Denver Fire Department Chief Desmond Fulton said Wednesday that he was following what he believed to be the department’s standards when he claimed hundreds of hours of compensatory time off — and then effectively cashed much of it in for $42,000 in extra pay over the last three years.
The chief said he supported an investigation ordered by the city into how he and other members of the department’s leadership tracked and used their hours and paid time off. He issued a statement to The Denver Post after his timekeeping practices were brought to light by a CBS News Colorado investigative report that aired Tuesday night.
The report noted that the practice of claiming comp time appeared to be in violation of Denver municipal code.
“I want my team in the fire department and our broader community to know that I’ve always followed what I believed were best practices to promote transparency and uphold the public’s trust,” Fulton said in the new statement Wednesday afternoon.
According to TV station’s findings, Fulton accumulated more than 400 hours of extra hours, referred to as “comp time,” over the last three years. The hours were logged for a wide variety of activities that happened outside Fulton’s standard 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. weekday schedule, including evenings and weekends.
A review of Fulton’s records by the station found comp hours claimed for things such as attending a Denver memorial for victims of the 2022 Club Q mass shooting in Colorado Springs. The chief also routinely logged three to four hours of comp time for attending dinners at firehouses with rank-and-file members of his department.
While comp or flex time is typically used as additional paid time off, the CBS report found that Fulton’s use of those hours allowed him to cash in unused vacation time at the end of each year.
He collected a combined $42,000 in extra pay in that fashion from 2021 through 2023.
Fulton’s annual salary increased to $230,254 from $221,398 on Jan. 1. under an annual increase in the city’s municipal code. The city’s fire chief is not entitled to compensation for overtime hours, nor are the department’s deputy chief and division chiefs, the code says.
Fulton was first appointed by former Mayor Michael Hancock in 2020 after 22 years working as a member of the department in various roles, including as deputy chief. New Mayor Mike Johnston, who took office in July, announced he was renominating Fulton late last year.
The City Council approved his reappointment earlier this month.
In his statement, Fulton said Denver fire chiefs have been tracking what he called “flex time” for many years.
“During my transition into the Chief’s appointment in 2020, I continued to follow the practice and track all activities and hours in our reporting system — a practice that has been in place for at least the last decade by other department leads,” he said.
Armando Saldate, the executive director of Denver’s Department of Public Safety, is ordering an “independent investigation” into whether the fire department’s use of flexible time off complies with city ordinances and policies, according to a statement. The department is in the process of identifying a third party to carry out the investigation, spokeswoman Kelly Jacobs said in an email.
“I was unaware of this practice, which dates back to former administrations,” Saldate said. “I have issued a directive to current command staff to cease the use of Kelly/Flex time until the necessary facts are known.”
“Kelly” time or Kelly days refers to compensatory time off built into a Fire Department staff member’s schedule.
City Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, an at-large member who chairs the Safety, Housing, Education and Homelessness Committee, said she had met with Fulton on a couple occasions to discuss topics that included the department’s need for better training facilities and efforts to expand the emergency medical services firefighters can deliver.
Responding to the comp time report, she said the city’s priority needs to be getting to the bottom of what’s going on in DFD’s command ranks.
“There are a couple of things that are concerning,” Gonzales-Gutierrez said of the comp time practice. “It’s concerning if that’s how things are happening and those folks in leadership are utilizing the system in that way. And two, it begs the question: Are we missing something? If they are doing this, why do they feel the need to do so?”
Johnston renominated Fulton despite facing pressure from former mayor’s race rival-turned-endorser Lisa Calderón, who called for change at the top of the city’s public safety departments.
Now Johnston, too, is calling for a review of how DFD command staff has logged its hours.
“Denver expects our public safety work to be conducted with integrity and transparency,” Johnston said in a statement Wednesday.
Fulton, in his statement, said he also has directed department leaders to cease using compensatory time off.
“I fully support an investigation of how these hours were used,” he said.
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