Following Governor Inslee’s state worker vaccine mandate, AWC sent out a short poll in September asking cities if they were planning to incorporate their own vaccine mandates into their COVID-19 response. AWC wanted to get a picture of 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.

For our reporting on the preliminary results of the survey, read our September Bulletin.

As of September 20, 54 cities had replied to the survey, primarily medium to small cities and towns. Since the sample size is relatively small, it is hard to draw too many broad conclusions. With that in mind, the survey findings are interesting. Of the cities that replied to the survey, 35% had either already formulated their own vaccine mandate or were considering doing so.

Three cities (Duvall, Issaquah, and Waitsburg) 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 said its mandate more closely resembles the original federal requirement, where unvaccinated employees are expected to submit to regular COVID testing, masking, and social distancing requirements.

16 more cities responded that they are considering their own vaccine requirements but have not yet implemented them. Of those, ten were considering only allowing medical or religious exemptions. The rest were considering some combination of requiring unvaccinated employees to submit to regular testing, requiring unvaccinated workers to continue teleworking, or allowing philosophical exemptions in addition to medical and religious exemptions.

35 cites responded that they don’t have a mandate and likely will not implement one. However, it should be noted that most of the cities that replied to the survey did so prior to President Biden announcing a nationwide vaccine mandate for employers with 100 or more employees. It is unclear how many cities that originally planned on not having their own vaccine requirement may fall under the federal vaccine mandate, once the rules are released. By AWC’s count, approximately 60 cities in Washington have 100 or more employees and would fall under the federal mandate.

Aside from vaccine requirements, 12 cities responded that they are offering other incentives for employees to be vaccinated, and another four may decide to offer additional incentives. The most common vaccine incentive noted was additional vacation time or additional paid leave to allow employees to cope with vaccine side effects. Two cities are either offering or considering a cash incentive for employees to be vaccinated, and one was offering employees the choice of two additional vacation days or a cash bonus. Of the 12 cities that are offering or considering vaccine incentives, four are cities that stated that they do not plan to implement a full vaccine requirement. The remaining 42 respondents are not offering additional vaccine incentive or were unsure if they would offer incentives.