By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice
The chief security officer of the Denver Security Office sent a resignation email to more than a dozen recipients at 12:57 p.m. on July 2 — the day after his seven-year anniversary with the city — and used the letter to accuse General Services leaders of punishing him for raising concerns.
The letter was posted publicly on X by Do Better Denver, an anonymous account that publishes material about Denver city government. His name is redacted in the posted images. Rocky Mountain Voice has not independently authenticated the letter, and the city declined to confirm the resignation.
In the letter, he described being written up for speaking about layoffs, furloughs, frozen raises, increased workloads, and changes to CSA Rule 14. He received his first low annual rating in a 40-year career, he wrote, and was placed on a performance improvement plan. He said he had been mocked for his writing style, questioned for taking FMLA leave, and ridiculed for defending his team’s work.
The letter was addressed to Kristin Wood, Kerri Lombardi of Denver County Court, Chris Baumann, and 12 others. It offers an unusually candid account of conditions inside the Department of General Services, which the CSO said was more than 25 employees short, with people leaving weekly.
Seven years, then gone
When the CSO started at the Denver Security Office, there were two people on the team — himself and one city employee. Over seven years he grew it to ten, helped five staff members win internal promotions over external candidates, oversaw a 24/7 security operations center that closed only once during his seven years with the city (a room flood that cost about 30 minutes of downtime), and created a quarterly scorecard system covering 18 sites. Scores rose from the low 50s to the mid-to-high 80s across those sites, he wrote, with nine hitting 95 or above most quarters.
He wrote that he came to the city as a Marine Corps veteran, emergency medical responder and crisis management professional. In the absence of a General Services crisis team, he advocated for one and built it. He wrote that he and his manager served on Denver’s mass notification committee for all seven years and were involved in sending citywide alerts to what he described as 17,900 employees.
He listed the crises his team worked through: COVID and the vaccine mandate, the George Floyd and BLM protests, two presidential elections, abortion rights and gun rights demonstrations, pro-Palestine and anti-Israel protests, downtown riots, two mayoral elections, a $71 million security contract, what he put at 50,000 migrant newcomers, deaths at All In Mile High shelter sites and buildings being shot at. He wrote that he and his team purchased body armor just to feel safe visiting migrant sites.
A year under a microscope
The year leading up to his resignation was different. Three team members left, putting him in the position of covering both SOC supervisor and chief security officer duties at once. He said General Services leadership scrutinized him when he expected support.
“This past year has been difficult for me,” he wrote. “Despite having three team staff leave and me doing double roles of SOC supervisor and chief security officer, officially, I have been scrutinized and put under a looking glass by General Services leaders.”
He said he was written up for what he described as speaking truth about layoffs, furloughs, frozen raises, increased workloads and changes to CSA Rule 14 — all of which he tied to city overspending He received a “needs development” annual rating, his first in four decades of work, and was given a performance improvement plan with a deadline.
“I have been punished, told I was embarrassing and given a performance improvement plan with a deadline,” he wrote.
He wrote that the coaching and support he gave his own team never came back to him from above. “If asked, I am sure they will disagree,” he wrote. “But the proof is in the pudding — GS is over 25 folks short, with people leaving weekly due to what I share here.”
He expected a different account from the city
He told recipients he anticipated the city would shape a different account of his departure once he was gone. “Once I leave today, I am confident there will be, for lack of a better word, disinformation campaign of ‘what really occurred’ by GS leadership,” he wrote. He called the resignation letter his “one opportunity to provide a little insight and fair play.”
Public records separately document the budget pressure, proposed cuts, layoffs, furloughs. and hiring restrictions referenced in his letter. The proposed 2026 budget called for General Services to lose 24 positions — 20 of them already vacant — and absorb a funding cut of more than 4 percent.
That came on top of the August 2025 citywide layoffs in which Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration announced 171 layoffs and the elimination of 665 vacant positions as part of its response to a projected $200 million 2026 budget deficit.
The Johnston administration had imposed a hiring freeze beginning May 22, 2025 and ordered a tiered furlough system of two to seven days starting June 1 before the layoffs landed.
The CSO wrote that while his DSO team stayed intact through the 2025 reductions, lost trust in city leadership led many employees to leave on their own. More departures followed in 2026, he wrote.
Craig Wells, public information officer for General Services, said “the department does not comment on individual personnel matters, including employment status, disciplinary matters or personnel-related allegations,” declining to confirm the resignation or address the discipline allegations directly.
On staffing, Wells described a recent organizational restructuring and said the department “continues to recruit for critical positions while strategically aligning staffing with operational and budget priorities,” without addressing the specific headcount claim.
Asked who is serving as chief security officer, Wells said General Services “has interim leadership in place to ensure continuity of operations” but did not name anyone, and said the city is “evaluating the long-term structure of the role for optimization.”
On the CSO’s statement that he could not maintain his integrity while working for the city, Wells said the city expects employees to uphold its values of “Listen, Dare, and Deliver” and that General Services remains committed to “integrity, accountability, transparency, and professionalism.”
‘A death by a thousand cuts’
He called the working conditions not a single incident but a slow accumulation. “This isn’t just a 2026 concern, its been coming now for 2 years plus, this is a death by a thousand cuts issue,” he wrote.
He said General Services leadership had directed employees to “get to yes,” and that he had come to understand what the directive costs. “EVERY yes, is a trade,” he wrote. “A trade of time, energy, integrity, attention, quality of work, ability to serve others well.”
He said he does not have another job lined up.
“I cannot keep my integrity and work for the city and county of Denver,” he wrote. “Those two conditions do not co-exist.”