Seattle City Council considers mayor’s choice to keep Seattle Public Utilities CEO

The Seattle City Council’s Governance and Utilities Committee is set to vote on the mayor’s choice to lead Seattle Public Utilities.

Thursday, the committee will consider the appointment of Andrew Lee to serve as SPU’s CEO.

Lee has served as general manager and CEO of the department since 2022.

“Most of my primary goals for SPU remain the same as they were back in 2022. We are steadfast in our goals of reliably and affordably delivering the highest drinking water quality to the City of Seattle and region, reducing pollution from wastewater and stormwater discharges to the environment, and advancing our zero-waste mission for our solid waste utility,” Lee writes in his answers to written questions (PDF) from the council about the appointment. “Over the past four years, I have gained a deeper appreciation of the challenges we face to affordably and reliably deliver our services for the next 50-60 years.”

For the 2026 fiscal year, the adopted budget for Seattle Public Utilities is approximately $1.78 billion.

SPU’s budget represents a significant increase over previous years, driven largely by capital investments and operational maintenance across its three primary service lines: water, drainage/wastewater, and solid waste.

The department is one of the city’s largest with more than 1,500 employees.

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