Hope for cramped Everett Municipal Court

Published 11:02 pm Thursday, January 8, 2009

EVERETT — When Everett opened Municipal Court in a single-story office building on Wetmore and Pacific avenues, city leaders told Judge Tim O’Dell that the move was temporary.

More than two decades later, O’Dell is still holding court in the building that has grown increasingly cramped.

“We’ve reached a point of critical mass,” O’Dell told the Everett City Council at its regular meeting Wednesday. “We are falling over ourselves.”

The court has seen steady growth in the number of cases it handles — particularly the number of domestic-violence jury trials.

The city has over the years floated more than a dozen proposals to move or rebuild the courthouse. All the studies and talk have translated into little more than a series of fits and starts.

That could change now.

On Wednesday, the City Council voted to proceed with a plan to move the court into the police headquarters and most downtown police offices into the city-owned Wall Street Building, also known as City Hall.

The council voted 6-1 to spend $108,000 for design work and cost estimates for the move.

The police station could move into the Wall Street Building by June 2011 and Municipal Court could move into the police station by February 2012, under the preliminary plan.

Carlton Gipson, the city’s facilities director, said the move is projected to cost roughly $3.5 million. It would require renovating the fourth and seventh floors of the Wall Street Building.

Part of the problem is functions of the court are now separated. To free up space for court employees, the city recently sent the Municipal Court’s Probation Department to a leased downtown office building.

Councilman Drew Nielsen, an attorney, was the only council member to vote against the appropriation.

Nielsen acknowledged crowding at the courthouse is a serious problem, but “it’s a crisis of our own making,” he said.

Rather than paying architects to study what it would take to accommodate the move, Nielsen said the money would be better spent coming up with a long-term facilities plan for the city.

Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.