Early returns show Denver voters handed over the power to appoint the head of the agency responsible for policing Denver’s police to a citizen-led volunteer oversight board.

The “yes” votes for ballot question 2G were leading by more than 2-to-1 with 70,185 votes counted 90 minutes after polls closed, with 44,780 or 67.06%.

Denver’s Citizen Oversight Board will now make appointments to the city’s Office of the Independent Monitor, with final approval still resting with the Denver City Council.

“We’re pleasantly surprised and happy at the turnout and the way that 2G is looking at this point,” said Al Gardner, the board’s immediate past chair, late Tuesday. “We expected a ‘yes,’ but not by that large a margin.

“This is a monumental step. The Office of the Independent Monitor is really finally reaching its true independence as an investigative body. It’s going to be huge.”

Council Pro Tem Jamie Torres, who represents Denver’s District 3, sponsored the bill. She told The Denver Gazette previously the ability for the monitor’s office to exist in the city’s charter outside of any elected section of the charter makes the office truly independent.

Currently, the mayor appoints a monitor — subject to City Council’s approval — from among nominees chosen by a five-member search committee headed by the chair of the Citizen Oversight Board.

After the measure was approved for the ballot, a spokesperson for Mayor Michael Hancock’s office told The Denver Gazette: “Mayor Hancock is not generally opposed to the proposal at this time.”

2G proponent Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca said via email: ““Thank you to community who have been pushing to strengthen the independence of the Independent Monitor since (District 9) introduced our initiative last year. This is your win! And it couldn’t come at a better time—Nick Mitchell left the position back in January. It’s November, so we’ve been without an Independent Monitor for almost a full year. Now that decision-making power is shifting from the Mayor to the Citizen Oversight Board, I’m hopeful that they will move more quickly in appointing a new Monitor.”

Torres and at-large Councilmember Robin Kniech, another sponsor, made clear before the election the monitor’s office is not “broken,” but having a body that is different from the person who appoints the city’s heads of law enforcement appoint their watchdog is crucial for public trust.

“This is just the first step,” Gardner said. “We don’t look at this as the final step.”

2G also allows the monitor to hire their own independent counsel, and make employees of the Office of the Independent Monitor employed under Career Service, rather than employed at will. Career Service employees get certain process guarantees for human-resource matters such as hiring, firing, disciplinary and grievance issues.

“This gives the Independent Monitor the right tools to carry out its duties,” Gardner said.

Torres said classifying employees of the monitor’s office as Career Service employees is important to insulate them from retaliation when they make controversial findings or express unpopular opinions.

“The OIM and the COB should be able to have that kind of freedom of opinion and reporting without that fear of retaliation, or that their job hangs in the balance,” she said in a previous interview.

Denver Gazette reporter Julia Cardi contributed to this story. 

This story has been updated to clarify that Al Gardner is the Citizen Oversight Board’s immediate past chair.