The City of Seattle and King County released their final Covid vaccination rates this week as Governor Jay Inslee’s October 18th mandate deadline went into effect, and virtually every department surpassed the 90% mark.
The Seattle Police Department (SPD) remains the laggard, but not nearly as badly as had been feared. The agency has reached 92% vaccination rate and City employees 94% overall, the Mayor’s office reports. Only 68% of sworn officers had submitted their forms as of October 10th, but a late surge in paperwork closed the gap. This suggests fewer than 100 officers will face termination for refusing to comply with the vaccine mandate — perhaps much fewer if officers ultimately come around to the benefits of vaccination, if not to themselves and their communities, at least to their livelihoods.
The Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle Parks have each reached 95% vaccinated, the Mayor reported, and Seattle Fire Department and Seattle Public Utilities sit at 93%. Overall, 4.6% of the City workforce, which is approximately 11,250 strong, is seeking an accommodation rather than demonstrating proof of vaccination.
King County Metro hits 92% vaccinated, Sherriff’s office at 86.7%
Meanwhile, 96.8% of the county workforce compiled with the mandate, with 92.3% reported fully vaccinated, according to figures release by the County Executive.
“I am pleased to announce that 97% of employees complied with my Executive Order by becoming fully vaccinated or being in the accommodation process. Approximately 4.5% of these are going through the accommodation process,” King County Executive Dow Constantine said.
That leaves 3% who refused to comply with the requirement to either prove vaccination or prove grounds for an exemption, such as religious or health reasons. 14,280 County employees are covered by the mandate, Constantine spokesperson Chase Gallagher said. “This updated number does not include 396 employees on extended leave who will need to comply upon return to work,” he noted in the release.
Fears of a severe driver shortage at King County Metro due to the mandate appear to have been assuaged. Ninety-six out of 2,614 Metro operators refused to comply and 119 sought an exemption. That equates to a vaccination rate of 92%.
“Seattle has the lowest cases, hospitalizations, and deaths of every major city while having one of the highest vaccinations rate because we have followed the science and advice of public health officials. Vaccines keep our children, colleagues, and community safe,” Mayor Jenny Durkan said in a statement.
Most City employees had extra incentives (including eight hours paid time off) to prove they were vaccinated by October 5th, because their respective unions bargained for these perks, but the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) refused to accept the deal that every other major public sector union accepted. That means those benefits do not apply to police officers — unless SPOG does belatedly sign a deal. Excepting the SPOG-represented, employees who submitted their proof after October 5th still qualify for significant benefits, including up to 80 hours of supplementary Covid-related sick leave. Additionally, frontline workers on staff after Aug. 1, 2021 and performing in-person work could get a one-time payment of up to $1,750. The Seattle City Council approved the benefits package last Monday and the Mayor signed the legislation.
Last chance to comply and police force impacts
Both the Mayor and County Executive said employees who refused to comply risk termination. The Mayor’s office did suggest unvaccinated employees may be given one more chance to get the jab to avoid losing their jobs.
“In the coming days, departments will continue to review exemption request, and over the coming weeks, engage in an interactive process with individual employees to determine whether a permanent or temporary reasonable accommodation is available,” the Mayor’s spokesperson Kamaria Hightower said in a statement. “During the separation process, if an employee commits to becoming fully vaccinated, the City may offer a last chance to get vaccinated, depending on the circumstances.”
The vaccine mandate could interfere with the Mayor’s goal to increase SPD ranks and average 1230 sworn officers next year despite heavy attrition during the past two years, over which time more than 300 officers have departed. Hiring has not been able to keep pace, especially with a pandemic budget crunch causing a City-wide hiring freeze.
The King County Sherriff’s office had 12 sworn officers out of 623 refuse to comply, although 71 did request an exemption and await the result of that process. That puts the vaccination rate at 86.7% for the County Sherriff’s office.
SPOG continues to complain about the mandate even as most of their members comply and promoted an event where unvaccinated officers who allegedly have already been terminated hosted a soup feed for homeless people on Tuesday. Critics quickly noted that these unmasked, unvaccinated officers would jeopardize homeless people’s health at the receiving end of this photo op.
Nonetheless, the event seems to get plenty of attention, at least in some media bubbles. A video capturing the PR stunt by The Post Millennial columnist Katie Daviscourt already has the 1.8 million views. She also filmed police officers and firefighters “turning in their boots” rather than getting vaccinated, opining “These a excellent officers and firefighters with years of service that truly can’t be replaced” in a video with 4 million views. The videos are making the rounds on conservative media, including Fox News.
