Seattle overpaid police $13.1 million. Foster wants whatever comes back to go to housing. Here's the contract vote behind the raises

Councilmember Dionne Foster wants any money Seattle recovers from a $13 million police payroll error put into a dedicated fund for affordable homeownership and apartment buildings. She included the idea in a slate of housing budget proposals released Tuesday, according to a Council news release.

It is a small line in a large budget, but it raises a question the overpayment coverage has mostly left aside: if the money comes back, where does it go?

What happened

• The city paid about $13.1 million too much to more than 900 Police Department employees, mostly members of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, KIRO 7 reported.
• The mistake was in retroactive raises under the union contract. The payments were calculated from 2020 base pay instead of 2024 pay, according to KOMO. Officers got the money as a one-time payment on June 12.
• The Police Department flagged a discrepancy to the City Budget Office in July. KIRO reported the Council was told in early August and employees were notified in September. Some officers told KOMO they were asked to repay $10,000 to $20,000.
• "We are absolutely aiming to recoup that money," Mayor Katie Wilson said, according to KIRO. The city has to bargain with the guild over how repayment works. The guild has filed a grievance and wants underpayments addressed too; its president, Kent Loux, told KOMO, "What we're really fighting for are accurate numbers."
• The city has called it a one-time expense that won't affect the police budget going forward, KOMO reported.

What our records add: the contract vote

The raises that were miscalculated come from the guild contract the Council approved last year. CB 121133, sponsored by then-Council President Sara Nelson, passed 6-3 at the Dec. 9, 2025 meeting:

• Yes: Joy Hollingsworth, Debora Juarez, Robert Kettle, Maritza Rivera, Dan Strauss and Nelson
• No: Eddie Lin, Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Rob Saka

Foster was not yet on the Council.

According to the Central Staff memo on the bill, the four-year contract covers 2024 through 2027 and about 983 current and 128 former employees. It provides a 6 percent raise for 2024, 4.1 percent for 2025, 2.7 percent for 2026 and 3 to 4 percent for 2027, tied to inflation. Because it was approved at the end of 2025, the 2024 and 2025 raises had to be paid retroactively, and that is where the error happened. The executive estimated the wages and new premiums would cost about $131 million above the old contract over four years.

The memo also describes the contract's accountability changes and a shift of some work to the CARE department, which were debated alongside the pay.

How the fund would work

The release describes the fund but its text has not yet appeared in a posted Central Staff packet. The Police Department and the City Budget Office are on the Select Budget Committee's Thursday agenda. Key questions the packet would answer:

• Whether recovered money would be appropriated to housing automatically or held until the Council acts.
• How it would handle repayments spread over several years, if that is what bargaining produces.
• Whether amounts the city decides to forgive or offset against underpayments would count.

Because the overpayment was a one-time expense, any recovery would also be one-time money. Wilson has urged the Council to spend new money on "truly one-time expenditures," PubliCola reported.

What's next

• Thursday, Oct. 29: councilmember proposals for the Police Department and Budget Office are presented. No votes are taken.
• Bargaining: repayment terms are set between the city and the guild, outside the budget process.
• Nov. 4: Budget Chair Strauss's balancing package shows whether the fund is included.
• See also our look at the rest of Foster's housing slate.