Fleeced and flushed: the public toilet fiasco

It didn't make sense back in 2004 when the Seattle City Council purchased five automated public toilets for $1 million a piece. Now, putting the lot up for sale on eBay accomplishes little more than reminding taxpayers how they were fleeced.

After four years of watching the public restrooms offer more sanctuary to drug users and prostitutes than to tourists and the general public, the city is calling the experiment a failure — a costly one.

The eBay auction offers a feeble stab at recouping the public's costs. Starting bids have been set by the city at $89,000. That's a deal, Andy Ryan, spokesman for Seattle Public Utilities, told Seattle Times columnist Nicole Brodeur.

It's a deal for anyone unaware of a fine selection of portable toilets retailing for a fraction of that cost. But the only people who were unaware of less-expensive options are those at City Hall.

The city got taken by the high-tech gloss of the German-made lavatories. They were gaga over the stainless-steel doors that slid open to reveal spacious interiors and self-cleaning toilets. A female voice welcoming users in English and Spanish with instructions on use must have sent the council over the moon. Instead, it should have been clue No. 1 that a restroom requiring instructions is way more technology than the city needed.

Nor was the tech wizardry any guarantee of quality. The city has had to spend more than $37,000 on repairs to the toilets.

The toilets were gold-plated mistakes from the start. A veto on their purchase from former Mayor Paul Schell and the opposition of many didn't prevent their installation. Hit the flush button and call this project over, this page editorialized over the years.

Give the council credit for finally listening. As the automated toilets are removed, it should be noted that there are many public restroom facilities within a short walk of each.