SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council approved retroactively authorizing one month's worth of hiring bonuses for the police department and Community Safety Communications Center after discovering they were still being offered a month after the incentive program was thought to have ended.
The Emergency Order, which came from former Mayor Jenny Durkan, allowed for hiring incentives within the city's 2021 budget to help address police and 911 dispatch staffing shortages. It expired at the end of the year.
However, incentives were still being offered based on previous instruction from Durkan to ignore the council voting to cut funding for the incentives after Dec. 31, according to the council.
The bill approved Tuesday authorizes the use of up to $220,000 from salary savings to cover the amount of financial incentives committed in January.
According to Councilmember Lisa Herbold, Durkan told the police department and communications center that the council's actions that limited her emergency order were "not effective." Durkan, according to Herbold during Tuesday's council meeting, sought legal council in the decision. Herbold said the city attorney's office was never consulted.
Herbold said that they are still unclear on what Durkan meant in her memo to the departments.
Durkan released the order in October 2021. Through it, experienced officers or 911 dispatchers would receive up to a $25,000 hiring bonus. New hires could get a $10,000 bonus.
The order followed two years of departures from the police department. The department lost 250 officers, reducing SPD's capacity by 300,000 service hours.
About a month later, the council passed a resolution to amend the emergency order, which set the Dec. 31 expiration date and limited spending to $500,000.
Prior to approving the retroactive pay, Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda said it was important to underscore that the situation was "forced upon" the council by former Mayor Durkan.
