It’s easy enough to pass the Auburn Justice Center every day without a thought for what a hive of activity the Municipal Court inside really is.

How busy?

During his annual report Monday evening to Auburn City Council, Municipal Court Judge Pat Burns provided a reminder.

Last year, Burns said, the court averaged more than 119 hearings each day, or 29,635 in all. Some were trials without a jury, some were motions on issues like breathalyzer tests, searches of people’s homes and automobiles, orders issuing protecting domestic violence victims, motions to close domestic violence cases and reunify families.

Some hearings addressed what to do about someone’s kid struggling with drug addiction, or a loved one moving toward mental illness. Others were as mundane as speeding tickets or running a red light.

“Complaints are rare, received and promptly resolved,” Burns said. “Our court mandate is to provide a neutral forum in as courteous and professional a setting as possible. Out of the 29,635 hearings heard last year, fewer than a dozen resulted in appeals.

“…Criminal behavior affects the safety of our streets and impacts the quality of life in our community. The challenges we have in Auburn are huge,” Burns said.

Among those challenges — that the percentage of citizens living below the poverty line and children receiving state services is amongst the highest in King County.

Auburn also receives the most state funding in King Çounty outside of Seattle for mental health services and alcohol and drug treatment services.

“None of these factors by themselves necessarily has an impact on criminal activity,” Burns said, “but taken together, the challenges to the community are undeniable.”

To meet those challenges, Burns said, the City provides the Municipal Court with a wealth of resources to supervise criminal offenders. The effective coordination of all the pieces has a tremendous impact on how effectively the City can combat criminal behavior in the community.

The court’s probation department supervises the most serious of the community’s criminal offenders, Burns said. Almost all of those offenders have drug and/or alcohol problems, mental health issues, multiple felony or misdemeanor and criminal convictions.

Burns said that on the average, 25 percent of the urine samples probation gets back returns positive results. The court focuses on what causes a person to commit crimes in Auburn and tries to give offenders an opportunity to change.

At any given time, Burns said, the department of probation supervises more than 700 criminal convicts, monitoring their compliance with alcohol and drug treatment, domestic violence and or mental health treatments. Probation officers confirm offenders are taking their mental health medications and tries to confirm that offenders are not violating contact orders, aren’t involved in gang activities, aren’t driving without a valid license, are attending treatment meetings.

If offenders are homeless, probation tries to give them the tools and connections to the community that will get them off the street for good.

Last year the Municipal Court facilitated the release of 270 offenders to in-patient alcohol and drug treatment programs and another 66 offenders to mental health treatment programs. Auburn’s Municipal Court operates the only municipal mental health court and municipal drug court in Washington outside of Seattle.

“We are in the process of trying to establish a veterans court and a community court,” Burns said. “We anticipate converting to a paperless system by the end of the year. The court contributes to the community by requiring offenders to perform community service benefitting non profit agencies and the City.”

Burns said the court operates a day-jail program that gives people the option of confinement in the court in lieu of jail. The probation department operates the elective home monitoring program. Last year, it released 170 offenders from jail. What that means is that in 2011, instead of sitting in jail awaiting trial, 889 people were monitored out of custody by the probation department.

“We estimate that the various alternatives used saved the City jail in excess of $12 million,” Burns said.