Sawant Introduces Amendment To Cap Seattle Police Salaries

SEATTLE, WA — Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant introduced a budget amendment Monday, seeking to limit officers' annual compensation, including overtime pay, at $150,000. Sawant's amendment is among dozens of others being debated at the council, as members near a committee vote on changes to the mayor's proposed 2020 rebalanced budget.

The council launched a budget inquest into police department spending in early June, amid calls from protesters and community leaders to cut SPD's budget in half, redirecting funds to community-led services and public safety programs. Seven of nine councilmembers have publicly voiced support for the 50 percent reduction goal, but the cuts implemented under this year's budget could be much lower.

A committee vote on the package of police budget cuts is planned for Wednesday, August 5. The final vote before the full council is scheduled for Monday, August 10.

Introducing the proposed limits on police pay Monday, Sawant pointed to recent reporting about high compensation, recorded among officers and top brass.

"A handful of officers are paid over $300,000 a year, and one was paid over $400,000 a year," Sawant said.

The councilmember cited figures from Open The Books, a non-profit group that tracks government spending across the United States. The data found 119 of the city's top 200 highest-paid employees worked within the Seattle Police Department.

"Almost exclusively, police officers, sergeants and lieutenants, these 119 people were paid an average of $268,000 last year," Sawant said.

This year, 82 percent of the department's $409 million budget was earmarked for personnel costs, including millions set aside for overtime, which includes staffing for sports and other large events.

Sawant noted that officers were paid more than $6 million in overtime, just in the first 12 days of Seattle protests, which began in late May after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

"I have no objection to police officers making decent wages, but just like city executives, there's no reason why the city should be paying officers more than $150,000 a year, which is more than the overwhelming majority of workers in our city are paid," Sawant said. "Those high wages should go to teachers, social workers, other workers who do so much good for our community, rather than building up in overtime that police officers get paid for abusing protesters."

A previous proposal from Sawant, seeking to limit all city executive pay at the same level, failed to gain support at the council last Friday.

The police salary cap garnered early support Monday, including from Councilmember Alex Pedersen, who said he would be interested in co-sponsoring the amendment if it were changed to allow higher pay for some leadership roles, in order to attract the best candidates.

A modified version of the amendment will be voted on along with the others up for consideration Wednesday.