MONROE — The state prison here owes about $218,000 to the people of Monroe, city officials said.
The largest prison in the state, where 1,100 staff members serve about 2,300 inmates, hasn’t paid its bills since July for services of the city’s police department and Fire District 3, which serves about 25,000 residents in the area.
It owes the police department about $50,000 and the fire district approximately $168,000, city officials said.
Police respond to prison calls and investigate incidents such as fights and escapes. The fire district provides fire protection, inspections and emergency medical services.
The city has been pushing the state Department of Corrections to pay its overdue bills, Monroe Mayor Donnetta Walser said.
But the city continues to provide the services, Monroe Police Chief Tim Quenzer said.
Prison superintendent Gary Fleming said he only learned about the problem in late January.
"This is the first time they brought it up to my attention," he said.
Fleming, who took the job last summer, attributed the lack of payments to transitional hassles. But he added the city could have been reimbursed by a state program instead.
That is no excuse, Walser said, adding the prison has been paying bills on time for years.
Upon the city’s request, the state recently has agreed to make back payments for the police department and fire district.
However, the cost of the services the city provides to the prison will likely go up. The city and state have verbally agreed on a new water contract and are also working on other contracts.
Once the new contract takes effect, the state would pay about $1.59 per 100 cubic feet of water, about a $1 increase, city officials said.
Last year, the city paid $7,950 for a water study to show the prison was not paying its fair share, Walser said. While the prison pays 59 cents for 100 cubic feet, everyone else — including businesses — pays $2.49.
The new water contract means a lot more money for the city, and it will prevent the rate for residents from increasing, the mayor said. If the prison used the same amount of water as last year, the city would get about $448,000, an increase of about $183,000.
But Walser said even the new rate isn’t fair to city residents. "In my book, they should pay what the citizens of Monroe pay," she said of the prison.
The city originally approached the state for a new water contract in 2002, Walser said. Since then, the mayor said she’s been going through "brutal negotiations" with the state, which she said has been ignoring the city’s concerns.
The state finally agreed, and Walser recently went to Olympia to negotiate the new rate.
"We accept the rate we’re paying for water was low," said Patria Robinson-Martin, chief of staff for the Department of Corrections’ office of secretary.
The prison pays the city no property or sales taxes and has been paying reduced rates for services from local government — water, sewer, police and fire — for some time, city officials said.
But the city, with its population of about 14,700, can’t afford the reduced rates any more because residents shoulder the increasing cost of services, city officials said.
The prison keeps growing. It’s building a new 10,000-square-foot training center for staff and two new units for high-risk offenders — 100 new beds for each unit — Fleming said. In the long run, the prison will have to hire more staff, from 50 to 100, he added.
"We can’t afford to allow them to grow because we are subsidizing them," Walser said.
Like the water department, the police department and fire district also have proposed new contracts to the state.
Fire Chief Steve Kunkle said the district and state have agreed on a new contract with a 3 percent increase. As a result, the fire district is expecting to receive about $236,900 from the prison in the 2003-04 fiscal year, which started in July.
The police department’s new contract asks for about $177,000, a 50 percent increase from the previous year, Quenzer, the police chief, said.
One police officer responds to calls from the prison, he said. But the department needs to add another officer, as it received 176 prison calls in 2003, 48 more than the year before.
Fleming disagrees with those numbers. He said that since he took the job, violence has decreased at the prison.
City and state officials said they are going to meet March 24 to settle back-payment issues and discuss future agreements. Fleming said he will talk about future agreements with the city. But a contract should be discussed in private, he added.
"It’s not my intentions to negotiate a contract in the media," he said.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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