On Oct. 6, the Auburn City Council passed an ordinance establishing a municipal court and set its first day of operations for Jan. 1, 2027.
To make that possible, the city will end its interlocal agreement with King County District Court on Dec. 31, 2026. When its latest iteration expires, it will mark the first time the city will be without county-provided district court services since 2013.
The ordinance allows Mayor Nancy Backus to appoint a judicial officer (subject to council confirmation) who in turn will select and work with a court administrator to make all arrangements to establish the court.
The city council authorized Backus to terminate the agreement on May 5.
Councilmember Kate Baldwin noted that she had voted no on terminating the contract because, among the options that had been put forward to council, bringing a municipal court into Auburn was the most expensive, and it would reduce the services the city would have had with King County.
Baldwin said her concerns remain, but now that the resolution has passed, the city will no longer be able to continue to receive court services through King County District Court, which it is mandated to do.
“In that context, we’re certainly in a position where we have to move forward, and we have to make sure that we do provide court services,” Baldwin said. “And I hope that, as we continue moving forward, we make sure that justice outcomes stay at the front of our decisioning, and that we’re mindful of what we may incur with the budget, and find ways to do so effectively for our community.”
The issue that persuaded Auburn’s leaders to take this step was the court’s ask on Feb. 1 of this year that the city assume full responsibility for probation services, which were among the services listed in the city’s costs in the original interlocal agreement.
City officials said that request blindsided them.
Candis Martinson, director of human services and risk management for the city of Auburn, said in April that King County District Court staff and its presiding judge had informed her at a meeting in March that the county was facing a budget shortfall, and one of the solutions it was proposing was to transfer probation services back to the municipalities.
At that time, Martinson said, district court was set on a full-cost recovery model that could have resulted in a $514,000 charge to the city before overhead costs for its probation services, on top of the money it was paying per the interlocal agreement for municipal court services.
Through the interlocal agreement, Martinson said, the district court was billing the city for a limited number of clerks and judges, but more staff were working in the courthouse than the agreement spelled out. Given the full-cost recovery model, city officials assumed the two probationary officers and additional clerks who work in the courthouse on Auburn cases would then be charged to the city.
“From my perspective,” Martinson said at the time, “that means any cost savings we were experiencing from moving to the King County District Court in a contract for court services most likely will not be realized any more, but we would essentially be paying for the full cost of court services.”
Auburn has made up 50 percent of the King County District Court’s probation budget, and Bellevue, the other larger city that contracts with King County for court services, runs its own probation services out of its human services department.
“We felt like there may be an opportunity for us to explore potentially providing probation services ourselves at a minimum, like Bellevue is,” Martinson explained at the time.
Judges
The state authorizes any city with a population of 400,000 or less to establish a municipal court by ordinance, giving the court jurisdiction and all powers that the law allows.
Full- or part-time municipal judge positions may be filled when the public interest and administration of justice makes such additional judges necessary, as long as the procedure is in compliance with state statutes. Additional full- or part-time judges may be created only by ordinance of the city council.
The salaries of municipal court judges are fixed by ordinance, and the city will pay compensation to judges pro-tem, according to the ordinance. The mayor will fill any vacancy on the municipal court with a qualified judge, subject to confirmation of the city council, that is owing to the death, disability, or resignation of a judge for the remainder of the unexpired term.
In the future, judges will have to stand for election to the position.
In other council action
The council adopted a resolution accepting $1.9 million in grant funds from the state Department of Transportation to improve the 10th Street NE/NW corridor between B Street Northwest and Auburn Way North to improve safety, access, and multi-modal mobility.
The project will transform the four-lane roadway into three lanes, with one travel lane in each direction, a center, two-way, left-turn lane, and buffered bike lanes
The resolution authorizes the mayor to enter into agreements with the Washington State Department of Transportation courtesy Washington State Climate Commitment Act.
Among the intersection upgrades will be removing the east/west stop control at A Street NE and installing Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFBs) and refuge islands at the north-south crosswalks to improve pedestrian safety. The traffic signal at D Street Northeast will be modified to match the updated cross section, and the city will grind and pave the entire corridor to preserve the existing pavement.
In conjunction with the improvements, the project will replace about 58 feet of existing 8-inch storm drain with a new 12-inch pipe to increase drainage capacity. Existing catch basins will be preserved unless their replacement is necessary.
