Mikhail Vafeades started working for the city of Denver at age 14 as an aide at the La Alma Recreation Center.
Through high school, college, graduate school and the birth of her two children, she stayed with city government. She moved up through the ranks to eventually become the budget and operations manager for the Office of Children’s Affairs, which connects families to services like child care and youth violence prevention.
But after 24 years of continuous work, city officials laid her off two weeks ago.
“It felt horrible,” she said through tears in an interview. “I honestly thought I was a person who was going to retire from the city.”
Vafeades was one of 169 employees laid off by the city as part of efforts to deal with its budget crisis. Mayor Mike Johnston announced the workforce reductions in May as a way to help make the city budget whole amid a $250 million shortfall between this year and next. The details — including who would lose their jobs — were fleshed out nearly three months later.
In addition to the layoffs, which played out Aug. 18 and Aug. 19, Johnston’s administration also eliminated 667 vacant positions. After officials finished notifying employees, Johnston said there would not be more layoffs this year. The restructuring will generate about $100 million in savings, he said.
But on the other side of those savings are the former employees who are now facing their own budget crises. The Denver Post interviewed Vafeades and four other former employees about what the loss of their jobs means for them and their families.
With a 20-year-old in college and a 4-year-old at home, Vafeades is preparing for a major strain on her family’s finances.
“I can’t afford to be without a job,” she said.
When Johnston first announced the layoffs, Vafeades thought she would be safe because of how long she had worked for the city. But then the Career Service Board voted in early July to change Denver’s policies, allowing managers to include factors beyond seniority in their decisions.
Still, Vafeades thought her job would be secure because, she said, she was the only person in her office who knew how to use multiple programs and because of her many contacts in the field.
“The city lost a lot in me as well,” she said.
Vafeades was among 20 employees with more than 15 years of service who were laid off, according to demographic breakdowns provided by the mayor’s office. That represents about 12% of the people who lost their jobs.
‘Almost relief’
Two weeks ago, Nick Trombetta poured himself a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, sat down at the desk in his basement and waited to see if he would get the email he feared.
After a few hours, he started to think that maybe his job in the city’s Office of Neighborhood Safety had survived the layoff process. But then the calendar invite for a video call came through. City officials were eliminating his role.
“You feel a certain type of way when you lose your job — and you didn’t do anything to lose your job,” he said.
Trombetta, who was a newer city employee, had spent the three months after Johnston’s initial job cuts announcement living with anxiety, wondering constantly if his salary would soon be cut off.
“There was almost a sense of relief,” he said. “Yeah, I got laid off, but I’ve been worried about losing my job for months.”
Trombetta worked in a vocational program for young people who have been through the criminal justice system. His team, called Helping Youth Pursue Excellence, connects kids to job resources, schools and GED programs. The participating youth also work at The Urban Farm, a community farm in the Central Park neighborhood. He had been in the role for nearly a year.
“I was disappointed because I thought, given the nature of our program and how small our team was, I was kind of hopeful they wouldn’t mess with us,” he said.
The Office of Social Equity and Innovation, which includes the Office of Neighborhood Safety, took one of the biggest hits to its workforce relative to its size, with a 23% reduction, most of them through layoffs. Of the city’s 24 departments and smaller agencies, only the mayor’s office and the offices of Human Rights and Community Partnerships; Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency; and Children’s Affairs saw bigger percentage losses.
Trombetta, 43, is a father of three, including a 14-year-old who plays on a club softball team. Since learning of his layoff, he’s applied to more than a dozen jobs, he said.
“Regardless of if (city officials) were shady or not shady, whether they were liars or not liars, whether I deserved it or didn’t deserve it — I’ve got to find another job,” he said.
‘Crisis after crisis’
Unlike most laid-off employees, Earl Jackson volunteered to give up his job.
As the chief financial officer of the large Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, Jackson said he was already considering leaving his role after years of what he called “chaos” in the department.
“When we get on the other side of this and the dust settles, is that the type of organization that you want to work for? I asked myself that question, and it was a resounding ‘no,’ ” he said.
Jackson, who was with the department for about three years — and worked for the Chicago Transit Authority before that — said things took a turn when Johnston was elected in 2023.
“It has been pretty much crisis-after-crisis mode since he’s arrived, particularly within the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure,” he said.
Jackson attributes that sense of instability to the city’s many budget constraints, including major financial commitments for the migrant crisis and homelessness. The city spent $95 million to help migrants between 2022 and 2024, and annually it spends about $57 million on the homelessness program.
“There was a perception among some that the entire city was reoriented, as if that was the only thing we did in the city,” Jackson said about Johnston’s homelessness initiative.
He said he believed the layoffs could have been softened if the city’s finance team, which has been preparing for a budget downturn since at least last fall, had started making changes sooner.
“There was an opportunity to have this entire thing be far less severe than it actually ended up being,” he said.
‘A betrayal’
Devin Mason doesn’t have a hard time talking about getting laid off. That is, until he starts thinking about his co-workers.
“We were, I would say, a close-knit team,” he said through deep, emotion-filled breaths.
The moment he found out he was losing his job as an associate city planner in the transportation department, he fired off as many emails as he could to alert his colleagues — and tell them how much he enjoyed working with them. After four years at DOTI, the 29-year-old was shocked his job was cut.
“It’s just a betrayal,” he said. “I’ve always been a dedicated employee.”
Mason was on the transportation and mobility planning team and worked on projects like the city’s Vision Zero plan and East Colfax Bus Rapid Transit, which is now under construction.
Mason said he had lingering questions about how he ended up on the layoff list.
“This process did not play out necessarily in a fair manner, I don’t think,” he said. “It feels like layoffs were kind of a first resort.”
He was one of 31 employees laid off in the department. DOTI, one of the city’s largest departments, saw the highest number of layoffs and positions eliminated, but they represent only about 2% of its total workforce. Another 108 vacant positions were eliminated.
“I’m sad for the ones who are left,” Mason said. “They’re going to be saddled with potentially unmanageable workloads. I know a lot of them were working at or near capacity as things were.”
‘Being pushed out’
Jessica Calderon had a feeling she would be included in the group of people laid off from the city.
With an ongoing discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against the city, she wasn’t surprised when she received the calendar invite that foreshadowed a layoff.
“I already felt like I was being pushed out,” she said. “They were systematically diminishing my work.”
Calderon had worked as the director of operations and innovation for the Office of Social Equity for three years. Before that, she worked in other city departments for 18 years. Calderon said she’s now considering additional legal options.
Her year-old lawsuit alleged mistreatment by her boss, some of which she attributed to her criticism of Johnston and support of one of his mayoral rivals.
“I’ve had to take a lot of time to reflect,” she said, “because I’ve spent so much of my years in service to our community — and (I’m) realizing that I’m still that person who is in service to my community.”
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