You will know who has my ear.
You can look up who is paid to lobby Denver, because lobbyists register with the Clerk. You cannot look up whether they got the meeting.
The short version
The part that matters happens in an office on a Tuesday afternoon, where a $499,000 contract or a rezoning position gets shaped, and no rule anywhere says anyone has to tell you it happened.
Every meeting I take with a lobbyist, developer, or city vendor goes on a public calendar within 48 hours: who it was and what they wanted. It needs no ordinance and no votes from my twelve colleagues.
The check on me is built in. Every one of those meetings has another person in it, and that person keeps their own record. A reporter can lay my calendar against the Clerk's lobbyist filings and hunt for gaps, and when a contract hits the council floor you can check whether the vendor appears on my calendar first. Hiding a meeting means betting the person across the table stays quiet forever. Nobody should take that bet, least of all me.
The details
What Denver has now
Denver requires professional lobbyists to register with the Clerk and Recorder and file periodic reports of clients and compensation (DRMC Chapter 2). The Code of Ethics (DRMC Chapter 2, Article IV) governs gifts and conflicts, and the Board of Ethics issues opinions. Council meetings and committee hearings are public and recorded. None of it reaches the private meeting, which is where positions get shaped before anything hits a public agenda.
Exactly what gets published
Within 48 hours of any meeting or call between me or my staff and:
- anyone registered as a lobbyist with the Clerk
- a principal or representative of an entity with a contract, bid, or land use application pending before the city
- anyone who asks for an official act.
Published: participants, date, requested topic, and my office's one-line summary of what they requested. Format: a public page, machine-readable, no login, no records request needed.
What doesn't get published, and why
Neighbors raising personal matters, like a benefits problem, an immigration fear, or a code complaint against a neighbor, are not lobbyists, and their privacy is protected. Whistleblowers are protected. Anything in a quasi-judicial matter follows the ex parte rules instead: for rezonings and other quasi-judicial items, the correct practice is not to take the private meeting at all, and the calendar will show that refusal.
Why land use meetings are different
Council members act as impartial judges on rezonings and some appeals. A promised vote in those cases can disqualify a member and void the decision. I will disclose permitted meetings and refuse private meetings when the ex parte rules require it.
What starts on day one
My office can publish its calendar without waiting for another vote. A citywide disclosure ordinance can use that public record as a working example.
Cost
A spreadsheet and a habit.
Why 19 weeks is enough
It starts the day after swearing-in and produces a public artifact every single week of the term. Of the four pledges, this is the only one that can't be blocked, delayed, or amended by anyone.