AWC wants to know what Washington’s cities are considering by way of vaccine requirements and other policies meant to encourage city employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. In the past few days, preliminary results show that some are discussing implementing their own vaccine requirements. AWC asks that all cities take our survey to help us get a better picture of the policies cities are considering.

Preliminary results

As readers are no doubt aware, Governor Inslee initiated the first vaccine mandate for certain public employees on August 9. The same day, the City of Seattle and King County both announced they would impose similar vaccine requirements for their employees. Since then, AWC has received questions about how many other cities are exploring similar vaccine requirements. This prompted AWC to release a survey in last week’s City Voice that asks, among other things, if cities are considering their own vaccine mandates or other employee vaccine policies.

As of September 8, we have received responses from 47 cities, mostly medium to small cities and towns. Three cities (Duvall, Issaquah, and Waitsburg) have responded that they are implementing a vaccine requirement. Duvall and Issaquah are only accepting medical and religious exemptions, similar to the state’s mandate. Waitsburg says its mandate more closely resembles the federal requirement, where unvaccinated employees are expected to submit to regular COVID testing, masking, and social distancing requirements. 12 more cities responded that they are considering their own vaccine requirements but have not yet implemented them. 32 cites responded that they don’t have a mandate and likely will not implement one.

Aside from vaccine requirements, ten cities responded that they are offering other incentives for employees to be vaccinated, and another three may decide to offer additional incentives. The most common vaccine incentive offered by these cities was additional vacation or sick time, to allow employees to cope with vaccine side effects. Two cities are either offering or considering a cash incentive for employees getting vaccinated. Of the 13 cities that are offering or considering vaccine incentives, six are cities that stated that they do not plan to implement a full vaccine requirement. The remaining 34 respondents are not offering additional vaccine incentive or were unsure if they would offer incentives.

Survey still open until September 20

AWC greatly appreciates those who have already submitted responses. Your submissions are going a long way towards helping us understand how Washington’s cities are handling the issue of vaccine policies.

If your city has not yet completed the survey, we ask that you do so by September 20. The average response time is less than three minutes. This information is invaluable to AWC’s efforts on behalf of Washington cities as the pandemic continues. We would greatly appreciate your time and effort filling out the survey.

You can take the survey here.