SPECIAL EVENTS – POLICE STAFFING &

COST RECOVERY AUDIT

DAVID G. JONES, CITY AUDITOR
ROBIN HOWE, AUDITOR-IN-CHARGE
CINDY DRAKE, MEGUMI SUMITANI, ROBERT THOMAS
APRIL 11, 2018

City of Seattle - Office of City Auditor 1

 How the Audit Came About
• Ordinance 124860 revised the Seattle Municipal Code covering permitted
special events and implemented a separate fee for police services for some
types of events.

• The Ordinance required this audit.

• We also reviewed police services for reimbursable special events.

City of Seattle - Office of City Auditor 2

 Seattle Police Department (SPD) Special Events,
2010-2016
$10.9M $10.8M $10.3M
SPD Wages $7.3M
(in millions) $5.4M $6.0M $5.9M

Number of 722 724

633 675
Events (by SPD 578 583 610
Activity ID)

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Source: Office of City Auditor analysis of SPD payroll data.

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 Types of Special Events - Permitted
• Categories of permitted special events:
1. Athletic 4. Community 7. Mixed Free Speech
2. Commercial 5. Parade
3. Citywide 6. Free Speech

• City’s Special Events Office, along with the Special Events Committee,
administers the permits.
• SPD staffs many permitted events. Athletic, Commercial, and some Citywide
events pay for police services.

City of Seattle - Office of City Auditor 4

 2016 Permitted Events, Number and SPD Wages

$1,659,362
$1,318,999
72
64
$796,507 53
$536,303 37 $476,094
$428,553
6 4

Athletic Commercial Citywide Community Free Speech Mixed Free

Speech
Wages Count of Activity IDs
Source: Office of City Auditor analysis of SPD payroll data.
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 Types of Special Events – Reimbursable
(Non-Permitted)

For some events, organizers obtain a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

with SPD for police staffing.

Examples of reimbursable events:

• Professional sports games (e.g., Mariners, Seahawks)
• Seattle Center events (e.g., Bumbershoot, Key Arena events)
• High School dances and games
• Large corporate events (e.g., shareholder meeting)

City of Seattle - Office of City Auditor 6

 Examples of 2016 Reimbursable Events, Number
and SPD Wages
176 $2,600,020

133

52
30 34
20 $326,392 $324,965 $427,411
3 $136,911 $115,533 $124,109

Professional Other Stadium Seattle Center Seattle Center Film High School Other
Sports Events MOU Festivals Events
Wages Count of Activity IDs
Source: Office of City Auditor analysis of SPD payroll data.
City of Seattle - Office of City Auditor 7
 Audit Results
Nineteen recommendations in three areas:
1. Cost Recovery of SPD Expenses
2. Event Planning and Staffing
3. Event Administration Functions

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 Cost Recovery of SPD Expenses
Police Fees
• Six methods for calculating fees for special events police services
• Cost recovery rates vary
• No method recovers all SPD costs

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 2016 Cost Recovery Rates
Permitted Events:
• Athletic and Commercial
• Citywide
• All events with police fee
= Average of 60% of wages
= Average of 4% of wages
= Average of 27% of wages

Reimbursable Events:
• Usually full recovery of wages
• About 79% of full direct costs (for a sample of events)
• Exception: Average recovery of 30% of wages for the 3 large Seattle Center festivals
(Folklife, Bite of Seattle, and Bumbershoot)

City of Seattle - Office of City Auditor 10

 Cost Recovery of SPD Expenses – Permitted Events
Hours Billed:
• Event organizers are not billed for all the hours worked by SPD at events
• 2016: Organizers were billed for less than 30% of the hours worked

Reasons Include:
• Work start and end time
• Event-related emphasis
• Hours billed are based on estimates

City of Seattle - Office of City Auditor 11

 Cost Recovery of SPD Expenses – Permitted Events

Citywide Events Police Fees are Negotiated:

• No schedule or criteria for cost recovery in the Seattle Municipal Code
• For three of the six events, police fees were still being negotiated almost a year
after the 2016 events occurred
• As of January 2018, cost recovery for the six 2016 events averaged about 4% of
SPD wages

City of Seattle - Office of City Auditor 12

 Cost Recovery of SPD Expenses – Permitted Events
Event Categorization:
• Some Community and Mixed Free Speech events have significant commercial
activity and receive police services at no charge.

Examples of commercial activity at some Community and Mixed Free Speech

events:
• Over 300 vendors
• Vendors that pay booth fees of over $1,000 and a percent of sales to the event
organizer

City of Seattle - Office of City Auditor 13

 Event Planning and Staffing
1. Analyzed SPD payroll data between 2010 and 2016 to identify the
number of events at which SPD provided police services and trends in
hours worked and wages paid

2. Assessed SPD’s processes for determining the number of officers

needed at special events

We did not evaluate SPD’s staffing levels at individual events or policing

strategies and tactics at special events.

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 Event Planning and Staffing

• SPD’s processes include many of the elements recommended by best

practice guidance and are similar to those of the five other jurisdictions
we interviewed

• SPD has improved independent review and oversight of event staffing

decisions

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 Event Planning and Staffing
Gaps in independent review of staffing plans
• Schedule and shift details
• All plans need to be reviewed
Planning process improvements
• Scalable plans
• After action reports for all events
• External feedback
Improvements to tracking of costs by event and event type

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 Event Planning and Staffing
Policies and Procedures should document:
• Process for determining staffing levels
• How staffing plans should be documented
• Which plans require approval and how this approval should be documented
• Requirement for after action reports

Use of sworn personnel for traffic directing functions at events:

• $3.2 million in wages in 2016
• Would require a change to SMC 11.50.380

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 Event Administration Functions
Inefficient Event Planning
• Need Customer Relations Management and workforce scheduling systems

Billing Police Fees and Payments

• Document segregation of duties and improve handling of late payments for permitted
events
• No reconciliation between planned and actual hours for reimbursable events

Coding Special Events Time

• Time not coded accurately to event activity codes

Reporting on Special Events

• Expand SPD event-level reporting
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 Recommendations and Follow-up

We will follow up with SPD, SEO, and City Council annually about our 19
recommendations and report on their implementation status to the City Council.
The first follow up report on these recommendations will be issued soon.

Questions?

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