(The Center Square) – The Seattle City Council is exploring ways to ensure the parking enforcement section within the Seattle Police Department is fully staffed, given the hiring process is showing signs of needed fixes.
According to a recent presentation by SPD, the city has had difficulty staffing this unit in recent years.
Since 2020, the Parking Enforcement unit has been operating with approximately 20 vacancies, out of 104 parking enforcement officer positions.
From 2021 to 2023, the parking enforcement unit was located within the Seattle Department of Transportation. The city transferred the unit back to SPD in 2023 with an expectation that the department would fully staff the unit.
However, the department has not been able to reach full staffing and the unit has been carrying 19 vacancies since it was relocated.
According to a central staff memo, the the shortage of Parking Enforcement Officers vacancies has translated into lower levels of service for managing the right-of-way, enforcing parking regulations, and providing traffic control for events and incidents.
The shortage has been exacerbated by the struggle to find candidates capable of making it into the training phase of the process. For instance, last April, only two out of 123 applicants made it to the training phase.
The current hiring process for Parking Enforcement Officers lasts seven months with seven steps before an officer begins their job. Seattle central staff showed a typical hiring timeline for the position, which starts with a job posting on August 15, 2023. An applicant who makes it through all seven steps would complete training on March 1, 2024.
During the Select Budget Committee meeting on Monday, Seattle City Councilmembers Rob Kettle and Dan Straus voiced frustrations with parking enforcement vacancies.
“We clearly need to streamline this process. Jobs come and jobs go, and if folks do not have a clear pathway and a short timeline into a position, they will find a different job,” Strauss said.
Central staff offered options for the Seattle City Council to take to address the situation.
For one, the city council may consider requesting having Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office submit a report showing how SPD could streamline the hiring process for the parking enforcement unit.
Kettle and Strauss voiced support for this option.
Another proposed option is adding two temporary parking enforcement supervisor positions to train candidates, including a request that the positions be funded in 2025 and 2026 via salary savings that are created from current vacancies.
The annual cost of one supervisor position is $143,000, according to Seattle central staff.
New dedicated training positions may be considered to properly prepare potential candidates for the job. Parking enforcement managers currently provide basic training while serving in an out-of-class supervisor role.
Seattle City Council Chair Sara Nelson called this option “a no-brainer,” because it is funded by salary savings and does not dip into general fund revenues amid a $250 million budget deficit.
