About Denver City Council

To locate which council district you live in and which council member represents you, enter your address into the Denver City Council interactive map.  You may also call the City Council main office at (720) 337-2000 to find out who is your City Council representative.

Council meets in the Council Chambers, Room 450 of the City and County Building, 1437 Bannock Street (except when there is an emergency that requires the Council to meet in a different location or virtually). 

The regular meetings of the full Council normally begin at 3:30 p.m. on most Monday afternoons. Typically, if Monday is a holiday, then the meetings are on Tuesdays at 3:30 p.m. Click here to receive the council schedule (includes committee meetings) in your inbox every Thursday afternoon.

The Council committees usually meet on Tuesday or Wednesday mornings. Learn more about the committees

You can watch the Council meetings on Denver 8 if you have Comcast cable television. You can also watch live and archived video online.

The City Charter has no requirements for formal education or experience. The requirements in the Charter are stated in 3.1.3 of the Charter as follows:

"Each councilman shall be a citizen of the United States; a resident of the City and County of Denver for the two (2) years immediately preceding his election; a qualified elector of the City and County of Denver; over twenty-five (25) years of age and if elected from a council district, the second year of residency shall have been within the district."

In addition, the Charter imposes certain restrictions as follows:

B3.1.4 Qualifications and Restrictions. No member shall hold any other public elective office or any other employment with the City and County of Denver. No member shall have any direct interest in any contract with the City; nor shall any member have any interest arising by contract or other relationship which creates a substantial conflict of interest with respect to that member's Council duties which cannot be avoided by abstention or by disqualification from participation in a transaction or series of transactions without adversely affecting the interests of the city...

B3.1.5 No person who has been convicted of willful evasion of City or State taxes; or who has been convicted of malfeasance in office, bribery or other corrupt practices, shall be qualified for membership in the council.

The procedures for running for City offices are stated in Chapter C of the Charter, which you can view on our website via the Denver Revised Municipal Code.

You should read the entire Charter election section and should talk to the staff of the Elections Division about how to run. There are many complex rules governing the conduct of campaigns, and this portion of the Council’s web page cannot address them all. But the short version is that the formal process for running for office starts with the nomination of the candidate. The Charter describes the nomination process as follows:

"C1.5 Nomination--How made. The name of a candidate for district councilman shall be placed upon the ballot when a verified petition of not less than one hundred (100) signatures of registered electors, who reside in the district in which the candidate resides, shall have been filed in his behalf at least forty-five (45) days before the day of election in the manner and form and under the conditions established by the election commission, unless otherwise provided by ordinance in pursuance of this charter. The name of a candidate for mayor or auditor or councilman-at-large or election commissioner shall be placed upon the ballot when a verified petition of not less than three hundred (300) signatures of registered electors shall have been filed in his behalf at least forty-five (45) days before the day of election in the manner and form and under the conditions established by the election commission, unless otherwise provided by ordinance in pursuance of this charter." 

Salaries for all elected officials in the City and County of Denver are set by ordinance in a general election year. You can find the current salary structure for council members here.

Council members are elected to represent their district or the city on a full-time basis.

Yes, they each have one office. The office is either in a city owned building or the City pays the rent for the office. Seven council members have offices in the City & County Building while the remaining six have offices located in their districts. 

In 2020, each council member received $264,000 to operate his or her office, which provides for the salary of the staff and supplies for operating his/her office. 

They do vote on every bill. Before the Council recess, the members tell the president which bills they want to call out for a vote. Only those bills are voted on individually. The other bills are passed in a block vote.

The president and pro tem are elected by the members of council, not the voters. During the Council meeting on the third Monday of July, the Council elects new officers — a president and a pro tem. Both officers serve one year. In addition to presiding over the meetings, the president appoints committees and designates their functions. The pro tem fills in for the president when necessary. 

Speakers may sign-up on personal devices starting at 3 p.m. at denvergov.org/CouncilPublicInput. Sign-ups must be completed by 5:30 to be accepted. Speakers may also sign-up in person in Room 451.

Below is a very brief outline of the legislative process and how laws are enacted. To learn more, download our visual diagram(PDF, 74KB).

1. Council Committee Meeting - Proposed legislation is discussed.
2. Mayor Council Meeting (following Tues) - Bills to be filed each week are discussed.
3. Council Meeting, First Reading (following Mon) - Bill is either ordered published or defeated
4. Council Meeting, Second Reading
5. Mayor signs or vetoes (Council can override veto with 9 votes)
6. City Clerk publishes new ordinance by end of the week (ordinance takes effect upon publication) 

The Rules of Procedure(PDF, 200KB) govern the legislative process of the City Council, serving as a guide to fair and orderly procedure in meetings.

Respectful workplace policy(PDF, 208KB)

Find City Council's Statement of Values and Conduct Commitments for Working with Colleagues and Together as a Council(PDF, 305KB) here.