By Erica C. Barnett

Seattle’s parking enforcement officers have been engaged in a work slowdown since mid-November, after failing to reach an agreement on a contract that would raise their pay and allow them to take paid lunch breaks, among other union demands.

Jake Sisley, the head of the Seattle Parking Enforcement Officers Guild (SPEOG), said that on November 18, the parking enforcement officers started a “realignment of enforcement priorities” that will result in fewer tickets and more warnings for people who violate on-street parking rules.

“The city makes money off PEOs going out and doing their job, and while I maintain that’s not the primary purpose, I think the city sees it as the primary purpose,” Sisley said. “We don’t want to diminish the level of service we provide the public—like, if someone calls and says there’s a car blocking their driveway, we’ll still cite that person and tow them. But for everything else that’s kind of benign, like pay to park or if there’s a no parking zone, maybe that’s not a problem. Maybe you don’t give them a ticket, but just give them a warning.”

SPEOG represents the city’s 85 or so parking enforcement officers, who are part of the Seattle Police Department but operate under a separate contract. (Mayor Bruce Harrell just signed a new police contract giving rookie officers a starting salary of $118,000, rising to $126,000 after six months, plus bonuses for having a two- or four-year degree).

Currently, PEO salaries max out at just over $37 an hour—an amount SPEOG President Jake Sisley says is far too low, especially compared to civilian Community Service Officers and License and Standards Inspectors, who make up to $52 an hour. “Parking enforcement officers do a lot,” Sisley said—from ticketing and towing cars that are blocking driveways and roads to directing traffic at special events to knocking on the doors of RVs where people are living as part of the abandoned vehicles team.

The PEOs have been working without a contract since the end of 2023, the same year that six new people joined the city council, shaking up the Labor Relations Policy Committee, which votes on labor contracts. (A five-member council majority serves on the LRPC.)  SPEOG agreed to put the contract, which would go through the end of this year, off until the fall of 2024, Sisley said, when the union asked for a “robust” 32 percent pay increase that would to put parking enforcement officers’ pay in line with CSOs and licensing inspectors. The city countered with an offer of 2 percent.

“Our response was essentially, ‘Get real,’ because there were so many other things that were on the table,” Sisley said. “The fact that they came back with essentially [just] 2 percent— it was like, you aren’t even trying. You’re trying to delay.”

Since then, Sisley said “they’ve slowly clawed back up to a real proposal”—one that would increase PEO pay by at least 11.5 percent—but a number of issues are still outstanding and the contract is currently in mediation, with no clear path to consensus.

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The PEOs are asking for a half-hour paid lunch, rather than their current unpaid lunch breaks, because they often get calls during lunch and have to leave. Sisley said the city’s labor negotiators said they could just turn their radios and phones off during their breaks, but SPEOG argued that would create a safety issue.

They’re also opposing the city’s effort to make service on specialty teams, like the abandoned vehicles squad, a mandatory part of the routine “bid” for shifts, instead of something people sign up for on a voluntary basis; they argue that if not enough people are signing up to work these shifts, the city should pay a premium to those who volunteer. SPEOG has filed a grievance over this issue, Sisley said.

For years, the parking enforcement division has had high turnover and about 20 vacant positions. Moving the PEOs back to SPD from SDOT, where they were moved in 2021 (the only sense in which SPD was meaningfully “defunded”) was supposed to improve hiring and reduce turnover, but it didn’t, leaving about 18 perennially vacant positions.

This year, Mayor Bruce Harrell tried to defund these positions and move their funding, almost $3 million, to pay for his other priorities. After learning that PEOs actually bring in more money than they cost, in the form of fines, the council rejected that proposal. SPEOG argues the hiring and turnover issues will persist, however, as long as parking enforcement officer wages and working conditions remain worse than similar jobs, like CSOs.

“It’s not so much about the money—it’s about the principles,” Sisley said. “But the money does matter.”

The city’s lead negotiator on the contract and Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office declined to comment for this story, citing the ongoing negotiations.