Putting forth a balanced biennial budget could mean cutting security at the Federal Way Municipal Court.
To date, all city departments, including the court, have been asked to prepare individual budgets to reflect a 4 percent decrease in expenditures.
The court was asked to brace itself for $20,023 less than allotted for the 2008 budget. The court proposed at an Oct. 30 city council special meeting to eliminate its security, which is not mandated by law and costs roughly $53,000 annually for the contract. City council exhibited a desire not to make the cut, but will not accept the final budget until early December.
The municipal court is expecting to operate on a $1,458,375 budget for 2009 and $1,527,900 for 2010. The court was also told to identify a single area in its budget that could be decreased by at least 4 percent, court administrator Rae Iwamoto said. The court must offer hearings and must have employees; security was the only area that met city management’s request and could be legally eliminated, Iwamoto said.
Judges David Larson and Michael Morgan both indicated that striking security is not the ideal way to cut costs at the court.
“This is not something we are recommending to be cut,” Larson said at the meeting. “There’s all sorts of reasons to keep it.”
The council also showed concern with the idea of eliminating the safety measure.
“I really think we need to protect security,” city council member Dini Duclos said.
Security in a court might seem a given. But many courthouses, especially municipal courts, do not offer the service, Iwamoto said. Federal Way’s court, which only handles misdemeanor crimes, was considered advanced when it installed a metal detector approximately eight years ago, she said.
“We are very appreciative (of the security),” Iwamoto said.
“We consider it very important to us,” she added.
Akela Security currently provides the guard on duty at the court. Akela has offered its services for about five years, Iwamoto said. Contracting with the security agency is more affordable than directly hiring court employees or using police services, she said.
Since the Oct. 30 meeting, the court has gotten the impression it can keep its security through 2009, Iwamoto said. But budget deliberations for all departments are ongoing, said Bryant Enge, assistant city manager and chief financial officer.
The 4 percent cuts across the board come as an effort to retain a $1 million rainy day fund, and also in preparation for flattening or decreasing tax revenues, Enge said. The city is expecting the sales tax to remain stagnant and the real estate excise tax to drop in the coming years, he said. Both supply significant revenue to the city. Beside the cuts, the city is exploring ways to reallocate existing resources, Enge said.
If the court finds itself without its current security contract after the final budget is accepted in early December, the option to seek alternative security options is available. Police officers could also do the job, but they would need to meet more rigid state requirements, and the option would take officers off the streets, making them unable to respond to crime, Larson said.
If security remains through 2009, it is uncertain whether the court will employ a guard in 2010 or beyond, Iwamoto said. That will likely be determined when the city council and management staff create a mid-biennium budget in 2009.
“Hopefully by then we won’t have to make cuts,” she said.
