Denver City Jobs: Veterans Preference, Layoff Credit and Military Leave

The Career Service covers City employees other than those the Charter excepts, such as sworn police and fire. Its rules are made by the Career Service Board. Hiring. Career Service Rule 3-43 gives applicants veterans' preference "under the terms as set forth in the Colorado Constitution", article XII, section 15, which the rules reprint: five points on the comparative analysis score for wartime or campaign service, ten for a veteran receiving disability compensation or disability retirement, five for certain surviving spouses, ten in total at most, and none for promotions. See the Colorado entry. Claim it on the application with a DD-214 and, for the ten points, the VA letter. Layoff. Under Rule 14-53, wartime or campaign service, other than training, is added to an employee's length of service when layoffs are ranked, up to ten years, if the employee separated under honorable conditions; a veteran with twenty or more years of active service gets none, and a spouse whose partner died in or because of service gets the same credit. Rule 14-54 lays off employees without the credit before those with it who have the same or more service. The employee has to give the Office of Human Resources the proof before a layoff. Military leave. Rule 10-73 gives probationary and career employees up to three weeks of their regular schedule a year of paid military leave for training or service, and Rules 11-30 to 11-33 give extended leave for up to five years plus 90 days, with the City's share of medical premiums kept up, return to the same or a like job, and a military pay differential under DRMC 18-164 for service in time of war or national emergency. House Bill 26-1413 (2026 Session Laws, chapter 288, effective July 1, 2026) raised paid military leave for employees of the state and of every political subdivision and municipal corporation under C.R.S. 28-3-601 from three weeks to four. The Career Service Rules, last revised in 2026 for Rules 3, 5 and 9 and last compiled on July 27, 2026, still say three; an employee called up after July 1, 2026 should ask for the fourth week under the statute.