Seattle unloads its high-tech toilets

WHITNEY MALKIN

SEATTLE — City officials have finally gotten rid of five high-tech self-cleaning toilets that cost Seattle $5 million but sold online for just $12,549.

Four years ago the city installed the modernistic stand-alone toilets in a hope they'd provide tourists and the homeless a place to do their business downtown. But the automated loos became better known for drug use and prostitution than for relief.

Neighbors and city-commissioned analysts said they were less cost-effective than regular public restrooms, and in May, the City Council voted to sell them on eBay. After a failed first attempt, where a $89,000 minimum failed to attract a single bid, the city revised its strategy in a hopes of sparking a bidding free for all.

But despite more than 9,000 combined page views, only 148 bids were cast.

One of the five toilets, which currently graces the downtown waterfront, sold for $4,899, but the average sake was just over $2,510.

A Rochester, Wash., business, Racecar Supply, won all five auctions, which ended Thursday. Butch Behn, the owner, said he plans to use two of the units at the South Sound Speedway, and sell the other three.

"It'd probably be good to have a couple around for spares," he said. "We get pretty busy at the track sometimes."

Miler said the city will recover just over $2,080 per toilet after Bidadoo, the company that listed and sold the units online, takes its 17% percent cut.

The money will be go into the city's utility fund.

"The bottom line is that you're getting rid of the stuff," said Pat Miller, the city's surplus manager.

Finding a home for self-cleaning potties that had lived a hard city life was difficult, Miller said, but he's faced bigger hurdles.

"Most cities are strange in the sense that periodically, we have very unique things to get rid of," he said. "Luckily, the Internet is making it easier for us to find these things a home."

Eight years ago, he was scratching his head over the city's 66-foot topiary dinosaurs, which stood guard outside the Seattle Center.

"We didn't know what to do — they weighed about five tons — they were just huge," he said. "There were rumors for a while that Michael Jackson had expressed interest in them, in bringing them down to Neverland."

The dinos ultimately found a home with a Seattle neighborhood foundation.

Across the country, cities seem to deal with their "special" surplus in different ways.

Last month, city officials in Saginaw, Mich., sold of pieces of the defunct Andersen Water Park on eBay — everything from a 360-foot water slide, which pulled in more than $27,000, to nacho warmers, priced at $50.

"Traditionally, cities are very good at buying things and not very good at getting rid of them," said Jeff Klopcic, a Saginaw city employee who handled the sale, "In this case, we were able to reach a really big audience — we had bids on the slide from Canada and California."

Not everyone is having success offloading big-ticket items on the Internet. The Washington State Ferry system tried its hand at online sales twice, posting retired ferry boats on eBay for upward of $9 million, without success.