EVERETT — A new year began with questions swirling around Snohomish County’s new courthouse and frayed relationships among elected county leaders.
The county had hoped to break ground on its eight-story, $162 million justice building by the middle of this year. The Everett City Council put those plans in doubt Dec. 24 when it took emergency action to deny building permits unless the county provided more downtown parking.
“Right now, all I know is that the courthouse project is stopped dead and we need to resolve it somehow,” County Council Chairman Dave Somers said Monday.
One thing is clear, Somers said: spending more money is not an option.
Somers, who represents District 5 in eastern Snohomish County, has the council chairmanship for the second year in a row. During a 4-1 vote Monday, all council members except for Brian Sullivan supported keeping him in the post. That will give Somers a lead role setting the legislative agenda and crafting next year’s budget.
Councilman Terry Ryan will be vice chairman.*
Plans for the future county courthouse include only about three-dozen parking spaces.
The city’s emergency legislation — which applies only to government buildings — would require more than 300. Rough estimates suggest providing that much parking would cost the county an extra $20 million on top of an already tight budget. Deputy Executive Mark Ericks, however, said not to put much stock in that figure.
“We’re brainstorming to see what the impact is and what our course should be,” he said.
The county had reasoned that the new building would not require additional parking, because it would replace the old 1967 courthouse on the other side of the street. Employees there can use the county’s underground parking garage.
The footprint of the new building would take out about 130 surface parking spaces — a net loss of about 100. A worry for the city is providing adequate parking for Xfinity Arena across the street.
Sullivan said he’s scheduled meetings with Everett City Council members to find a solution.
“I’m happy to work with the city of Everett to make sure they’re kept whole,” he said. “The message was received, so hopefully we can make this a positive outcome.”
Councilman Ken Klein said the county can still back out of the courthouse project as now envisioned.
“We haven’t hit a point of no return. There is a way out,” Klein said. “For me, I’ve always said the same thing. I think we need to have a plan B.”
Instead of the more expensive new building across the street, Klein wants to again consider remodeling the existing courthouse, perhaps by adding a new wing. The council earlier rejected that option, ruling it did not address all of the current courthouse’s safety flaws.
Aside from courthouse troubles, other outstanding issues for the council in the near-term include a pending personnel investigation into alleged comments about council members made by Ericks. Somers and two other councilmen approved paying Seattle attorney Tom Fitzpatrick $15,000 to determine what Ericks said and whether the comments amounted to workplace harassment. Results are due by the end of this month.
A formal proposal for building a commercial passenger terminal at Paine Field also could reach the council early this year, Somers said.
Preparations also are ongoing to open the county’s $20 million annual long-haul garbage contract to bidders. The current contract with Allied Waste is set to remain in place into 2017, with an optional one-year extension. The county can opt out early.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
*Correction, Jan. 6, 2015: Terry Ryan was chosen by colleagues as vice chairman of the County Council. An earlier version of this story listed the wrong council member.
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