By Erica C. Barnett
Editor’s note: This post has been updated to reflect the fact that SPD would not tell us whether two new executive-level SPD officials received $50,000 hiring bonuses and told us to file a records request. The story also reflects that Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office did not respond to our request for this information.
Seattle’s new police chief, Shon Barnes, and Deputy Police Chief Yvonne Underwood each received recruitment bonuses for hiring new high-level staff, including a second deputy police chief, when Barnes became police chief earlier this year. Both Underwood and Chief Barnes make more than $300,000 a year.
Barnes received $2,000 for recruiting a new assistant chief overseeing investigations, Nicole Powell, and a second deputy chief, Andre Sayles. Yvonne Underwood received $1,000 payment for recruiting Sayles. Sayles came to the department from Beloit, Wisconsin, a town about 50 miles south of Madison, where Barnes was previously chief. Powell came to Seattle from New Orleans, where she was the lieutenant in charge of recruitment.
According to a spokesman for SPD, the bonuses—part of legislation passed in August 2022 intended to increase police hiring in Seattle—are available to any city employee, with a few exceptions, and were added to Barnes’ and Underwood’s paychecks once Sayles and Powell joined the department. Barnes makes $360,485 a year; Underwood makes $302,016.
Overall, the spokesman said, the city has made 21 $1,000 payments to city employees who recruit new SPD officers, including the three that went to Barnes and Underwood.
PubliCola also asked SPD if Sayles and Powell (whose salaries are $302,016 and $294,549, respectively) received the city’s standard lateral hiring bonus of $50,000. The department’s communications department refused to respond to our yes/no question, directing us to file a records request for the information.
As we have reported previously, SPD has adopted an official policy called “grouping” for individuals and media outlets that file multiple records request. Under the policy, SPD’s public disclosure division refuses to work on multiple records requests at one time. Instead, they work on one request until it is completely fulfilled—a process that can take years—before moving on to another request and beginning the same process again. The policy is designed to discourage multiple records requests—a standard part of reporting—and has made it essentially pointless to file records requests for information.
Although we have been unable to directly confirm the $50,000 payments, the fact that SPD would not answer this question is suggestive.
Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office also did not respond to a request for an answer to our question.
A 2024 amendment to the 2022 hiring incentive legislation, sponsored by Council President Sara Nelson, raised the size of lateral hiring bonuses, which were previously $30,000.
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Barnes has brought on a number of new staffers since his appointment, including three new executive-level staff—Chief of Staff Alex Ricketts, Executive Director of Crime and Community Harm Reduction Lee Hunt, and Chief Communications Officer Barbara DeLollis. Ricketts previously worked with Barnes in Madison, WI, where Barnes was chief before coming to Seattle, and in Greensboro, NC, where Barnes was a captain. Hunt worked with Barnes in Greensboro.
The new staffers’ salaries collectively cost $1.34 million, and most are new positions that add permanent costs to SPD’s budget at a time when other city departments have been asked to make cuts. The city is currently facing a two-year budget shortfall of around $150 million.
