The Denver City Council held its final pair of budget hearings Monday, meeting with the Denver Public Library and the Office of Special Events to discuss the agencies’ 2022 spending plans.

Mayor Michael Hancock’s proposed 2022 budget would provide $1.49 billion to fund city operations, 7.4% (or $110.23 million) of which would go to art and cultural facilities and 3.9% (or $59.35 million) which would go to administrative services.

Monday’s presented spending plans would give $54.7 million of the art and cultural facilities budget to the Denver Public Library and around $850,000 of the administrative budget to the Office of Special Events.

With the budget hearings concluded, the City Council will meet throughout the week to discuss potential amendments, which will be announced in early October. The final budget must be approved by the council to be implemented.

Denver Public Library

The proposed budget would delegate $54.7 million to the Denver Public Library — a $6.5 million increase from the library’s 2021 budget and the first year the library’s general fund spending has not decreased since at least 2019.

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Over 96% of the budget increase would be used to add new staff positions and restore positions cut during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of that, nearly $900,000 would create nine full-time positions to operate the new ArtPark Branch Library.

ArtPark will be Denver’s 27th branch library and its first new branch library since 2015, set to open in the fall. This new endeavor comes as budget and staff constraints have not allowed Denver libraries to operate at full hours since the pandemic began.

City Librarian Michelle Jeske said branch libraries are currently open 39 hours a week and the central library is open 20 hours a week while it is being renovated. She said they hope to reopen some branch libraries for evenings and six-day weeks by the end of the year.

“We believe that with this level of funding, once we can get employees into these positions, we will be able to do some increases in hours,” Jeske said. “Ideally, we are open seven days a week at several of our locations and six days a week at all.”

Other staff additions include two new positions for community outreach, one new job seeker position to coordinate staff training and $3.9 million to restore frozen and on-call positions throughout the library system cut during the pandemic.

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Approximately $260,000 would go towards library services and equipment, including restoring the library’s supply budget reduced during the pandemic.

Office of Special Events

Just under $850,000 of the proposed budget would go to the Office of Special Events, up from the office’s budget of $725,000 in 2021 and 714,000 in 2020.

The Office of Special Events handles the coordination and approval of around 700 events, photo shoots and film productions on public property annually in Denver. Though it has existed since 2015, it was only established as its own city agency in August.

Of the $124,000 budget increase, over $122,000 would fund personnel, with the majority being used to establish a new event permitting specialist position in the office.

“This is a position we have had to create, no position like this existed in the city before we opened the agency,” said Katy Strascina, executive director of the office. “This person has to learn the ins-and-outs of 21 different agencies, as that is how many agencies that we work with to put on an event.”

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The event permitting specialist would help the community navigate the city’s event planning process in response to the increasing demand and complexity of events, Strascina said. The position would also have a focus on meeting equity and diversity goals and improving community engagement.

The remaining budget increase would be spent on small additions to the office’s services, capital equipment and internal services, including restoring budgets for office supplies and technology reduced during the pandemic.