City of Seattle Seattle Public Utilities Illegal Dumping Program Q&A October 29, 2015 Q. Has dumping increased in Seattle? A. The number of requests for cleaning up illegal dumping activity has gone from 4,655 for January through September of 2014, to 8,150 for the corresponding period in 2015. That’s an increase of 75 percent. Q. What is causing this increase? A. We think this is an increase in reported cases of dumping, rather than an actual increase. And we think the increase in reporting is due to greater public awareness of the problem, as a result of the city publicizing its new Find It Fix It app, which allows people to report things like graffiti and dumping from their smart phones (see chart below). Mayor Murray has actively encouraged use of the app and other methods of reporting illegal dumping during his Find It, Fix It neighborhood walks. Social media, such as Twitter and Reddit, has also played an increasingly important reporting role. Service requests by method, Jan. 1, 2015 through Sept. 30, 2015 Method Received Web Mobile Phone/Voicemail Other TOTAL 2014 Count 2,072 676 1,903 4 4,655 2015 Count 2,234 3,255 2,654 7 8,150 % Increase 7.8 381.5 39.5 75.0 75.1 Q. Is there anything else that makes you think dumping has not increased significantly? A. A 2011 survey by Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) found 8 percent of the city’s residents believed illegal dumping was a major problem. A 2015 survey found that number has not changed. We think that indicates the amount of dumping in the city has not changed. Q. How quickly does the city respond to dumping complaints? Has the wait time increased? A. Seattle Public Utilities’ goal has been to investigate reports of illegal dumping and refer them to the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) for cleanup within 10 business Page 1 of 4 days. At present, referrals to DOC are taking about twice that time. Once DOC is notified, it typically takes another five to seven days to complete the cleanup. Q. Have SPU cleanup resources increased as the number of reported dumping incidents have gone up? A. We added a temporary worker in the field during the third quarter of 2014, and have allocated additional office staff time to help deal with the increase in reports. Q. What will SPU do to try and meet its goal of a 10-day turnaround goal? Will you be hiring more people? A. Our first step, which we are working on right now, is to see how we can be more efficient in our work. We are exploring a number of technological solutions, such as a new electronic program management system, that we believe will dramatically improve response times. The new system will go into beta testing within the next few weeks. We will also be increasing our educational efforts, to help residents differentiate between illegal dumping and solid waste complaints (e.g. spilled garbage cans), to help get problems assigned to the right people. And finally, we will be evaluating our success at improving program efficiency. If, despite our best efforts, we are not meeting our goals we will reassign more staff to the program. Q. Is this a success or a failure on the city’s part? A. The city’s effort to control illegal dumping is a two-part endeavor. The first part was to increase public awareness of the problem, and to provide an effective reporting mechanism. That work has been wildly successful, as shown by the 75 percent increase in reporting, in just one year. The next part is to bring response times into line with our stated goals. We believe the numbers will have improved by the first quarter of 2016. Q. What are the principal components of Seattle’s Illegal Dumping Program? A. Seattle Public Utilities’ Illegal Dumping program includes one full-time supervisor (covering the entire city), two full-time inspectors (for north and south sectors within the City of Seattle. In 2014, 5,956 service requests were completed by SPU’s illegal dumping inspectors. Complaints were received in several ways: mobile (Find It Fix It app), citizen web, via phone and voice mail. Program components:  A dedicated reporting phone line serves as a centralized complaint tracking system to make it easier for citizens to report an illegal dumping violation. To report problems on public property, use the Illegal Dumping Report Form, or call (206) 684-7587.  The city’s Find It Fix It app, which allows people to report problems using their smart phones. The app offers the following service request categories: o Abandoned Vehicles: report vehicles parked in a public right-of-way more than three days. Page 2 of 4 o Graffiti: report graffiti, including what it is on — parking meter, utility pole or building — so it gets automatically routed to the appropriate department for response. o Illegal Dumping: report illegal dumping — junk, garbage or debris — on public property, including roadsides, open streets and paved alleys. o Pothole: report a pothole. o Parking Enforcement: make an inquiry regarding a parking concern. o Streetlight Report: report a streetlight outage or damaged streetlight. o Other Inquiry: this miscellaneous category is for making any inquiry or request not listed above, which will be processed by the city’s Customer Service Bureau.  A small but mobile team of inspectors who respond to and investigate citizen complaints about litter and illegal dumping. Also responsible for coordinating the cleanup of litter and illegal dumping on city rights-of-way.  Working partnership with the Washington State Department of Corrections for fast, cost-effective ways of removing illegally-dumped materials. Q. How does SPU’s partnership work with the Washington State Department of Corrections? A. In 2014, SPU funded full-time cleanup crews and one part-time weekend crew from the Washington DOC to keep the cost of cleanup down. Under this special agreement, DOC provides work crews for the City of Seattle specific to litter and illegal dumping cleanup. These crews perform cost-effective, productive work for the City of Seattle. Our illegal dumping inspectors direct the work crews to the problem areas and DOC correctional officers, in turn, supervise the crews. Benefits to the community include saving taxpayers approximately $354,000 in associated criminal justice costs (including bed costs not used) for over 4,160 days spent performing productive work. This is equivalent to offenders providing 33,284 unpaid hours of community service in lieu of jail time. Between January and December of 2014, DOC:  Removed and disposed of 1.9 million pounds of illegally dumped material from 8,768 illegal dumpsites within the City of Seattle.  Picked up over 5,424 bags full of litter from Seattle streets.  Cleaned an estimated 826 miles of City streets.  Removed 98,797 pounds of illegally dumped recyclable material from our roadways. Q. How is the program faring this year, with the increase in reported instances of dumping? A. From January through September 2015, SPU’s illegal dumping program removed and disposed of 1.1 million pounds of illegal dumping materials and our inspection team responded to 8,150 illegal dumping service requests. Page 3 of 4 Q. What is the budget for this Program? Illegal Dumping Adopted Budget Year  Hotline  Inspectors  Total  2013  $45,000 $975,296 $1,020,296 2014  $45,000 $994,817 $1,039,817 2015  $45,000 $982,330 $1,027,330 Q. What does Seattle do to enforce its illegal dumping ordinance? A. In the past (roughly 15 years ago) the city’s inspectors were deputized, and performed criminal investigations in cases of illegal dumping. However, national studies have shown and our own experience has confirmed that it is more effective to focus resources on cleaning up dumping as quickly as possible. Page 4 of 4