City’s Automatic Public Toilets to be Auctioned on eBay, Starting Tomorrow
Final Public Meeting on Toilets Scheduled for July 23

For immediate release: 7/15/08
For more information, Contact:
Seattle Public Utilities Customer Service, (206) 684-3000

SEATTLE — The city of Seattle’s five automatic public toilets, the subject of intense controversy even before their installation in 2004, will be auctioned on eBay, beginning tomorrow (July 16).

Minimum bid on the Hering-Bau automatic public toilets is $89,000 each. A public meeting on the surplus sales process for the toilets is set for Wednesday, July 23, 2008, at 3 p.m., in the Bertha Knight Landes Room on the first floor of Seattle City Hall, 600 4th Ave.

The toilets will be removed from service — locked and fenced in — on Aug. 1. The units are expected to be physically removed by their new owner sometime later in August.

In May, the Seattle City Council ordered Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) to cancel its contract for the automatic toilets, as soon as possible. The Council’s action followed an SPU report recommending removal of the toilets. Although the automatic units have been well used, the report said, they are also unattended — allowing them to be used for drug use and dealing, alcohol use and prostitution.

In 2001, overriding a mayoral veto, the Seattle City Council directed SPU to contract for the lease, installation, and maintenance of five automatic toilets, to meet the need for increased access to public toilets in Seattle’s downtown and urban centers. The high-tech self-cleaning units were intended as an attractive, “step up” from the handful of traditional portable public toilets they would replace.

The city’s auction of its automatic public toilets is being handled by bidadoo auctions. A copy of the advertisement is attached. The bidadoo Web site is at: www.bidadoo.com.

In addition to providing a reliable water supply to more than 1.3 million customers in the Seattle metropolitan area, SPU provides essential sewer, drainage, solid waste and engineering services that safeguard public health, maintain the city’s infrastructure and protect, conserve and enhance the region's environmental resources.

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Seattle Public Utilities