Officials blast court relocation

Lynnwood

A plan to move the city’s municipal court to a new, leased facility blocks away has drawn increasing criticism from members of the Lynnwood City Council.

On Feb. 17, during a council work session, municipal court judge Stephen Moore also publicly criticized the plan, saying it “borders on the impossible.”

Mayor Don Gough wants to move the overcrowded court from its existing site at 19100 44th Ave. W. to a ground-floor strip mall office at 4114 198th St. SW.

A 10-year lease on the new site, delayed for months because of logistics problems, began Nov. 1, 2008; the council signed off on the lease plan in 2007. Under terms of the lease, the city would begin May 1 paying $7,220 monthly rent, with annual rent increases through October 2018.

Council members said they’re concerned that the new site isn’t large enough to accommodate the court, is unsafe and that the lease offers no way for the city to break out of it early.

Now, council members say their patience has just about run out.

“Shame on me,” said Councilman Loren Simmonds. “It would never have crossed my mind that the city would enter a 10-year lease agreement without an option clause.”

In December, the council ordered a freeze on additional project spending and the new site remains vacant.

A city-led committee that includes police, fire and court officials has come up with options to add more space. On Feb. 17, the leader of that committee, Public Works director Bill Franz, asked council members to allow the group more time to come up with a workable plan.

“The group does feel these issues are solvable,” Franz told the council. “We’re offering to you to try to get this project back on track.”

But Moore lambasted the plan.

He said it didn’t provide enough security and the new location is too small “to meet our current needs much less our needs for the future.

“You can’t put 10 pounds of court into a 5-pound box,” he said.

Councilwoman Lisa Utter said the chosen location “may just not be the place” to put the court.

“I think we need to be looking … at how to cut our losses and look at space options elsewhere,” she said.

Some officials, including police and city prosecutors, have been critical of the plan for months.

Last Dec. 11, a joint five-page memorandum to Gough and the council from high ranking members of the Lynnwood Police Department, court administrator Jill O’Cain, Moore and prosecutors cited “numerous safety and logistical concerns” about the new site’s design by architect DLR Group.

“The building for the court was selected without staff input and a lease was signed without a space needs study being undertaken,” the memo said. During an early interview, architects told court and police staff “the building was too small for the projected needs,” outlined in the city’s proposal request, according to the memo.