinator for the safety department. They do not receive benefits, she said.
And, in August, the city hired Jim Davis, a former FBI agent, to serve as an adviser to the mayor on the sheriff reform effort. His contract was for $80,000, plus a maximum of $7,500 in reimbursable expenses such as travel.
For now, the costs are being covered by a city contingency fund, Mix said. But the sheriff’s department will have to reimburse the contingency fund, she said. That money will come out of the 2014 and 2015 department budgets.
City officials believe it is necessary to spend the money because the public is demanding change, Mix said.
“There’s been a call not only from the mayor and the executive director of safety but also from the community to make the Denver Sheriff Department the best it can be,” Mix said. “It is money well spent.”
Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Noelle_Phillips
The denver sheriff department reform costs
The tab for reforming the Denver Sheriff Department continues to add up. Here is what has been spent, so far:
• Jim Davis, former FBI agent hired as an adviser to the reform effort: $80,000, plus up to $7,500 in expenses
• Grayson Robinson, former Arapahoe County sheriff hired to run the department’s internal affairs bureau: $90,000
• Hillard Heintze, Chicago-base law enforcement consultants hired to review the department and recruit a new sheriff: $295,000, plus expenses including travel, lodging and meals
• Six investigators, hired to help the internal affairs bureau get through a large backlog of cases: $414,000
