A top official in Denver’s Department of Public Safety who oversaw police discipline was fired last month and claims the termination was retaliation after she lodged a gender-discrimination complaint against the city.
Mary Dulacki, the department’s chief compliance officer, was fired June 5 after city officials said she was dishonest during an investigation into workplace misconduct that allegedly ranged from gossiping to mismanaging subordinates to speaking with a TV news reporter.
Dulacki, who has been a city employee for 17 years, has claimed the firing was retaliation after she filed a gender-discrimination complaint with the Colorado Division of Civil Rights a year ago, according to a city letter of discipline.
Executive Director of Public Safety Armando Saldate denied in the nine-page letter that he fired Dulacki in retaliation.
“To the contrary, we received a complaint from one of the employees you directly supervised at the time alleging various perceived inappropriate actions on your part that we were obligated to investigate,” he wrote. “We hired a neutral outside investigator to investigate the allegations and make factual findings that we have relied upon in deciding to initiate the disciplinary process and to impose discipline.”
Dulacki and her attorney did not return requests for comment this week.
The misconduct investigation found that Dulacki spoke with CBS Colorado reporter Brian Maass after a Denver police officer was run over by a city fire truck during the Nuggets’ NBA championship celebration parade in June 2023. Maass obtained a copy of a draft Denver Fire Department after-action report about the incident and published a story about the document in March 2024.
Maass filed an open records request for the report in February 2024, but a city records custodian told him it didn’t exist, which Saldate said “was appropriate in that only a draft report existed that had never been approved.”
Dulacki then told the records custodian that the custodian should assume Maass already had a copy of the report, according to the letter.
“You disclosed that you were having conversations with Mr. Maass on the side and advised her to assume Mr. Maass already had a copy of the draft after-action report. You then asked not to tell anyone that you were speaking with Mr. Maass on the side,” the disciplinary letter states.
When asked about the conversations during the subsequent misconduct investigation, Dulacki said she didn’t recall talking with the reporter or asking the custodian not to tell anyone about the conversations, the disciplinary letter states. Saldate found her statements were not credible.
Dulacki was also investigated over concerns that she mismanaged her subordinates, including by unfairly distributing work, failing to advocate for an employee’s advancement and failing to communicate with that employee clearly. Additionally, the letter states that Dulacki gossiped about a subordinate having an affair.
She denied gossiping during the misconduct investigation, which Saldate again considered to be dishonest.
He noted that Dulacki was in charge of making final disciplinary decisions for Denver police officers and firefighters, and that those first responders can be fired for dishonesty.
“It would be irresponsible for me to retain you in your role when it is your responsibility to decide whether to dismiss officers who are deceptive in their internal affairs interviews, and when your credibility is critical to your ability to testify effectively in all disciplinary appeal hearings,” Saldate wrote. “In addition, I can no longer employ someone at your level whose honesty and judgment I no longer to (sic) trust.”
It was not immediately clear Friday whether or how Dulacki’s gender-discrimination complaint was resolved. Katie O’Donnell, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Civil Rights Division, said she could not comment on the status, outcome or existence of complaints filed with the division.
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