welcome everyone I council member toan
Marts call the Tuesday May
28th special session of
the
council Council services safety and
Parks committee meeting uh to order this
is a special session uh pursuant to RCW
4230
080 uh there are multiple public comment
opportunities at tonight's meeting there
is a general public comment opportunity
at the beginning of the meeting or you
can make comments after the presentation
and Council question and answer period
on tonight's agenda items members of the
public May address council at this time
in person or virtually those who signed
up in advance to make comments will be
called on first if you are joining us
virtually and would like to make
comments please raise your virtual hand
uh if you're on the phone press star
three if you've joined by computer or
smartphone look for a hand icon this
varies by device one option may be to go
to the participant panel and choose the
raise hand icon in the lower right hand
corner if you're in the room and did not
sign up I will ask for other speakers
before closing this portion of the
meeting I will wait for a moment to see
if anyone wishes to raise their
hand uh clerk keer has anyone signed up
to speak or indicated a desire to speak
this evening no one has signed up to
speak we do have one member of the
public with us virtually but I don't see
that they're indicated indicating a
desire to speak at this time all righty
as a reminder written comments can be
submitted at any time to city council at
isqua
wa.gov with that uh we will move on to
approval of the minutes is there a
motion Mr chairman I would move to adopt
the minutes of March 19th
2024 second moved and seconded any
discussion
all in favor say I I I opposed
abstentions motion carries unanimously
with that we will move on to
c0041 court and Criminal Justice
Services presented by our own Wally Bob
quitz uh judge uh Scott Stewart and uh
Lynn Mobberly City prosecutor and
Whitney Gardner public defender white
the August
group thank you Mr chairman members of
the committee good evening we're here
tonight uh to to talk about a topic that
we we don't often talk about here before
the council um but as you will hear this
evening a topic that is of great
importance currently um and will
certainly require the council's uh
careful deliberations as you approach
the 2526 budget process so I'm not sure
who has the PowerPoint couple slides
before I get it over to judge Stewart
yeah we need
to next
slide so we're here this evening to
provide an informational update on the
court and our Criminal Justice Services
as chair March is IND we have several uh
guests with us this evening next slide
judge we're asking uh this evening of
the committee is to obtain your
direction on further information and
Analysis needed to consider budget
increases for the court and the Criminal
Justice Services during the 2025 2026
banial budget uh as you know uh the
court staff is our city employees and so
when we talk about resources there we're
talking about uh full-time equivalent
resources at the court uh for uh the
city prosecutor public defender uh those
are all contracts um and as we are
looking and as you will hear this
evening uh we are looking great
likelihood of additional resources that
so um with that um I'm going to turn
this over to judge Stewart who's going
to give you a brief overview of the
court and other speakers will
follow I'm not sure your microphone is
on again my name is Scott Stewart this
is something we deal with during the
court during the day too um I am the
isqua municipal court judge I'm here
with Christine Shor the state's sitting
Court manager of the year which happens
to be our isqua and recent recipient of
a new award I think which got passed
around I appreciate all the recognition
for that um first of all giving you a
brief overview oh
great the down button there we go of the
es Court this is the way we view our
organizational chart at the top of the
chart um are the residents of isqua and
then our contract cities snow kwami
North Bend and nuval I would put Christy
and I sitting next to each other because
she runs that side and I run this side U
beneath that we have two separate
branches of of the Court uh Court
operations um that's led by our lead
judicial specialist Nikki Meister who is
here uh Julia palan is here also she's
one of our uh judicial Specialists
George dapin is not here um uh she's
another judicial Specialists and we have
a part-time uh um we call her a Judicial
assistant she's not a Judicial
specialist uh she does most everything
that happens on that side of the Court
whereas Julia and Nikki and Georgia will
also help in court um and we're going to
talk about uh Kathy ky's role as part of
today's presentation on the other side
of Court operations is court services uh
court services is led by well not led by
but made up of Melanie vanck she's our
probation officer Miss vanck was
actually the last um employee that we
had added as part of our request it was
in 2012 so it's been about 12 years um
and Miss vanic wasn't added to assist
with what we do as far as managing the
cases Miss manic was haded to serve a
new role uh to monitor um our um our
clientele right now miss manic has a
total case load of 141 cases which is
Big um in addition folks don't aren't
necessarily aware of it she has 40
people on random uas um all of the
training that we go to says that one of
the best ways to try to address uh
addiction um as UA is not necessarily
just to hold folks accountable but to
know that they're being so that they
know they're being held accountable that
they're being watched the more frequent
you can do the UA the conference that we
went to uh this week actually said that
that it should be no less than twice a
week which there's no court in the state
of Washington that does twice a week um
but we do what we do we make them random
to the extent we can so folks don't know
when they're coming but they're they're
nowhere near that because they're very
expensive so she has 140 cases excuse me
141 Active cases right now 40 cases on
random UA then we have Marisol viser
Marisol is here he's in the back row
she's um funded completely by state
Grant Marisol is in charge of our
Community Court if you were to come to
our community court now I know for
instance uh council member D Michelle
has been to a community court and watch
Marisol now actually running the
community Court meetings to the extent
she's call in the calendars then we all
kind of weigh in with regard to the
Community Court folks but her job is
much her Hands-On with a very small
percentage of the population so she's
meeting with Community courp
participants on a weekly basis and then
is able to let us all know what's going
on in a staffing and then the court date
that's what the Court's made up
of U we've discussed this in Prior uh
Council meetings we cover these these
five primary areas to parking
infractions photo enforcement
infractions I'm sorry judge we we have a
question judge Stuart just briefly I I
also see a distinguish member of the bar
in the back uh could you introduce him
as well I don't remember yeah this is
this this is sha mcol and I'm wearing a
tie because I was told Mr mccol would be
in a suit today and I wanted to measure
up so I'm I didn't recognize him without
a suit on but that's is sha McColly sha
McColly is with the law firm um that on
the first page Whitney Garder was
identified I was actually at the
conference with Whitney Garder it was
clear towards the end of the conf she
was getting sick uh she emailed us this
morning said she was tremendously ill
despite that she showed up on our
calendars today just because we needed
her to help with the cases but Sean has
graciously traveled from distances uh
far to a fill in for Whitney today and
assist with the case and we also have
Alexa McBarron and uh Lyn mly here I'll
tell you right out just this is simple
aside um when when we knew that uh Miss
moly's daughter was going to graduate
from law school we knew that we were
going to get her we were terrified cuz
who knows what it's going to be we're
going to get in we regardless Alexis
that's bright and sharp and smart as
prosecutor want so we're very lucky uh I
was thrilled and then they hired um they
hired Russell thorum and I was getting a
prosecutor from Texas and I was
panicking prosecuted from Texas and
turns out Russell's a great guy too so
we're doing very well both in our
prosecutors and our public defenders uh
is squad's very lucky with that uh so
here's our court um these are the
charges that we get parking infractions
photo enforcement both photo photo
enforcement and and non-photo
enforcement infractions that's a
significant percentage of the filings in
the court it's not a significant
percentage of the work it frankly it's a
significant percentage of the work that
someone like Julia does uh um but most
of what goes on in court has to do with
criminal cases those are the
misdemeanors and the gross misdemeanors
we'll talk about them those more in just
a second um Court's been working very
hard on access to Justice um this kind
of cute slide was created starting here
uh uh online portal we we've gone
heavily into online you can access ACC
any number of things from our website uh
people that get traffic tickets can
start the whole process and go through
the whole process on the website and
they can zoom in for their hearing if
they request to hearing but everything
can be handled on the website jurors uh
um uh I know that Mr Joe for instance
has done jury trials you get those print
that print outs where the jurries would
fill out the forms that's all done on
the website and then it's provided to
the parties when we get there so we're
heavily invested in the technology
through our online portal uh next hybrid
courtroom I bragged about this before
it's municip Court largely because we
have christe and she's really good on
technology we were one of the first
courts in the state to go into Zoom we
were we were up and running within a
month of covid and then as Co kind of
came to the end Zoom became very um um a
very useful tool and I remember Whitney
when when my public defender who's very
active in the community was very
concerned that some of her uh clients
that were marginalized might have
difficulty with zoom and it wasn't fair
to them but we found out that it was
much easier to to zoom in uh than it was
to get it to court so that's had two
problem two two issues one is it means
we have way few ftas which is failes to
appear uh um when we when attorneys look
back preco calendars were set based upon
an assumption that there would be a 30
to 40% FTA rate so the calendars will be
a certain size uh um and FDA rates like
5 to 10 5% on average but maybe 10%
everybody shows up for court now because
they can show up by Zoom which makes for
longer calendars and zoom most moves a
little bit slower but I think it it also
has a lot of benefits um we do both we
have the courtroom open but we're also
zooming in from outside um interpreter
Access program a significant percentage
of the folks that we deal with either
English as a second language or um um no
English and those folks under the law
are entitled to interpreters um the good
news is that that we get significant
State funding for interpreters the bad
news is it's not enough we're constantly
looking for more uh ch's on top of all
those things to make sure that that
we're included whenever State funding
becomes available but that's just
something you should be aware of with
regard to costs
um there's a new State uh Statewide case
management system um we've been on
what's called discus uh or GIS I don't
know depends on who you want to call it
but it's been since the early 1990s the
entire State's been run by the same
computer pram since the early 1990s but
the past over a decade the state's been
trying to develop a new computer program
they've adopted one now they're coming
in in phases what happened about a year
and a half two years ago we are an Oort
Court um and Oort is an online uh system
for creating forms where um Miss mly can
be at her office zooming in and Mr
McColly can be at his office zooming in
and we all have access to the same forms
and we can be creating the forms during
court and it it's it's very very
efficient um the courts every court that
has an opportunity to get it jumps all
over it but the state wasn't in tune
with Oort when they developed the new
case management system so we showed up
including the we showed up kind of an
blinds side of the Chief Justice because
we at a meeting that he has with all the
judges and the O Court folks jumped in
and said we need to protect this and got
everybody on board and so now ortt is
part of the um um case management um
solution I guess but we're in the last
phase of that because they have to work
ORD into it so we'll be coming in but
we'll be in the last phase as far as
that goes so one thing I'd point out
when the new case management systems
come that's going to be a hard hit I
mean that's going to take a lot of man
hours to switch from the present system
over to the new system uh and it's going
to slow us down at least for a short
period um we've gone entirely to
electronic records if you go pre-co I
came out with a basket full of files and
a large set of papers next to me for the
dockets that I would go through
everything's online now uh my staff's
been able to convert all of our old
files to Online files it's all in
SharePoint uh um and I'm able to access
it um from our standard system um
alcohol and drug testing program same
thing as I said earlier that's a very
important part of what we do um we have
recently uh kind of migrated from uas to
um mouth swabs just because of the
nature of uas and the difficulties
associated with UA Mouse swabs are going
to have some issues we probably maintain
a limited number of UA up front but it's
very expensive uh hopefully the state
will continue to pay a significant
portion but in order to protect the
community in order to try to help people
beat addiction uh UA are a sign
important part of the process we do have
a community therap uh therapy Court
that's our community Court um I know
some of you folks have come over and
watched some of that uh those take place
on Thursday afternoons um it's a I guess
I can go to the next slide well actually
I'll come back to it I'll come back to
that cuz that's the next slide and
finally we have a care corner I don't
know if you've looked into this little
room back here but we started to
recognize that um a significant
percentage of the folks especially the
ones we see at court um that are that
are homeless or um otherwise
marginalized would come in would be
hungry wouldn't have appropriate clothes
so we get donations and such uh we
recently were able to provide a
gentleman with shoes so that he could
wear them to a job interview and that's
kind of what our goal is our goal is to
try to help these folks become
productive members of the community so
they're not breaking the law any more s
have a community care corner there I
heard Lynn when she walked in today she
says I've got something for the
Community Care corner and they were all
kind of donated as we go along so that's
one thing we got
going um the community Court goal is to
reduce re recidivism rates apparently
that's a hard word for me uh reduce the
use of the jail as a sanction for
low-level offenses improve public trust
in the justice system create a safer
community and uh essentially look
forward to participants thriving and
living productive law-abiding lives our
community Court started out small that's
the way we wanted it to start out um and
it's grown exponentially uh um in the
first probably year we would have three
to four people on a community court
calendar uh they were very time
intensive and they were kind of
selective about who we let in tomorrow's
I mean Thursday's Community Court
calendar we have 19 people on which is
huge for us when you think some of our
review calendars tomorrow has 50 people
on it but those are pretty quick they're
relatively quick at least comp compared
to the amount of time that goes into a
community court calendar um so far it's
been I think pretty effective um and uh
again it occurs Thursdays if you look at
the notes that we've put down here 100%
funded by the state right now uh um
funding awarded in the fiscal year 2024
was
25358 we believe that funding is going
to continue to be awarded that the
state's very big on community courts uh
um as indicated three of us just got
back from a community Court uh or drug
court Comm Community Court conference in
Anaheim learned a lot of new tools uh
it's one of the directions I think that
the court system is going as we try to
conquer some of the issues especially
with regard to fentol and like this is a
uh just put up here if you were to go to
the isqua Municipal Court website um
this is our dashboard for the community
Court um number of participants 47
graduates 17 our community Court
resource room essentially when you show
up for Community Court we have two parts
of it at 12:15 you show up and you can
access the resource room and the
resource room is an online portal uh
where you can talk to DSHS and get
signed up for uh whatever resources you
need the the main one we're looking for
as a general rule is uh health insurance
so we give them into alcohol drug
treatment but there might be uh job
training resume writing any number of
things that are available from the
resource room once we get an individual
that's got the resources that they need
then they can actually get involved in
the community court and become part of
the program starts at 1:15 and they're
coming back every week uh um sometimes
we search out to once every two weeks
when which we use as a reward uh for
their good participation but they're
coming back every week until we're
comfortable that they've hit that point
but all those numbers can be accessed
from our uh dashboard
this website's this U slide is meant to
give you an idea of what's happened with
the court as far as being busy
um
2015 um well the main thing you draw
this website is between 2015 and 2023
we've seen a 44% increase in case
violence so the Court's case violence
have gone up by 44% 11% since 2019 you
do see a dip if the next slide is meant
to show the exact
same um you see a dip there in 2019 2020
and 2021 it's starting to grow again yes
I'm sorry judge um count uh Deputy
council president oh um I hope this is a
good place to ask this question you bet
um on the the state has said that U that
we're going to vacate all the marijuana
related convictions right is that
reflect Ed in the numbers that we see
there I mean I didn't see it reflected
there is that an extra task that's being
we have vacated um they're all done um
as a court the state made funds
available because when you vacate them
you got to pay them back and uh um so um
we had calendars there a lot of work
involved in that but but essentially the
city because it's a city case the city
identified the appropriate cases to to
vacate and dismiss move to vacate and
dismiss we then had to go through each
of the dockets confirm who paid fines
they were then all invited to come to
court and um the ones that did show up
for court we dismissed the case and we
refunded um any monies that they paid
that refund is then paid ultimately by
the state because the the state created
a fund to pay back folks one of our
goals I think was to make sure that we
got that money when we when it was still
available uh um but with regard to how I
didn't do the numbers so how would the
mayor wanted go ahead
CH so please go to the microphone sorry
thanks Chrissy sha municipal court so um
we vacated a total of
426 um charges 186 of those were isqua
um alone we refunded just over about
23,500 in um fines so far and then we've
um uh expenses to process those were
about 68,000 so a total of about
91,000 so far and that's all been
reimbursed from the
state well thank you so it's basically
done we've we've done the job okay we
have who we haven't refunded is we
haven't refunded the folks that didn't
appear because what we didn't that money
is still available if they appear and
ask for but the concern was that um
you'd be sending checks out the
addresses that you didn't even know if
they existed so I'm correct on that
correct correct
and so we have vacated everything um
since this court was established in
2005 uh Miss moberly's office is
currently working on everything filed in
King County and I believe that's another
about 400 cases for all three
cities thank you so
much join the were ahead of King County
um this slide shows the total criminal
filings by jurisdiction um and it shows
change between 2019 and 2023 this is
just talking about criminal cases um if
you look at 2019 isqua was 628 uh snow
kwami and North Bend were another 874
cases isqua fell behind not that's a bad
thing but isqu had less filings uh in
2023 um isqua filings are up uh
significantly as a comparison to the uh
numbers from the other two cities and
the red one at the top is Duval Duval
joined us in 2022 so that's why you
don't see Duval prior to that
um one of the thing that's important to
keep in mind um and I think this is just
a result of policing and it's true
across jurisdictions uh throughout the
state is um dys um between uh 2019 and
2023 up 133% in the city of isqua uh
non-traffic uh Criminal charges which is
where you get your thefts and your
domestic violence charges are up
27% traffic non DUI criminal convictions
down 79 uh% that's almost exclusively
talking about driving with license
suspended in the third degree uh that
used to be the most common crime that
got charged in the state of Washington
and it's simply not being filed at the
same rates as it was before I think
that's a decision that's being made by
both prosecutors and law enforcement as
far as the way they they treat those
charges and the emphasis has been placed
on the more serious charges now the
issue with that is not only our numbers
up uh when you look at our numbers being
up our numbers are up with DUIs domestic
violence and theft uh charges as
compared to in the past when your
numbers were up by you know when 70% of
your work was driving with license spend
in the third degree and a driveing with
license spend in the third degree we
call it Discovery but the the pro the
information provided to the police
department might be three sentences long
now it's now it's uh DUIs which are
multiple page reports with uh requests
from the toxic is much more complex so
we have more cases and they're more
complex cases and that's just a product
of where the enforcement's going uh and
the enforcement's concentrating in the
more serious cases which is I think is
where it should be focused but it does
create more work for the court
um this slide shows you and this slide
is is wrong um for somehow 201 uh uh 15
didn't make it to the slide so this says
2015 that 2015 should be 2016 and then
it works it way over the one that's 2022
should be 2023
2015 we had 4,92 criminal filings
1764
infractions um and in um 2023 the most
recent we have 599 not filings I'm sorry
these are hearings so we had 492
hearings in
2015 we had a little over a thousand
more hearings in 2023 and that's based
upon the nature of the charges we have
uh so there's been a 29% increase uh in
the number of Court hearings that we
have just based upon the way things are
filed into the court
and this is part of our pitch uh at
least from the court perspective um we
did a study to show the FTE um in in
some of the local courts there were you
know nobody no no courts the same uh but
this is a comparison isqua had
15274 filings uh in 2023 uh we have uh
6.4 staff people that's six full-time
people and point4 is what um our
judicial assistant is which means we
have an average of 2,
,17 uh uh FTE per filing um de Moes is
the closest to us they have 1700 17519
same number of Judges they have 2.6 more
staff than we have or
1779 FTE uh um number filings per
full-time employee you go up down to
Bothel 1,599 then you get into the some
of the bigger cities 691 511 and then at
the bottom you have CAC Edmonds and
teilla which you know if you look at
they have seven times as many staff
member uh per filing as we have in the
city esqua so my staff's working real
hard uh they're good people uh I I I'm
thrilled to have each of them that
they're working real hard and that's
part of the reason that we were here
asking for additional Staffing with
regard to uh our court
staff and um these are some of the
things that we're looking at we'd like
to promote uh uh Kathy kosy our our
judicial assistant to a Judicial
specialist that would allow her to be
trained in court she moved full-time
that' be an increase of $100,000
annually uh um because of the benefits
and such that she pick up when that was
to happen we would love to be able to
increase our current alcohol drug
testing uh budget in response to
fentanyl crisis and increase in DUI
filings so there's more fentanyl that
we're dealing with fentanyl was
something we didn't deal with at all
prior to 2010 came out well fent was
time we didn't deal with it all until
2018 heroin was 2010 and we thought that
was bad um we're looking for an
additional $110,000 of course we're
going to try to get whatever we can from
the state but we'd like to be able to do
better better with our alcohol drug
monitoring uh there's going to be we
anticipate additional $113,000 annually
uh with regard to interpreter cost just
based upon the way things are going um
again we be looking to the state to the
extent we can but that that's money that
we need um additional contract security
to provide additional coverage for trial
settings probation appointments of
course if the court moves to King County
we would lose our um court security
which we will be we recognize that we we
need to move somewhere but we love our
court SEC he's he's been tremendously
helpful um he uas are one of the worst
you know when part of your job is to
order somebody to watch somebody urine
urinate and he's willing to fill in for
that for the male folks and stuff like
that he's just been very very handy and
very good guy so we'll be very sad if
and when that happens and finally if if
the uh photo enforcement goes through
our understanding is that the council is
considering additional photo enforcement
photo enforcement is not as much judge
intensive time as it is Staff intensive
time and based upon what we understand
stand that looking at for photo
enforcement um we'd be um looking for
one more full-time employee that would
still I think our keep our numbers below
the average for the area as far as uh
full-time employees for filing but we
would need that employee for the photo
enforcement that being said uh I my
understanding is the statutes written
such a such a fashion that part of that
money would come from the photo
enforcement itself or all of the money
would come it would be self-paid uh at
least using some of the funds from
that with that I have the honor of
introducing Miss mly have question yes
any other questions you got I should ask
that U thank you uh judge Stewart
appreciate all the information tonight
um when the court first started uh we
were primarily just doing get o CL cases
uh we added snow quami Northbend and and
and Duvall and I wonder if you could
talk a little bit about um how the
additional staff might help us with our
ultimate goal that we've been talking
about excuse me of being kind of a East
Side Regional Court we have the jail we
have um you know the facilities here if
the court expands does that help us um
become more of a East Side Center for uh
uh court services and jail
Services chrisy says yes I mean I can
tell you that uh you um I I try not to
get too involved in some of these things
uh um but but uh um there have been
multiple cities that have approached us
uh the present facility is not as
conducive to to court as uh at one point
we had someone that uh
um that was
a Contracting that was coming in for
something completely unrelated to to um
our ability to provide court services
and that person was contacted by one of
the Cities who were considering coming
here just said we didn't have the
resources and we disagree with that I
mean I think we could have handled it
but but uh um it it it it we don't have
a real Jury Room we don't have a holding
cell uh we don't have spaces for the
attorneys necessarily to meet with
clients at the courtroom um those are
things that I think they look for just
as far as space and stuff like that um
but ultimately the the the court has a
pretty good reputation if uh I I
actually was on the website I was
Googling it you know I get into Google
and such just some of the comments that
folks have as far as the customer
service they get from our staff and
stuff like that that's what most cities
are looking for and and I think they
necessarily get that from their present
provider so I obviously if we were to
grow we would need more staff and that
staff would allow us to do
that uh great if I could just follow
quickly so if I'm hearing you correctly
if we want to move on and grow to be
more of a regional center for court
services uh we need to have a pretty
serious conversation about the new home
for the court after the transition or
temporary home at District Court that
might be happening uh in the near future
and um I can think of no one better to
be part of that conversation than you
and your staff and I hope that you'd be
very involved in trying to find a
facility that will allow us to provide
the great court services that we already
have but to also think about the future
and becoming more of a regional hub for
court services sure and I would
encourage you to include the public
defender and the prosecutor in that just
because they they know the needs of the
and I recognize private defense Council
are involved but public defenders are
handle such a high percentage of the
cases that they would know more of their
needs probably than I would absolutely
thank you that's uh my oversight for not
including them appreciate it no problem
Deputy council president Jim
Michelle so just Dre with regard to the
fentel crisis um are there additional
services that we could provide or that
are needed Beyond just drug testing um I
know it's a very complex issue if Miss
Gardner was here uh she'd be coming out
of her chair right now and she'd be
saying we need but I think it's beyond
the anything that Council can do to we
don't have any treatment facilities in
isqua um other than friends of Youth but
friends of Youth is a great treatment
facility but it's friends of Youth and
uh um they they so it's a very small
percentage of the population we heavily
use raging River uh um which is a um a
treatment facility that uh is through
Apple Healthcare so it helps some of our
the lower income folks who have are less
mobile and therefore need to use a local
one so treatment facilities are huge uh
um and you know there's there's an
online element of treatment now um where
a lot of folks are able to do it online
I don't know how effective that is so
the more we can get the treatment
facilities in folks neighborhood the the
more effective I think the treatment is
going to be um what the uas allow us to
do is the uas allow us to to know where
the person is with regard to their
recovery uh because shock uh um people
that use fentel aren't necessarily going
to be honest with us or even honest with
themselves and so we need to attract
that likewise without with all the drugs
but the main ones we're dealing with now
are fentanyl and alcohol uh every once
in a while I think we get
methamphetamine but that's it's pretty
rare it's Fentanyl and alcohol and uh
alcohol obviously creates danger
fentanyl creates danger but fentanyl
also creates death and uh um uh um and
so those are things that we're on top of
and and Miss Gardner when she's in court
points out I think that she said
something around 50 people during Co
that that she's dealt with as clients
that have died of fent over that's a
huge number when you look at the our
population that we deal with so the more
and Drug Testing isn't just a matter of
uh um
um being able to afford what's the cost
on a on a is it
$35 I could share with you right now you
know how often we're able to drug test
but you don't want me to because it
becomes part of a public record and the
folks that are on drug testing they're
they're on random drug testing they call
in every day and they don't know when
their number's going to come up the the
problem is is the the cost associated
with uh the Personnel that have to do
the drug testing and the cost of the
drug testing themselves so there's the
way both the swabs and the uas work is
if it's negative there's there's an
instant that comes back and tells us
it's negative if it's negative we can
stop right there okay if it's positive
we have to send it in for confirmation
because there's false positives that
occur false negatives don't really occur
false positives do there's a cost of the
person that's giving the test there's a
cost for the strip or the you know
either the the urine cup and and
measuring device or the swab that's
going in their mouth and then if we have
to send it in there's even an added cost
of sending it in and so those are all
costs are involved in that and like I
said the the the standard which I didn't
know until Anaheim this past week is
twice a week nobody's doing that most
folks aren't doing once a week you just
don't have the resources to uh so you
make them random so the folks that are
are using know that on any day they
could be tested but the better the
testing is the more frequent the testing
is the better the success rate so at
least that's what I'm taught you know
I'm really involved with drug prevention
I know that and so uh this part of your
presentation is really meaningful to me
and I take it to heart that we need
treatment centers in isqua that even in
the prevention Arena we know that and we
understand that and um I really
appreciate your remarks than thank you
any other questions at all yeah I have a
I have a few um can you go back to the
Community Court program overview where
you talk about the goals please
it up let's see if it goes there it
went there we go there we go so how do
we know that we're impacting those goals
with the program thus far well it's it's
relatively anecdotal right now uh um we
we are aware of we've had 17 graduates
um we've had two two cases of recidivism
that we know of out of the 17 which is
significantly better than the average um
one of the cases where we had residivis
and I think that I don't know that Mr
mccol would be familiar with this person
but I think that my prosecutors would
while that person
reoffended uh that person had things
going on that I don't think we were
relatively new things going on that we
weren't completely aware of and just in
the correspondence with his mom be frank
with you about the impact that Community
Court had him he's doing tremendously
well right now he had one issue uh but
from that issue we going into impatient
treatment and he Zooms in now frequently
to our community Court just to
participate for fun he's the only one
that does it and his mom has sent his
letter saying his entire perspective on
the world changed just because of the
the impact the community Court had him
so while that counts as a recidivism I
still call count that as a win uh um
other than that um it it's really
anecdotal just because it's only been 17
graduates uh um and uh um but I think
that we all think it's been pretty
effective I mean the problem with
Community Court is
I we went we all went to the training in
the state this Washington drug
professionals training and um to really
get into the weeds uh um most of the
community courts would like to see see
ultimately you accept folks into your
program that are the most difficult
folks uh um and we're still small and
learning uh um homish County the one of
the Sue Court judges up there was saying
that they had this tremendous success
rate because the prosecutors are only
referring firsttime offenders and if you
only refer firsttime offenders those
could be your success stories
uh whereas the ones that were seventh
and eighth time offenders might be the
ones that you might be wanting to Target
a little bit more now we're not a drug
court but I think that there's a
possibility that our community Court
when our community Court started I think
we were heavily looking at um um you've
got your your recent high school
graduate that picks up a theft charge
and doesn't have anything indicating
he's got an alcoholic drug problem no
mental health problems this was a oneoff
somebody that would have gotten a
deferral anyway but needs resources you
bring that person to the Community Court
get them the resources they need there's
no real treatment involved but to get
some job training or whatever and then
the case is dismissed and they move on
and we never see them again on the flip
side what we're going to I think start
seeing is all those drug charges that
are now being filed as misdemeanors are
going to be a higher need population and
uh drug courts and stuff are looking at
higher risk High needs which means
people that are likely to reoffend and
people that are truly in need of
resources um and I think we're going to
start seeing more of those uh come in
and that's going to be harder to measure
because there's a likelihood that the
the recidivism rate in that group is
going to be higher because of just who
the population you're dealing with um
but where the successes occur their
successes are pretty big deal because
you're changing people's lives and
you're getting somebody that was
committing crimes off the street so um
we'll see where that goes
so thank you um next question I have is
you mentioned uh and I I saw on a couple
of slides DUI being up 130% did you say
domestic violence was also not not by
that large amount considerably did you
have a slide that showed both of those I
don't think we've broken them out by DV
the um DV and theft we just know is up
it's part of that 27% so my question is
on both DUI and DV does the council have
uh uh policy and legal options to uh uh
address those uh those increased crime
rates like for instance could we could
we make DUI punishable by 364 days in
jail it is punishable by 364 days in
jail yeah um if um I I don't think
that Chief schwam know better than I I
suspect that DUI isn't necessarily up I
I suspect it's just a matter of policing
just that the police are doing a better
job catching the you know catching the
guys I mean and emphasized in certain
areas uh um um and I think that uh um
same's true for DV I mean they're all
punished by 364 days in jail on a $5,000
fine they used to be punishable by 365
and they had to change it to 364 because
people were getting in trouble for gross
misdemeanors on a federal level that
they were for felonies um there's
there's a thing called DUI Court we
don't have a DUI court at this point in
time uh that's for third offense DW most
courts take third defense or more where
it's a very intensive uh treatment
program we only have so much space and
so much time uh um but if I I can see a
possibility that the DU continue to rise
and we make a determination that the
significant percentage of them are a
multiple time offender we had a guy on
today I think with I think 7is I mean uh
um when you get into those kind of
numbers you um you start to look at
other options you might have to to make
the world a better place I guess for
lack of a better way of putting it so
yeah I
mean okay I I recognize it's a
complicated problem I know that we did
do I can't remember what it was for but
we did
Municipal maybe it wasn't domestic
violence but and this was a while ago
this was seven or eight years ago uh
council member Shar had an idea and we
enacted some m multipliers on some maybe
it was domestic violence crimes
committed in the presence of children it
was it was DV okay I think I think that
what that becomes largely heavily not
always but it becomes a huge tool for
the prosecutor because if if a domestic
violence event is committed in front of
a child and the gu's the the shouldn't
say guy but the the defendant is plan
you know want to go to trial and stuff
the prosecutor has a tool that says uh
plead guilty and I'll dump this charge
because if they're convicted of that
charge it's mandatory 30 days in jail so
uh um you get that mandatory 30 days
under those circumstances I I think that
isan Federal Way both have that
particular charge where I've seen it
before good um I have one last question
can you go to the slide you it's you
added Duval it's squami North Bend Isa
it's
a
chart uh that you've got it's it's got
like four vertical
bar just don't remember where it is um
that one one no there uh nope keep going
sorry uh actually maybe nope I'm sorry
you're right it was that one okay so why
as I look at the most recent years as I
look at 2021
22
2023 uh it's like North Ben's getting
better snami is getting better isqua
getting worse
why I mean they have when one would
think they have comparable
populations to ours
I I I don't think I characterize it as
is Squad getting worse I think I
characterize it as isqua's policing
getting more proactive I think that's
what you're seeing there more than
anything else that's what we're seeing
um there and and honestly for I don't
know how to say this but that there were
snow kwami for a period of time had two
law enforcement officers that were
responsible
for just a huge percentage of I I didn't
sleep at nights because I would I get
calls at 2: in the morning for search
warrants and stuff and there was one law
enforcement officer that's moved to
Arizona who literally call me four or
five times a week and he was replaced by
another officer that wasn't quite as
aggressive and they both left the
department uh um and uh one moved to
Arizona I don't know where the other one
moved but one or two law enforcement
officers that are just tremendously
aggressive can uh um one of one of my
law Partners used to say law enforcement
you know creates crime they don't create
crime but but what that means is they're
out the pro the proactive law
enforcement and uh largely with DUIs and
such um you just these guys all know
which which officers I'm talking about
and I'm not knocking them they were they
were you become friends with somebody
that wakes you up at 2 o'clock in the
morning you know 5 days a week but uh um
not not really close friends but but uh
um and I I'm I'm now getting there there
was there was periods of time where I'd
go mths without getting a call from
isqua that's no longer the case uh no
longer the case at all isqua's doing
search warrants and and I and I'm
dealing with that so I think it's mostly
proactive policing okay chief Swan May
disagree with me but that's what I'm
seeing anyway so all right well thank
you I mean you just point out how
complicated it is taking any one
particular statistic and trying to tease
out what it means especially when you're
dealing with a you know not real small
jurisdictions but a small jurisdiction
like Northbend and snow kwami where
you've got one or two officers can just
have a huge impact on those numbers so
all right that's all the questions that
I had before we move on oh council
member Joe thank you Mr chairman uh
could you go three slides forward to the
uh annual filings Staffing comparisons
chart that you had
there okay thank you um could you give
us a little bit of guidance uh isqua is
not at a full-time judicial officer um
what types of things would we need to be
looking at in the future uh that's going
to bump that to either one or 1.25 where
we have to to have another person coming
in what types of things should the
council be looking at in the future as
we think about uh future Staffing
especially at the judicial officer level
um I don't think we're there yet I think
we're fine as we are are right now um I
think we are more in need of Staff than
than judicial um
but is it driven by filings or is it
driven by um administrative oversight
that needs to be done outside of the
courtroom what what are the I think it's
heavily driven by filings especially
criminal filings okay um you know a
significant percentage of the Civil
filings are handled without any
involvement I mean whatsoever just
because folks pay the ticket or and then
there's another percentage which are
what we call mits and mits by mail my
favorite part of the job as Julia knows
which I get a stack of of uh um folks
that have requested a mitigation by mail
I never see the person I just am going
through probably 100 of those a month uh
just in my downtime I I miss by mail
then every Thursday we have um uh a
traffic infraction calendar with a
prosecutor um those are really the
prosecutors have worked with the defense
attorneys most of those are dispositions
um and those go relatively fast um on
two Thursday the month in the afternoon
one Thursday the month in the afternoon
we have a mid
calendar 70 70 mitigation hearings uh I
can handle it in an hour I mean and
that's a big mitigation Cal they're just
very very fast and uh I kind of enjoy
those because I get to be a little a
little bit of a I mean you got citizens
coming in so you're trying to make
people feel comfortable with the court
system get very positive comments from
the folks cuz I'm treating them as human
beings and one of the fun things about
the about those calendars is we we've
set them in after our community court so
those folks will come in and they get to
watch the community the end of the
community court and see what we're doing
so you get this positive impact on folks
from the community that that see some of
the things we're doing in community
court so it's kind of cool um more
infraction calendars don't create a lot
of work for a judge what I say more
criminal finings probably would so Duval
which uh created no real additional work
for me we can just plug it in and add it
to the other things and snow kwami and
north bendon have actually Fallen as far
as the criminal files well it's ca's
gone up so I'm I'm okay right now where
I'm at I need additional Staffing
largely because of the infractions and
such okay so we just need to watch the
criminal filings the DVS the DUIs if
those numbers go up significantly you
may be back we tell you asking for help
we come tell you or or you know I it's
not my position to get into how the
Court grows or you know as far as other
cities coming in uh I know that other
cities have expressed interest sometimes
I think I think a couple years ago we
got the sense that was kind of get to
get their present contract to drive
their price down and uh um but um
obviously if a big city came in that
that would create issues too great I
appreciate the guidance that Council can
look at as we're evaluating uh the
future of the court and the entire court
system thank
you anything else
I I think that does it for now okay Miss
Mobberly you want do you have your do
you have your slides or you want mine I
don't have any notes on
yours let me get you
the oh I move this black this box out of
the way an impact on there
you good
evening going to tell you a little bit
uh about who we are what we do some of
the increases that judge Stewart already
talked about and go from there um my
name is Lyn mly I've been the city
prosecutor for a long time uh over 20
years um I came from the King County
prosecutor's office where I specialized
in I ran the domestic violence unit for
a while and I specialized in sex crimes
for a while and then I ended my career
there being um the manager of the
Regional Justice Center that's now the
norm mailing uh Regional Justice Center
and uh decided to kind of cut back a
little bit and for a while there I was
working part-time those were the good
old days um when I had the city of isqua
and um wanted to be more a little bit of
a mom um but at this point in time it's
fulltime obviously and then some I have
two wonderful Associates I have Alexa
McBarron
uh who the judge already told you is my
wonderful daughter but she is also an
amazing attorney she's been with me uh
since 2016 when she graduated from
University of Washington law school um
prior to coming to my office she spent
two summers with King County
prosecutor's office as an intern and
then a rule n extern where she was
actually trying cases so that was
wonderful so she came with me with
significant experience from King County
and has continued to grow and just been
a
Gods uh in
2021 uh I hired Russell thoram who as
the judge said came from Texas um he had
eight years of prosecution work in Texas
after leaving his uh work as a defense
attorney um as a prosecutor he
specialized in homicide mostly um
robbery drug trafficking and assault we
felt really happy to find Russ because
it was a time and it continues to be a
time when people just don't want to be
prosecutors anymore
sadly um in an event we have over 40
years of criminal prosecution experience
between the three of us and I think
we're we're known to be a little bit
tough on crime but with the community
court and the role that Alexa has taken
um and obviously the court has in still
we're we're also known to be fair and
understanding of the needs of the
defendants so um the next slide that was
supposed to be the
first that's
us uh telling you a little bit what we
do um obviously uh our office handles
all gross misdemeanor and misdemeanor
cases that happen within the city limits
we ALS o end up with cases that really
aren't misdemeanors or gross
misdemeanors because they're felony on
the books but King County filing
standards won't file them because their
case load is out of control or whatever
reason they just don't so they're f for
example a theft in the second degree a
felony that's a felony and on the books
it says if you steal anything over
$750 it's a felony so should go to King
County Prosecutors but their filing
standards say we won't take anything
under 2,000 and that's pretty much
become more like four to 5,000 we've
seen declines that come back to us file
it with the city prosecutor so we handle
that's true with malicious Mischief
dollar amounts uh forgery dollar amounts
um and just a heck of a lot of crimes
that they they don't have the Manpower
or won't prosecute so those cases come
to us so they're really felonies but
they're handled as
misdemeanor um so the cases come in the
police investigate the cases they send
them to us re we review the cases
determine what should be charged usually
the police pick the charge but sometimes
we add charges or we change the charge
we look at with evidence we have we
decide if we can file the case Beyond
and prove the case Beyond A Reasonable
Doubt but at that first level it's do we
have probable cause to file the case and
can we convince the judge that we have
probable cause uh sometimes we reach
back out to the police we say we need
more evidence uh we need you didn't get
a statement from that witness or the
victim that was not very Cooperative
could we maybe call her back and see if
perhaps she or he will be
cooperative um we order what else we
need we order the 911 tapes we might ask
officers to go back and get follow-up
pictures cuz a black eye doesn't show as
a black eye till few days later um and
we obviously have a wonderful police
force that we work with and are very
responsive um and We Gather everything
we need to file that case many of those
things have to be done within 24 hours
because if somebody's arrested they're
going to be seen the next morning for
court um sometimes we have the luxury of
having more time if somebody is charged
but not arrested Ed and put in jail so a
little a little more time to gather our
evidence and review it um after
reviewing it we prepare the case for
filing um as we do we look at the
offenders criminal history we look at uh
their warrant history and in that
respect we're determining will we be
asking for bail on this case we be we be
asking for a personal recogn what other
conditions of release are we going to
ask for are we going to be asking if
somebody's a stalker do we want to put a
GPS on their ankle so the victim knows
they're not going to come back to their
home if they're a a repeat DUI person
we're going to be asking for possibly a
scram bracelets which they used to call
it the Lindsay Lohan bracelet the
bracelet that monitors whether you're
drinking um and uh we have wonderful
providers that instantly notified us
notify us the prosecutors if somebody
has a confirmed consumption while
they're on that and that we bring them
back for a review hearing we get the
case filed we prepare it for arraignment
arraignment hearings we handle that's
the first hearing that a defendant comes
to where he's formally charged with or
advised what the charge is and formally
arraigned um and at that point
oftentimes the public defender gets
appointed or by by arraignment or after
arraignment they will decide they're
going to hire a public
defender a private attorney thank you um
the next phase is the negotiation phase
um and that's when we're looking at our
case even more carefully we are
listening to the 911 we're watching the
body cams we're assessing the case we
are calling Witnesses we're calling
victims we're determining if they're
going to be cooperative are they going
to come in has their have they changed
their mind about things do they have
questions so it's a very very uh it's
time consuming because we really want to
know our case before we're going to give
that offer to the defense attorney and
then we negotiate with the defense
attorney we do all of the negotiations
in writing um I mean we do a lot of it
by discussion but it starts out in
writing so they have that they have it
up front we try to be get offers out as
early as we can so that the cases don't
drag on and so that they have time to
communicate with their clients and you
know sometimes there's back and forth
back and forth we also then make sure
because there's three of us that we have
to be very consistent if one of us makes
an offer we don't want somebody going to
another attorney and saying hey you know
here's what's going on in this case no
Forum Shopping so we are very careful
and meticulous about keeping notes in
our electronic filing system we did go
from paper to electronic for I believe
four years ago so it's all we're all
electronic
now um after the negotiation it comes
down to whether a case is going to get
resolved by plea uh or it's going to go
to trial and sometimes it we don't find
out that it's going to be plea till the
day of trial and that can be frustrating
because you're all ready to go to jury
trial and you're dressed up and the case
doesn't go um but many most cases do get
resolved by plea I would say
probably over 90% resolved by some kind
of a ple NE negotiation and and Frank
quite frankly some sometimes cases get
dismissed because sometimes we don't
have a victim we don't have a witness
and nobody's going to be cooperative and
we don't have a choice we usually try to
dismiss it without prejudice especially
in domestic violence cases so if
something happened that the offender had
possibly gotten her out of state uh
getting her away change her phone number
but something happens later down the
line where they call us and they want to
be cooperative we can refile that case
and come back if we have time left on
speedy trial which usually we
do um once the case gets resolved by
either a plea or a guilty verdict or not
guilty verdict at trial if it's guilty
uh we proceed to sentencing hearings
where we make our recommendation the
defense makes their recommendation
ultimately judge Stewart that decides
what's the appropriate sentence in a
case given the facts of the case the
criminal history what are the issues
does a person need a domestic violence
assessment moral recognition the therapy
and alcohol drug
evaluation uh anger management no contct
orders mental health treatment those are
all the kinds of things we're clearly
even not just in Community Court we are
a rehabilitative court because we're at
the misdemeanor this is where we're
trying to prevent them to going to the
next fellow a level of felonies some of
them already have but at this point
we're still trying to
rehabilitate if that person is amable
and sometimes they're not sometimes
let's go to jail I mean we've got
somebody now with probably 14 violations
of a no contact order and the offer now
is one year in jail I mean it you just
can't
learn um finally after that we have to
ensure that the judge's sentence is
complied with otherwise it's worth
nothing so we have very lengthy long
monthly review calendars where we have
to go carefully through the docket see
how many times somebody's been in for
another a review hearing before you know
when you were given an opportunity to do
two days of electronic home monitoring
and now you're back and you haven't done
it and you have a positive UA is it 10
days in jail or are we going to try to
get you inpatient so the review hearings
are long and exhausting I often go all
day long um they're very intense
calendars but there are so many courts
especially I I'm not saying there are so
many courts that simply don't have
review calendars uh the King County
Prosecutors don't attend review
calendars um we take reviews very
careful very seriously because if you
don't monitor your cases what is all the
work for so finally we do legal training
uh and updates to the police department
uh we currently do that twice a year and
um we really enjoy doing it sometimes
we'll get a little behind schedule but
we we've got them set now for every June
and every December and um obviously we
also do when when something when laws
change or procedure change es we do
memos to the police uh to deter say like
when Blake happened it was a lot of memo
writing of this is what this is what the
this is what waa Washington Association
of Prosecuting attorneys is recommending
every jurisdiction did it a little bit
differently and so we all came on the
same page that all those prior
convictions needed to be vacated and
that was clearly a lot of work but we we
did it and we just finished all the old
cases that were filed in over in King
County um so that is essentially what we
do on a daily
basis um and then the next slide
is changes in Trends I would say the
biggest change in
2024 is the body cams the addition of
the body cams uh we've learned from our
paralal in downloading them to our files
to everything from watching them and
knowing what what's on them because
before we only had the police report and
now we're there we're watching it and
sometimes it's time consuming because a
DUI a DUI from start to finish can can
literally take two or three hours if if
there's a blood draw and they're going
up to the hospital maybe more but if you
if you don't watch it you're going to
miss something
so in every case that's going to trial
that entire footage is going to be
watched by a prosecutor if it's a
negotiation case we're going to watch
what we need to watch um but it is it
has been quite time consuming it's been
a real change in our jobs um I I think a
change for the better it's just
timeconsuming but it's it's a great
change for our officers to feel safe in
what they're doing and it's the best
picture that the jury can see they're
there um in between 19 we already talked
about this 2019 and 2023 the DUI filings
have gone up
133% in isqua
Alone um yes we have um a new police
chief and not new but um and we're
seeing great enforcement I mean they are
out there doing their job and they're
getting these people off the street and
that is what what isqua needs um many of
those cases hire private counsel I would
say roughly 50% hire private counsel so
it's the the public defenders we have
are excellent I would say the private
Council tend to go a little harder on
the motion work which requires research
um bringing officers in for motion
hearings writing writing briefs for
every one of those
motions um and it's it's a lot of work
um it's satisfying work but it's a lot
of work in 20 I'm sorry we have a qu
question from Deputy Council Deputy
council president Michelle uh ly on
again on fentel uh H it's a federal
crime
right we I wouldn't see it as a federal
crime if it's a DUI
fentanyl which we get a lot of a lot of
physical control and DUI that means
they're sitting in a non-running car but
with the car running and they're slumped
out behind the wheel is the common
scenario with
fentanyl um if we're seeing
that I I I don't believe it is a federal
crime okay if they were a cross state
line are traveling it could be but no
it's pardon me on a yeah on a military
base or something my question my
question really was do you interact a
lot with um uh Federal U prosecutors or
but apparently not not so much okay not
so much on male thefts we do because
sometimes those are uh cross state lines
and they work together with us to see if
they're going to take the case federally
depending on the person's track record
and they've been doing it and crossing
state lines but but not in the DUI but I
will say the number of increase in DUIs
absolutely has to do with with fentanyl
yeah um so so I I have a question yeah
uh when when I think of DUI I think of
traditionally alcohol somebody at what
point do we do DUI people actually do
jail time
I think uh well the police department
usually books DUIs so they're definitely
going to be in jail till they get seen
the next day if they unless there's some
reason why they decide make a
determination not to book them it's qu
police book a lot of
DUIs um
most and if it's a second DUI it's a
mandatory booking but isqua books most
of their first DUIs um later if they
continue to to reoffend not follow
probation we absolutely have had DUIs
that have served out their entire year
so um they see they see and if it's a
second DUI there's a mandatory minimum
of 30 days if they blow 45 days if it's
over
A5 45 blow over A5 45 days is a
mandatory minimum if they refuse to blow
so they're they're and that's within a
seven-year period so second DUI they're
going to do at least a month at least a
month 45 days if they refuse uh or it's
over5 and even if it's a second DUI in
10
years uh it's not a mandatory minimum
but we recommend jail because they've
already had a bite at the Apple so yes
we do recommend in jail for repeat
offenders of DUI all right thank you
absolutely other questions right now
nope uh in uh
2023 uh CA domestic violence uh cases
went up it it now in 2023 constituted
30% of the criminal case load which is a
jump from the year before I believe when
it was 21% of the criminal case load so
not a huge jump but definitely a jump um
um you know there there are cases that
are difficult they're complex they're
emotionally
draining um some we have a DB Advocate
who is wonderful but we also are
interacting with the victims we need to
know our victims we need to bring them
in for interviews um that's a weekly
thing happening in our office DV
interviews with victims um they call a
lot they they need handholding some of
them want the case dropped immediately
but the other ones want to know what can
we do that's going to help
them perhaps stay in a situation that
they have to stay in but get help and
resources and what how can they get the
resources for their
abuser um so that's that's been a a
significant increase in work um as you
know in August of 2023 drug possession
got was back on the books and the
statute was changed and we all started
filing those again we haven't seen a
huge number yet but we definitely uh are
getting filings for possession and um
and use in a public place which the
maximum sentence is 180 days rather than
uh the 90 that it used to be so um and
then finally we have the addition of
Community Court since 2021 which
obviously the judge has touched on and
Alexa is going to talk about it a little
bit more because she takes the lead in
the community Court
um okay so and then
um in reaching out to other King County
contract prosecutors uh I we we did some
comparisons I knew aaqua seemed to be
getting a a pretty good deal um and when
we actually broke it down by
filings um I get paid $228
a filing or my office does where boy um
Maple Valley
prosecutor um a lot more than that
Kenmore prosecutor a lot more than that
Shoreline prosecutor a lot more than
that um so um I would point that out in
that it's not just case filings that
have increased the number of calendars
in two
2023 doubled from the number of calendar
ERS a a month uh from 2018
doubled um and they are long they often
go through lunch almost always uh and
into the evening um I truly believe that
you the city of isqua has the best most
experienced prosecution
team in the county and probably the
state it might be biased um but the
bottom line is uh we can't keep serving
isqua uh unless we're able to have an
increase in compensation so I can offer
health insurance to my employees like
the county does like Bel does like
Seattle does um and and keep them so um
we love being your prosecutors um you I
live in samamish but used to be a squa
um I love the community and we certainly
hope that we will continue you to be
your
prosecutors and with that I'm going to
turn it over to M McCaron briefly uh a
little to talk a little bit more about
Community Court and I do have um stats
and numbers if you're interested um I
did look at the total case load from the
three cities isqua snow kwami North Bend
isqua was at 60% between the three
cities snowwy 15% North Ben
25% um
and and yeah there's any other questions
please let me know thank you very much
thank
you hi I am Alexa McBarron and obviously
I work with Lynn at the office along
with Russell thorum I know the judge um
touched a lot on Community Court and
what that program looks like and its
goals but I just want to touch on a
little bit um of kind of the day-to-day
and the workload that it looks like for
our office so obviously started it in
2021 as has been mentioned um the for us
the community Court potential um process
starts as soon as we're reviewing new
cases new cases that are on for that
first a brain May hearing we're
reviewing cases for um for who would be
a potential participant appropriate
participant for our community court so
we're looking at um as the judge
mentioned people to have little to no
criminal history young people that um
you know it's that oneoff theft that
we're hoping to Di them from the
criminal justice system before they're
on their way um essentially as we see
sometimes happen um or we're looking at
that high-risk Heine needs population
where we're looking at low-level crimes
driven by poverty or addiction um even
if they do have lengthy criminal
histories because we're trying to Target
the population of people that can really
benefit from the resources that are in
the resource room whether that's sud
substance use disorder treatment mental
health treatment DSHS resources things
like that um to kind of facilitate this
process we have a weekly Staffing
meeting uh on Mondays where that's the
prosecutor defense attorney um Court
staff the U Marisol case manager and the
judge we all meet um on Mondays and
discuss everyone that's currently in
community court if people are in
compliance if they're not um how we're
going to tackle issues if they're not in
compliance what are their goals for the
next week um and then obviously we're
prepping for the weekly Community Court
calendar which again involves confir in
compliance reading treatment reports um
confirming negative uas reviewing
criminal history to make sure people
haven't reoffended um and reviewing uh
observing participants for to Target
what kind of needs we think that they
will need to be able to successfully opt
into our program and then we have the
weekly Community Court calendar as
mentioned on Thursdays where each
participant is addressed on the record
in front of the judge um we have
graduations once a participant
successfully completes the program um we
often do them in person here at the
court if the participants able to make
it which is a lot of fun as most of our
court is is virtual especially as it's
weekly um which does make it nice and
easy for people to log on but um if
they're able to come in person we really
value that time we got to congratulate
them and um wish them all the best in
the future and uh we do celebrate uh
just one participant at a time which
helps um just we found really make sure
that we're focusing on on individual
success so that's kind of just what uh
the community Court looks like from our
from our office's standpoint but um is
there any questions based on
that I don't think so but thank you
perfect turn it over to next Think
Public Defense
Services least that's the next slide
so Sean McColly um own Valley Defenders
and I've been your public defender since
2005 or six I believe um and um it's
changed a lot over the years used to be
once a week I'd come here and I think I
charge 3,500 or something a month you
know it was a very different than what
it is now um we also see used to see a
high number of very simple cases out of
this court drivew license suspended
third degree possession of marijuana
very simple cases that don't take a lot
of attorney time what we've seen as a
change over the years is a
filing Decisions by our King County
prosecutor to not prosecute crimes has
put that burden on the local
jurisdiction um so miss mly was touching
upon the fact that we're doing a lot of
felonies now it's not filed as a felony
but I've seen drive by shootings
strangulations gun cases um I remember
one after we did it was $10,000 worth of
alcohol um so what are what is this
doing so public defenders you know the
more complex of a case that you have
takes a lot more attorney time and we're
seeing that the types of cases are
changing to where it's becoming a very
intensive sort of case Lo um I provide
roughly uh 2.5 FTE attorneys for that'd
be for Northbend isqua um and then we
account for snami as well and um you
know that's increased over the years um
but we're finding that uh I we represent
in a lot of different jurisdictions I
represent from everywhere from
Woodenville to pea to Yakama to Ron um
kwami North Ben you name it and we have
13 attorneys and I see different Trends
in different courts and what's going on
and um this court is one of the more
enjoyable courts to be in my attorneys
fight to be able to be assigned to this
court uh then that's a testament to the
prosecutors the staff the judge um it's
also a very intensive um Court in terms
of my my staff just doesn't get
lunch and um we work all day and one of
the nice things that I've seen in terms
of a change has been was kind of forced
Upon Us in Co but we went to these
hybrid calendars where people could
appear on Zoom my initial concern was
wow this is going to affect my clients
the ones that don't have the ability to
figure out
zoom and I didn't see that I actually
what I did see was some are joining on
their telephone some are having some
difficulty and come to my office and
join from there but what I saw is you
know that that single mother who maybe
is almost living out of her car can't
afford to take the day off of work could
come up here for court now on her
telephone take a break um so access to
justice is a very big big issue and so I
really appreciated that change for the
court some courts are going back to all
in person and I personally think that
that's going to have um a great impact
act on those who are in need you know
someone like me can afford to go take a
day off and go to court but my many of
my clients can't and and I have one
jurisdiction that's going back in person
next week and the people are freaking
out I can't take that day off so that's
that's been something that's been really
really helpful here um how has it also
changed well we used to have heroin
right um and we would maybe close a file
or two a year on someone who dies from
heroin we're having people die every
week it
is to the point where we're numb to it
now like we don't even cry anymore
hardly and I know that's sad to say but
we're just numb to
it we had clients um from isqua here
that we were trying to get help for a
long time they left their fentel on the
nightstand and their kid got into it and
died now they're going to
prison this fentel is crazy it uh is
really really
challenging when the judge is saying
well we need this accountability we need
tests we need to be able to nip this in
the bud and try to save our kids it's
killing our kids the young people
um we need those tools you know and I'm
a defense attorney you might be thinking
well why would this guy care because I
care about my clients you know what's in
their best interest is not necessarily
beating their charge it's
get to survive getting them to go to
treatment and we were always one of the
biggest courts about releasing the
treatment I think we did more than
anyone before Obamacare and I was very
proud of that and we had a lot of
successes doing that um we need to keep
doing it and but this is an intensive
intensive court for us um we're seeing
big changes in public defense that I've
never seen before when Co hit um for
some reason nobody nobody wants to be
public defender anymore and this used to
be a very challenging to come and get a
Public Defense contract in jurisdiction
and now I'm getting cities that call me
you know the week before December
begging us to do their Public Defense
next year they don't have anyone you
know we had a client who sat in Island
County for four months waiting to get a
public defender so it's really changed a
lot so the Supreme Court asked you know
the bar association to take a look at
the Public Defense standards sort of the
general rules we live by and um see if
there's changes that can be made there
that might prompt more public defenders
to come in because really the reality is
you're just going to dismiss cases if
you don't have public defenders and many
jurisdictions do that um they made they
made some recommendations and they
adopted some new standards that are
going to potentially be phased in it
remains to be seen what's going to
happen with respect to the Supreme Court
but essentially here's what it means to
you and bottom line and to me right now
my attorneys can handle 300 cases a year
you potentially could go to 400 if you
had a high number of simple easy cases
like it was in the old days but 300 is
really the standard for here so I must
provide three or so attorneys for this
jurisdiction but the per hour case load
my isqua attorneys are in court more
than any other jurisdiction because we
do try to make a change because we do
order treatment and we do try to have
people be
accountable but it also is a cost on us
it's a very demanding jurisdiction uh in
terms of the amount of time um you know
some jurisdictions just don't care
they'll only make people who get DUI go
through treatment that's it you know 80
to 9% of our cases are related to
alcohol and drugs in some way but yet
they're not addressed in other
jurisdictions and I guess that's what
they choose um I'm glad that isqua has
always chose sort of a different
route but these new Public Defense
standards so they're going to get phased
in if they're adopted and we'll see
what's going to happen here coming up
we're going to see 120 cases a year be
the
maximum now the theory and the thought
behind this is that public defenders are
overworked and people don't want to be
public defenders because they're
overworked they got too many cases and
so so we're going to lower the amount of
total cases at a time where we're in a
critical shortage of public
defenders so what all was going to mean
for us is well I provide two and a half
three attorneys for this contract I need
nine and that cost
money and so right now um I negotiate
and do all the contracts in the firm and
I know what all the different
jurisdictions do but right now um this
request
probably probably my um most difficult
contract to make money on and I think
I'm just probably breaking even if
anything right now um and we've signed a
one-year contract
extension and um we're we're going to
try to work it out but the the reality
is is coming up in the future um
starting next year it just I have to pay
people in the last three years we've had
15% inflation right but in the attorney
world in the last three years I now pay
someone 25% more as a starting rate and
I won't get them otherwise if you go to
the Washington Defenders Association
which is all the public defenders you
look at the job posting from every
single jurisdiction is begging for
public defenders they're offering $5,000
bonuses moving fees and I have to try
and offer uh a salary that's
commensurate with the other
jurisdictions it's very very difficult
and um it's very very competitive and I
don't know how much longer we can do it
at sort of a Bargain Basement rates you
know it becomes something that just is
very very difficult to do um and this
has been my favorite jurisdiction and
contract for a long long time but the
realities of running a business are we
just can get
paid a fairer amount in other
jurisdictions sometimes so
um we we've really enjoyed this contract
we' really would love to be a public
defender in the future but there these
big changes are coming um and whether or
not they adopt the 120 case load you
think about that 300 case load down to
120 you need essentially two additional
attorneys to cover what one of my
attorneys is covering right
now and that's just something that is
difficult to
before so those changes are coming I
don't know if I prompted any questions I
let me see if I even hit on half this
stuff yes um council member uh
Joe thank you Mr
chairman uh sh M call it's very nice to
see you um been a long time sir I
appreciate uh all the work you've done
in this court and I know that uh you're
highly respected in the defense bar
because of all the work you've been
doing could you comment on the March
24th rule um a little bit the budget
recommendation is talking about a annual
increase between 50,000 and
250,000 and you talked about how they're
stepping up over the years do you kind
of give us a year-by-year
increase uh as the rule is contemplated
right now we're not holding you to those
numbers at all but I think at the first
year is a 250 it's going to it's a phase
in approach starting in
yeah 2025 goes to
yeah yeah right but in many
jurisdictions is aqua included our
contracts were specifying we're
following Bar Association standard sure
and so we stopped that last year but
yeah just from a budgetary point of view
um I'm just trying to get a hold of what
years we would need to see what
increases so that we're competitive and
compliance with the rule if you can give
us that information maybe not right now
by number but if you could come back and
maybe give that to our city
administrator when that's there it gives
us a better guidance piece for our
budgeting yeah speaking of our city
administrator am I getting the sense
that you want to comment on this yes uh
thank you Mr chair uh council member Joe
again we're and certainly appreciate all
your comments um we just want to give
you a sense of the work and the issues
surrounding it we're not really here to
negotiate a new contract evening know
administration's intent by having this
discussion tonight is you know to move
forward with budgeting appropriately uh
to cover these challenges so you have
that commitment from us ABS in any other
direction no I I appreciate that and I
was just um not trying to negotiate in
public but trying to just get an idea of
what the rule is requiring and where we
needed to be um I hope that isqua would
be uh at the Forefront of making those
changes because we've been a leader in
the court system throughout the years
that our municipal court has been
inexistence so I just want to make sure
that we're keeping pace and that's why
we're here this evening is that when you
add up all the various numbers that
you're hearing tonight the number is
substantial yes and we do not see our
revenues increasing at that level uh to
cover this without other changes and so
U the big deal coming into 25 26 that's
why we appreciate everyone's time this
evening and we're taking time and going
through this in great detail because
it's going to be a major part of the
city council's 2526 budget deliberations
in a way that it has not been in a very
long time yeah and thanks to the
administration for bringing this to us
and um making sure that we're aware of
it we appreciate your for foresight and
and Future Vision for uh this subject
thank
you Deputy council president D
Michelle yeah just following up on
council member Joe's comments I had a
similar uh concern or not a concern um
question I guessed um about how this
would be phased in in 25 26 and then
2728 which I realize is a different
Council but it would be nice when we get
the next presentation to kind of see how
um the administration is thinking about
phasing that in if that's what's
happening over time um and that was just
from the materials we had here that
wasn't clear to me how that was going to
happen yeah I mean so starting in 2025
we're going to go from 300 cases to 250
and then it drops down to something else
after that but I know the final number
is 120 and 20.7 there was a three-year
phase and if they adopt them as is we
know the Supreme Court wants to lower
the case numbers because they're the one
who ask them to look at it and make new
recommendations just don't know if
they're going to come out and just adopt
them wholesale um but that's what we're
looking at an additional attorney needed
in 2025 you'd probably be looking at two
or three needed in 2026 we'd probably
need a total of8 to n in
2027 and there still is discussion as
he's mentioned that these have not been
approved um and the association for
Washington cities uh the Washington City
attorneys Association uh a number of
parties the City of Kent for example has
been very vocal in gathering up support
of other King County cities uh to you
know have the the Supreme Court have at
least some broader look at all all of
these issues so what you will see from
us in the budget will be the best
information that we have come fall here
it is late May um we just want to
present the issues for you tonight but
it's our commitment the administration's
commitment to make sure the sufficient
resources are allocated the challenge is
going to be what Municipal services do
we not do um perhaps 25 26 in order to
fund these changes one nice big change
one one nice thing that we did in this
jurisdiction which I think saves this
jurisdiction a lot of money we hired a
bilingual attorney we have Monica ANZ
who is a native Spanish speaking
attorney who can directly talk to
clients we don't ask for interpreter
Services we don't need it um that's a
huge savings from other contracts other
even previous
uh public defenders who asked the court
to approve expensive interpreter
Services be able to talk to your client
and you know Spanish makes up 80 plus
percent of your clientele that does
speak some other language so um so
that's been a real big help to this
jurisdiction I know that we'll have um
interpreter calendars that blow a lot
easier and smoother because we have
Spanish speaking uh staff as well so um
that's one nice perk that we've been
able to provide um and so we always
enjoy doing that and we think it's we
think that having an attorney who can
talk to the client in their language is
very
valuable thank you do you have more
material to present this evening I don't
no okay all right thank you all thank
you very
much back to judge Stewart I don't have
a whole bunch more to present one one
thing that I would just follow up on
Lynn one of the things that caught me
off guard she was talking about the
felonies and so did Mr McColly one of
the things that has started to get filed
which I think is the most obvious felony
because difference between a theft 2 and
a theft 3 is something we toss around
our tmvs taking Motor Vehicles we're
getting car thefts now on a regular
frequent basis filed into our court
that's increased some of the complexity
and such uh the last thing Mr Mr Joe if
council member Joe I'm sorry I'm
guessing the your city administrator has
this but if you I I have the timeline
for the Public Defense standards I can
forward uh to you guys is it certainly
something my Association we're not
allowed to get involved in it uh but
it's something that we're aware of uh
though I think Benton County is the one
we hear about the most I think Benton
County has I may get this wrong but it's
something they it's on our list serve
all the time that they have 88 attorneys
in Benton County but if the Public
Defense standards pass as set they'll
need 89 new public defenders and Mr
mccol is correct every public defender
agency out there can't find attorneys
now so we don't know where those
additional bodies could be and the last
thing I wanted to mention uh that I as I
sat down uh Council D Michelle you're
asking for some other things we could do
with regard to the testing uh we don't
have it on our budget request this year
because we weren't prepared and we don't
know how we'd handle it but one of the
things you could look towards in the
future is the possibility that the the
the uh uh we might come to you asking
for you to fund scram devices that was
mentioned by some of the attorneys uh to
the extent that we can get scram devices
that are run by the court on folks uh
ankles we can take them out of our urine
testing and our and Reserve that for
Fentanyl and do a better job of
monitoring the folks on alcohol which is
the D guys and stuff like that I think
that's unless you folks have other
questions I think council member Joe has
another question thank you uh judge stur
for coming back up to sew things up um I
just had a request uh that I had in mind
as we are looking at our facilities
right now and possibly moving the court
so that we can perhaps do a new fire
station here the court potentially be
moving over to the King County District
Court I was wondering if um not right
now but uh if you could um perhaps give
us some of the financial impacts to that
and or um case service impacts or client
service impacts to that uh so that we're
aware of those factors when we're making
the decision uh to move over to King
County court I'm sure the Administration
has probably already been working with
you on that but um it's just a request
from from this committee talk to
Christie and we can kind come some
members thank you appreciate it
are these last SL Shores and and we do
have the tours scheduled and so there'll
be a discussion during those tours June
10th uh we'll look through the existing
facilities and then on July 15th will'll
be the door of the The District Court fa
so the last slides uh that are here Mr
chairman members of the committee
um we we again we'll be talking at the
next item about safety cameras um you
know looking at
$300,000 plus or minus cost at this
juncture as we're doing budgeting and so
as we as the administration are uh in
the first steps of this this is the
number one item on the list um to make
sure that the the Staffing requests that
the court is requesting um and then as
we negotiate contracts with the public
defender and the city prosecutor uh
those are commensurate with uh the
conditions that you've heard this
evening so that that is our plan unless
directed otherwise
or encouraged otherwise uh but part of
the reason we're here this evening is to
give you this heads up that from mayor
Paul's uh perspective um these are
serious important issues uh they're very
different than what we have talked about
in recent years with the budget uh so
this is a layer above and beyond that
and I think that pretty much takes us to
the end of the presentation you got a
couple more slides if there's excuse me
you have a couple more slides a couple
more slides um we always say two or
three times at the end with the same
thing um that uh you know our
recommendation again is receive the
report uh provide any feedback you have
and we'll be back to talk about the
budget in more detail at the council's
retreat in late and I'd like to thank
all the the folks who came out tonight
as you heard they were very busy people
and so to take a couple of hours out of
their evening on a a Tuesday night is is
quite a lot so thank you to all of you
who who came and we're certainly
everyone's available for F those of you
worried about lunches we're trying to
adress calendars so we can get lunches
again although I did not get a lunch
today so uh we're working on it all
right thank thank you very much uh judge
Stewart so uh before we go into a
discussion amongst the three of us um I
will ask the clerk whether there's been
any change uh obviously everybody in the
room is associated with the city but if
there's any indication that anybody
who's online might be interested in uh
commenting before this uh body reviews
the direction
needed sure we continue to have one
member of the public with us virtually
so I'm going to give that individual
just a moment to press star three to
raise their hand or to select the small
raise hand icon in
WebEx and I'm not seeing a desire to
speak from that person all right thank
you very much and with that we discuss
uh
Direction on further information or
analysis needed so what further
information and Analysis do we believe
the administration should provide to the
full Council as part of the uh 25 the
2025 2026 Bal budget council member Joe
your finger is poised on the microphone
you look ready to give a comment it is
thank you and and first off I'd like to
thank the administration for bringing
this to our attention and giving us such
a thorough report um also to uh fellow
members of the bar and and uh
prosecutors and public defenders that
are here tonight um the job is not easy
as many of you may know I was a
prosecutor for a few cities uh for about
10 years and uh it's not an easy job at
all that's the easy job though compared
to the work that the public defenders do
in in some ways um they have the harder
task um from my point of view I would
like to see some information on um
compensation over the years it doesn't
have to be every year from the time that
Lyn mly started with us but just the
highlights of when they were last bumped
up if at all um over time and I know
that uh um just the year and the bump
that occurred so we can see if we've
done anything in the past and if so what
over time uh to give us an idea of kind
of where we are really appreciate the
comparables that are here uh in terms of
what other cities are paying the public
defenders and the Prosecutors Office
it's valuable information um and and I
think that uh one thing that we heard
over and over tonight uh that I'd like
to emphasize is that I was on Council
when we put the the court together and
one of the reasons we did this project
to start our own Court was was the King
County court system while it has its
benefits and advantages did not give our
citizens the care and the
extra um oversight that I think our
citizens deserve and I think you've
heard over and over tonight from the
parties that have talked that our court
um because we're special place where
people
care that starts with the judge goes
down to the prosecutor and the public
defender they care not only about um you
know getting guilty please or getting
wins in Trials but also uh
helping the defender get their life
straight helping the victim find the
best Avenue to the next step in their
life um along the way and that's
something that we don't always see in
courts and that's something that we
don't often see from other prosecutor
offices and public defenders in the
different courts in the in the system so
um as we look at these numbers I know
that they are big and and they can seem
daunting
but the increases that are being asked
we need to consider in the context of
the fact that this court provides
fantastic Service uh we're able to do a
high level of of prosecution a high
level of public defender care and then
the follow-up services that are so
necessary um uh in terms of having
probation right here having the ability
to do the drug test to keep the
defendant defendants accountable um I
when I was a prosecutor we were in the
King County court system in one of my
contracts and uh my city didn't contract
with the court for Probation Services so
I could do anything I wanted with my
sentence and Order uas and and uh you
know do the follow-up reviews that are
on there but there was no probation
officer that was going to take that next
step to monitor the person and that was
just detrimental to the ability to
handle the case and see it through and
follow through with it we're so
fortunate to have the services of the
probation department right here I hope
that as we think about uh moving the
court to the king count District
district court or moving it to its new
home once we figure out our facilities
that we keep that cohesiveness and the
ability to
um uh make sure that everyone is working
together because they're working so
closely in proximity to each other as
well so thank
you thank you Deputy council president D
Michelle council member Joe said a lot
of what I wanted to say as well and so I
plus one everything that he said um
first of all just looking at all of you
I just want to say thank you so much for
what you do I am so proud of you I brag
about you all the time
and tell people what a great court
system we have and and um how dedicated
you are to um the needs of both the
Defenders and the victims in our in our
community so thank you for everything
you do uh it was a real honor to be able
to go to Community Court even though it
was on zoom and see the graduation so um
when I ran for Council I had wise advice
uh from person who said Public Safety is
the a number one uh responsibility of
any Council and um and I've thought
about that many many times I know during
covid we had to look at a big increase
in uh in our policing and uh we had the
issue of making sure that we recruited
enough police officers that meant that
we had to increase um the offers that we
were making to them
uh we have for many years uh been able
to get a really good deal as Lyn
Mobberly said we've had a really good
deal here for a while now we need to
step up and take a review and really and
it's not you know just as employers it's
not fair to our employees or our
contractors we asking them to do these
great big jobs for little very little um
if you're just breaking even that's
really not that's not an ideal situation
for any contractor
so I fully support uh going further
getting more information but in terms of
making the case as judge Stewart said
you know you're making the case tonight
I think you made the case in Spades that
something needs to be done and that we
need to support uh increased uh budget
for um the court and the Criminal
Justice
Services would I have anything else to
say but you just I think this is going
to be a journey that we're on as we go
through the budget season but um there
can't be anything more important that we
do than support our our police officers
in our courts so thank
you thank you Deputy council president
so it's probably third um number one is
that the toilets flush when you flush
the toilet number two is the water comes
out of the tap but number three is
Public Safety and isqua is incredibly
lucky probably unique Maybe Redmond in
King County in having our own dispatch
and our own police and our own court and
our own jail right and this affords us
the opportunity to come up with uh smart
and uh Force
multiplier uh programs to take advantage
that we hold all of these elements of
Public Safety in our own hands right um
I think that this budget conversation is
an opportunity to really prove prove to
the public that we are doing everything
we can to reduce crime particularly
violent crime and so I think that um as
we talk about the funds that we need to
do various things um I think we should
you know we should talk about um that
the community court is a is a net
benefit and that it is um financially um
beneficial versus not having it I think
we should talk about are there things
that we can do to drive down the DUI and
domestic violence numbers you know we
have a great Police Department we had a
we had a great Police Department in 2018
and so if those numbers are up quite a
bit um I don't think that's I mean and
the chief can tell me if I'm wrong
that's not just from having more
officers available um that's something
and we should figure out what that
something is and we should figure out if
there's something that we can do
policy-wise uh to help bring those
numbers down um you know my vision
is that you know is was be a bad place
to do crimes um this should not be a
town that people come to and think this
is a schmorgus board and I speak as
someone whose house was burglarized 10
years ago it was one of the five most
traumatic events in my life and has
changed my view on Public Safety um we
should not be aaras board for anybody to
come
uh do property crime um amongst you know
much less violent crime which is which
is even um a larger concern for the
public so as part of this process if
there are things that we can do um as a
council policy that we can do yes we
want to have restorative justice and yes
we want to be compassionate um but we
have these tools in our kit dispatch
police court and jail we must use them
all uh to the best ability that we can
to help address this concern that
continues to grow um in the public
across the country but in particular in
in King County and in our part of King
County of the continuing growth of of
property crime and violent crime so um
I'm I'm excited about this conversation
yes it will be more money but it is also
an opportunity to address something and
and speak to the public about this issue
that they consider so so incredibly
important and so that's that's my
thoughts any uh additional thoughts
second second round
anybody no uh City administrator do do
you have the feedback you were looking
for from the three of us this evening
yes I do and I also just want to mention
the one person who hasn't been mentioned
in the room and that's Rachel Turpin
City attorney um since Rachel has become
our City attorney uh she's been very
involved in all the issues you've heard
tonight and has been a great adviser and
counselor uh to the administration uh as
we had deal deal with this Rachel's a
former prosecutor herself uh um has lots
of good experience and has helped with
sort of the the management pieces of all
of this so I want to thank Rachel for
her help and for being here this evening
and I want to Echo thanking everybody
who joined us this evening you know this
is my 15th year and I keep learning new
things judge Stewart every time you come
in I learned something that I didn't
know before you got here and I'm sure
that if I'm lucky enough to do this for
a while longer that will continue to
hold true so thank you and and everybody
who who joined us this evening for this
conversation but the evening is not over
Mr chairman can we take a recess a
recess yes F let let us take uh 5 to S
minute uh recess and we will uh come
back in in a
bit thank you
wow
nice to meet you
yeah e
still
TR
now
you
watch okay
play one
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I think we're about ready to get
restarted
so let's get restarted Next Issue up is
c00 oh excellent let's get restarted our
next issue is
c0042 traffic safety camera update with
Chief Schwan from the ipd Travis n
Patrol Commander uh and Paul Fairbanks
maybe no just the chief all right we
don't need all those extra people
well Chief Schwan's coming up um let me
just do a brief kind of 100,000 foot
overview uh We've not talked about
traffic safety cameras in a while uh the
city currently has a school safety zone
camera um I as your city administrator
have been extraordinarily reluctant uh
to bring the issues of additional
cameras to you however based on what
you've just heard this evening and
knowing what our budget is looking like
uh and a very persuasive Court
Administrator who asked me very
vigorously to reconsider my position um
we are here tonight uh to uh give you an
update on some of the work we've done uh
this spring and uh get some general
direction for you as we uh move toward
the the budget process Chief Schwan is
here and we'll let her take it away
thank you council members and Deputy or
sorry um City administrator wwts so um
the purpose we're here today is to
provide information upon the updated
traffic study and concerns across the
city this isn't for financial gain only
it's for the safety of our city and I
have a lot of experience with these not
only in working in the city of isqua but
also in my prior cities whereas we had
red light cameras multiple ones and I
wrote in one year over
13,000 um Redlight camera infraction
tickets so um something is to obtain
Direction in the administration's plan
for traffic camera use and mitigation of
traffic safety concerns so that's the
purpose of us being here tonight um the
direction we're needing from the council
is the administration is seeking
direction to the next steps related to
exploration evaluation and
implementation of additional Traffic
Safety cameras in known dangerous
driving areas throughout the city of
isqua so we've done some studies as
you're going to see in the future slides
and I think they've presented to you as
well with information about these and
specifically we want to know should the
administration move forward in further
investigating on additional school
safety zone camera on Newport Way
Northwest specifically and or should the
administration move forward with the
traffic camera vendor evaluation and
pilot program to design for red light
photo enforcement cameras themselves in
three different locations and a
possibility of a fourth to consider as
well so a little background in traffic
safety 810 people died in Washington
roads in 2023 the highest number since
1990 traffic collisions in isqua are on
the rise after dipping significantly in
20120 which was obviously our covid
impact year in from 23 of January to
March of 24 316 vehicle involved
Collision reported collisions I should
say happened in isqua because ultimately
there's many collisions that happen
fender benders that we aren't aware of
and that don't always get reported to
the police or they do an online report
directly to Washington State Patrol 86
of those reported collisions occurred at
intersections and the utility box in the
highlands was hit twice in uh short
succession during one of those
collisions so as far as the accounting
for those numbers other Danger driving
behaviors that are on the rise are DUIs
as been mentioned in the previous
presentation um 133% since n or 2019 70
and
2023 um I will address that only because
it's been brought up a couple times I do
think it's because number one an
increase in the number of officers that
are on Patrol and um it has been
mentioned also that sometimes what has
happened in the past when we had lower
Staffing the DUIs were still happening
but when we would get them because of
the Staffing and that takes an officer
off the street for multiple hours we
would call either another jurisdiction
State Patrol who would file them that
actually then wouldn't be filed in our
courts but they would be filed in
District Courts so some of our numbers
are going to be a little off and
increase because of that also some of
the officers that we've recently hired
are laterals and they are very um busy
and really enjoy um looking and um
patrolling and enforcing those DUIs and
are very good at what they do and so
that's another reason for some of that
increase and in teaching our younger
officers um how to do those because it's
a it's a long process that's another
reason that will be an
increase background as far as photo
enforcement um this was provided to you
for the difference in how they they read
the zones as far as when a speed camera
for example it shows here what that
looks like and how it reads in the zone
when it gets there um I Heard Barbara de
Michelle comment about possibly being
Second Avenue and and having some
understanding of those cameras um the
red light camera I can be very specific
on that a lot of people don't understand
that stop line when you come to a red
light camera both axles must be behind
the stop line at the time and you have
to come to a complete stop where just
because you feel like your body's not in
motion if your car does not come to a
complete stop behind that stop line or
it straddles your front axles in front
and the other ones behind then it's not
it's considered you violated that and so
you've gone into that pedestrian area
which then in fact makes that you've
broke bridged it and that you are now
committed that violation and you will
get that camera will catch you and so um
that's the biggest part or if you're all
the way into the intersection and the
light is red then that also becomes that
violation because you've crossed that
perimeter and if you're in there you may
as well continue where you'll seen some
that'll cross the line waiting for the
light to turn and they don't make that
left turn or don't make that right turn
they're in the intersection you've
already crossed that line so those are
um some of those pieces next slide
please
another background as far as photo
enforcement you can see here um City
adopted the IMC 1042 in 2008 authorizing
automatic traffic enforcement as a whole
and city of esqua currently operates one
school safety camera on second AB near
esqua Middle um and high
schools as you can see from 2015 all the
way to 23 it's been a a large increase
gradual every year um not only in the
number of violations but also in the
number of the income that or Revenue
that has come in from those now one
might think that maybe it's a
possibility um that that's because it's
not it's not working but I would argue
the fact that majority of these
typically are ones trying to avoid
traffic especially on this second AV and
that it would be people that are more
often than not because I've traveled
through there every day when I come into
work and every day there you can tell
the people who know the camera's going
to be there and they slow down and you
can tell those that don't have no idea
and then they get caught so I think
that's a big a big number that you you
can see as far as those increases and
chief I have a question sorry from 2021
to 2022 to 2023 we see a continued
increase in the number of tickets issued
but revenues go down each of those years
how come I would I can't um speculate if
I had to speculate I think one of there
would be two reasons for that one more
people are fighting them as far as the
tickets themselves
um and asking them to be mitigated in
court and giving different reasons or um
circumstances for those and they would
be brought to court I think the courts
could maybe address those even a little
better and have that um information but
I think another reason might be is
because what has happened with um the
ability to report those to the state and
not re-register your license or people
are just not choosing to pay them that
is another reason that can happen is
that people will choose not to make
those payments and certain jurisdictions
as within the new code that's coming
through in um new legislation is whether
or not certain jurisdictions are able to
send that to Department of Licensing and
put a hold on your registration in the
event that you didn't pay your parking
tickets or your speed zone violations or
red light cameras so I would say that
would be those other reasons why someone
and those numbers would go down as far
as Revenue but they would go up as far
as the numbers that were
issued thank you next slide
um here's the analysis as far as the
pictures go um one speed zone and the
second image that's captured it shows
you both there's two images that are
captured typically when you go through a
red light and as far as that also goes
the different ones and the different
areas at the beginning when you enter
the zone and when you after um as far as
the speed zone
cameras the analysis that was done in
the certain intersections um they took
all this data and the top 10
intersections by number of reported
collisions in the city of isqua between
January 1st of 23 and March of 24 and
then they put them based on the highest
number of those collisions by those
intersections um East Lake samamish
Parkway Southeast and East Lake isqua
Fall City Road had 11 number of
collisions 17th a Northwest and
Northwest Gilman Boulevard had 10 East
Lake samamish Parkway Southeast and so
on down the line you can see those
different
jurisdictions you have any does anybody
have questions about that analysis or
those actual
numbers far as analysis on the red light
photo um they've designated these three
were the top and they also were ones
picked or selected because they don't
have a dual jurisdiction like both parts
or the both all parts of the
intersection are in our city and so it's
not shared by either King County or
another area and so we wanted to make
sure that's another thing that was
addressed so East Lake samamish Parkway
and Southeast Fall City Road 36 traffic
and fraction tickets one criminal
traffic infraction ticket 14 total
accidents with 11
collisions um 50% of the accidents were
turning left onto isqua Fall City Road
so that would be the direction
specifically um in these circumstances
you can choose when you get red light
enforcement whether it's every direction
it's One Direction it's only going
Northbound versus southbound and so
those are things that you can Implement
where it doesn't have to be every single
Direction at an intersection that
someone's going to have enforcement on
if you chose to put a red light
enforcement in them um East lak some
amers parkway at Southeast between 56
Street and black Nugget Road 17 traffic
infraction tickets two criminal traffic
infraction tickets and eight total
accidents were um happened at that
intersection specifically and Highlands
Drive Northeast and Northeast Park Drive
on Northeast Federal drive 10 traffic in
fraction tickets 12 total collisions and
50% of accidents involved a driver
running a red light so half those
collisions being someone that ran a red
light which this would hopefully deter
those collisions altogether by having
that camera there I think one other in
intersection that we see that's really
close to home is on second and sunset
it's down here in there weren't
necessarily collisions but we have
several people that complain about
downtown area the inability to cross
that intersection and feel unsafe
because from coming they're going
northbound on second onto Sunset turning
towards the freeway that's where
everybody's trying to bypass go up
second also kids leaving the high school
quite frankly because they have an open
campus and they Rush up to go to
Starbucks at lunchtime and then they
come back and so that's another
intersection that we see very regularly
that there are people running that
light analysis on the school zone safety
um Newport Way North Northwest um
isaquel Elementary school it's a long
straight stretch of road if any of you
have traveled down there you know as
well as I do that it's a long stretch
and people are like oh I see kids out in
the playground or I don't see kids out
the playground so it must not mean that
I don't have to drive slow which is not
the case and a lot of people walk along
the pathways there going to and from um
there's also other jurisdiction the the
part the sorry shopping center that's up
there um and a lot of different houses
developments and I see a lot of foot
traffic that goes along that way not
just the school zone and so there's a
lot of people that also cut through to
avoid the downtown traffic and
congestion average speeds in both
directions exceed safety camera
threshold regularly um Northwest Talis
drive at Cougar Mountain Middle School
main road in and out of Talis
neighborhood divided road entrance on
school and East Side East and um
eastbound side Chief I'm I'm sorry I
have a question for Deputy council
president thanks going back to Newport
Way which uh yes I'm really familiar
with that
um we have some uh at some future point
we're going to get some roundabouts
there but that intersection where
Juniper comes on to Newport Way seems to
be a particularly dangerous place where
people take a lot of a lot of chances to
get out there because the traffic is
coming both ways and so you just have a
little bit of room um I'm just wondering
uh have we thought about how this is all
going to fit with the roundabouts that
are being planned for that street or is
this something that we would do uh even
before those roundabouts go in we've had
some preliminary council member Michelle
members of the council uh we've had some
preliminary discussions with public
works on that point uh we feel
comfortable moving forward now prior to
the roundabouts being installed and
we'll continue to work with public work
staff there's
adjustments inst all right thanks that
was just you know um I I TR try to get
out from that intersection myself and it
is a real challenge to especially during
uh commute times so sure I I imagine
that since this would be also be a speed
camera that although even though the
roundabouts we would hope that that
would slow things down a little bit
before they even got to that school zone
or to those cameras um but the school
that would just be a double emphasis on
trying to slow the speeds there around
the school whether it be for Juniper
people entering or for people just
coming down the road with her and I
believe council member Joe has a
question thank you Mr chairman uh Chief
thank you for coming tonight to fill us
in on uh this option um I wanted to know
uh if there was um any type of review
that was done by humanized before this
was sent off to the court for a school
zone uh speed violation do we just send
every ticket that gets picked up on that
scanner right off to the court or is
there a process that the officers take
part in before it goes over to the court
the officers are the ones that in they
view every single red light camera they
view every single speed violation as
well that comes through the systems um
whether that be on second AV or in any
other jurisdiction there is a new um I
informed the City attorney Rachel about
the new legislation that's coming
through that no longer does it have to
be a sworn peace officer there are other
people now which would be cost more cost
effective for us um but that there is a
possibility that there is other people
that has to have still have C certain
certifications but they don't have to be
a sworn officer now to review some of
those um but they do every single one of
them has to be reviewed and they take
about two to three minutes for every
single one to be reviewed but every
single one is looked at it's not
automated that someone's just given a
ticket thank you I appreciate that
information I just want to make sure
that uh the citizens understand that
it's just not an automatic robot that is
taking the ticket right way but there
are human eyes on it before it goes to
the court thank you very much yes sir
thank you for the
question I'm Northwest Talis Drive oh
sorry no yep back please the Northwest
12 Drive Cougar Mountain Middle School
um main R own in and out of Talis
neighborhood divided road entrance to
school and eastbound on the eastbound
Side recent isqua school district speed
study found that both average speed and
uh 85th percentile speeds dropped
following School opening um average
eastbound speed 25.5 M hour and average
westbound speed was 28.4 mil hour thank
you next
slide so the proposal is that we have
the red light cameras um and to schedule
ver Mobility to evaluate three priority
intersections for the camera
installation we would determine the
expected annual revenues and staffing
needs from the evaluation we come back
to council and update information
following the evaluation as far as the
school zone speed cameras install
additional camera near esquala military
school on Newport Way Northwest similar
conditions to Second a Southeast but
more traffic volume and hold off on
third camera Northwest Talis Drive given
staff
capacity excellent thank you the
analysis of the estimated Financial
impacts um cost per camera system is
66,000 annually which is about 5,500 per
month a red light camera um we need more
information on the additional costs and
and revenues based on the ticket volume
next step if recommended Vera Mobility
will do an evaluation of potential
intersection to determine estimated
expected photo enforcement volume and
then the school zone speed would be 1
FTE per Court 12,000 tickets um current
camera exceeded a doll and6 Cent or
dollar 06 million in 2023 with
11,606 citations one thing that should
also be noted that um was inadvertently
um left off of here is that we would
also ask for uh there would be increased
FTE that would be asked for by the
police department because we would need
staff that would be reviewing all these
from the both cameras that were added
that was um inadvertently omitted off
this slide so I just want to make sure
that's noted um because that is
something that is definitely another
piece to that because that many
increased by up to four cameras it would
be a drastic amount of time that an
officer as you mentioned would have to
literally valuate or person regardless
being an officer would have to increase
um looking at those
cameras
please so options on the red light
camera is option one is or zero is
maintained status quo option one
maintain current camera level increase
Patrol presence um at known inter
intersections best we can as our traffic
unit continues to increase with the
officers option two is traffic camera
evaluation and pilot program design at
Administration recommended locations and
option three traffic cam evaluation and
pilot program design at alternative
locations options for the school safety
zone is maintain status quo camera
evaluation for both locations or camera
evaluation at one additional
administrative recommended location with
the potential for that third location in
future
years recommendation the ad
Administration recommends that the
council committee instruct um the
administration to either move forward
with professional vendor assessment of
best place Traffic Safety cameras for
Newport W Northwest uh move forward with
professional vendor assessment for best
place Traffic Safety camera for three
potential intersections which East Lake
s mamers Parkway and Southeast isqua
Fall City Road East Lake s mamers
Parkway Southeast and either 56 Street
or black Nugget Road and Highlands Drive
Northeast and Northeast Park drive or
Northeast Federal
Drive timing and next steps if advised
to move forward the goal of the camera
installation would be by late fall of
2024 um we would get Council committee
direction we would contact the vendor
from the current school's Zone safety
camera and get some installation and
then the red light camera program design
and camera installation as
well the direction needed um the
administration is seeking Direction on
next steps related to exploration
evaluation implementation of additional
Traffic Safety cameras in known
dangerous driving areas throughout the
city of isqua specifically should the
administration move forward in further
investigating additional schools Zone
safety camera on Newport North or
Newport Way Northwest or should the
administration move forward with a
traffic camera vendor evaluation and
pilot program designed for red light
photo enforcement cameras I do also want
to note that we've recently had
abundance of we had a manager meeting
today and our traffic Sergeant has
increasingly
received more complaints about um speed
and traffic issues that are throughout
the city whether it be in the highlands
whether it be in um down Oldtown um and
other parts of the City chief a couple
of questions before we get to the the
deliberation um I I want to make sure I
understand how the intersection cameras
would work if you are already in
Washington state if you are already in
the intersection when it turns red you
you should continue forward and clear
the intersection section right correct
cuz that's different that's different
from I'm from Minnesota and I failed my
first driver's test because you in
Minnesota you have to clear the
intersection before it turns red uh
which I discovered to my great
disappointment and my parents great
disappointment um so this so the system
would what it takes a picture when the
light turns red and then some number of
seconds after that takes another picture
and if you're behind if you're behind
the line when the light turns red but
then you're ahead of the line it's some
point after that that's when you would
you would potentially get a ticket is
that how that works it takes it when the
stop line so the light turns red and if
your part any part of your car is over
that stopline then that's when it takes
the photo because it takes that it
there's a violation but so there's a
it's like a there's a beam that's across
there and that's how it triggers it but
it's if the front of your car moves
through after the light turns red
correct okay I just wanted to make sure
that I understood if you're if you're
call cars past the the stopline where
that beam is at and it's on your tires
it's not on because it doesn't matter
how high your car itself is it's
triggered by your tires themselves
that's why they both need to be behind
that stopline or if you have multiple
axles but at the same more than two I
mean then it must they must all be
behind and then also they evaluate at
the company they don't automatically
check the tickets but we also check oh
they came to a stop and then after they
stopped because it'll take a picture if
you stop stop and then you take that
right turn it'll send us the picture but
that's why the officer looks at it and
says oh no they were stopped they came
to a complete stop and they continue and
then the judge will see it in there
because that's the first thing the judge
will ask did you review the video
because quite often sometimes the people
will not even look at the video that
they're in court for that ticket and
then when they look it on everybody gets
to view the video that's in court and
they all go oh yeah you really um you
know were didn't come to a complete stop
and so yes that's that's when that light
is triggered and when that second
picture is taken thank you the second
part of my question is if we move
forward with a if we move forward with a
pilot program uh red light photo
enforcement would that include
assessment of before and after uh
accident rates around those
intersections sure yes because because
we've already done a lot of the the pre
right we've already given you a bunch of
the anecdotal information as far as
those intersections and what collisions
and infractions have been happening or
even citations um have happened even to
present day and then what would happen
is we would also do those afterward that
pilot program or after a period of time
was in place so then we can bring it
back to the council and say is this good
to implement permanently or should we be
done with that pilot program and either
look at other intersections or
discontinue the process thank you I will
ask if there are any more questions oh
the yes Deputy council president de
Michelle uh thanks um you know know over
the years I've heard a lot of complaints
about the Ingress and egress at uh Grand
Bridge Elementary in the highlands and
that they speeding going through there
and um I just heard parents seem to
think that that's a very dangerous has
there been any evaluation of putting a
speed camera um on uh is that Park Drive
um I don't know that there's been
evaluation but we're clearly we're
definitely open to different options and
if we're going to do one survey it's not
not that they couldn't come in and do a
survey at different at two different
locations if that's something that that
might Council was wanted to look at you
might yeah we either talk to the school
district or the PTSA there but I
certainly have heard a lot of complaints
and worries and concerns about you know
it's a straight shot and so a lot of
people don't pay attention to the speed
there um it might be something worth
pursuing just to see if there would be
interest in in having that happen sure I
I think the only reason that possibly it
hasn't is because of the level of
traffic like the have volume um but I'll
let Administration uh yes uh we would
just ask if you make that part of the
motion oh okay that'd be very helpful
all right great
thanks council member Joe do you have
another question yes thank you um
building on uh Deputy council president
D Michelle's question about roundabouts
uh with respect to the stop lights um
I'm just wondering if an evaluation is
done to make sure that we're not putting
a stop light a red light camera in an
intersection where the signals might be
revamped or upgraded or anything like
that in advance so that we're not you
know putting a camera up and then have
to redo it later I'm sure you're
watching out for that and uh if you have
any comments on that I'd appreciate it
but just a a concern that came to mind
sure of course no we would definitely
keep that in the in mind with the city
because the engineering of that is would
be a huge part of the implementation of
any of those great thank you very
much if there's no further questions
then I will ask uh clerk Geer whether
there uh are any members of the public
still online and whether we can find out
if anybody wishes to make public comment
on this item before we
deliberate we no longer have anyone from
the public with us virtually well that
is disappointing
all
right let's Dis Let's discuss
it um well again thank you so much uh
Chief Schwan for the
presentation um I when I heard that this
topic was going to be on the agenda I
immediately said I bet we need cameras
on Newport way it's really in my mind at
least because I travel that road
practically every day with definitely a
safety issue there we've got lots of
young kids that travel back and forth to
isqua Valley Elementary and um I
definitely think that's something that
we need to pursue even though I have had
a traffic ticket on Newport Way so this
could be I could be working against
myself here but I definitely would
support uh us going forward with looking
at that uh and then the second question
should we look at um possible uh
intersections for red light cameras yes
I'd like to learn more about that and
have that evaluated further so I would
support moving forward with that as well
thanks thank you Chief Swan thanks for
taking time out of your busy schedule to
come educate us about this topic
um like Deputy council president D
Michelle I travel Newport Way um every
day and
uh when there is a police officer
sitting by the storage uh business right
there um filling out paperwork even if
they're not doing active speed zone
enforcement um it does noticeably slow
down the traffic to the limits that are
probably there for the 20 M an hour um
during the the school um session um but
we can't be there all the time and our
police officers shouldn't be expected to
be in one location all the time they
have community caretaking uh uh business
to take care of and and obligations and
we appreciate that active um patrol and
active
um way that our officers are visible in
the community throughout uh each day um
so in general I'm in favor of uh going
ahead with a schools own camera on
Newport Way um uh like Council Deputy
council president D Michelle it will
probably catch me at at some point um
but I had kids that went to isqua Valley
and they're now um going to the high
school and middle school and they're on
Second Avenue and I do feel a little
safer um having my kids walk to school
through that area because there is a
speed camera there before and I didn't
let my kids walk to school uh along
Newport because of uh maybe it was
because of their age uh they were
certainly younger but uh the the speeds
there did cause some concern for me as
as I was contemplating uh Public Safety
and and the health and safety of my my
family so I would be in favor of looking
at uh Cameron Newport Way Northwest um I
would like us to study uh on the second
issue traffic cameras for a red light
photo program um I certainly would like
us to make sure that we're doing a cost
benefit analysis in terms of um the
number of accidents that are there
certainly don't reflect all the red
light violations that we have but the
numbers for the accidents are not that
high I'd be interested to see uh what
we're able to kind of far it out in
terms of how many red light violations
we estimate based on either a sample uh
size or or some type of camera
monitoring for a distinct period I'd be
interested to see you know an estimate
of how much uh that is going to improve
uh Public Safety for us in the red light
camera uh intersections that we're
considering thank
you council member G
Michelle thank you this is actually a
question for City administrator Bob
quitz uh I know that uh red light
cameras can sometimes be very
controversial and so I'm just wondering
would this require us to do a public
hearing um and um and how would we
inform the public that we're considering
this uh thank you Deputy council
president um our next step would be uh
if the count if the committee agrees
with the recommendations is to work with
vendor they I guess a very standard
package of of evaluation once we have
that we would come back to you um with I
think answers to most all the questions
that you've asked uh this evening u in
speaking with the city attorney um she'd
indicated that there would need to be a
finding by the council um that
a camera is necessary and so there would
there's not a specific report or
anything like that that just needs to be
a finding we would provide you
additional information beyond what
you've seen tonight but you've kind of
gotten the basics of the of the
enforcement information from the police
department um so that would come back as
far as the public notice I think we
would when we come back to the committee
with the vendor information we would
have information about that um you know
I I think as you've all have mentioned
there are some areas here this will be
an inconvenience for some folks Newport
Way I imagine we'll hear lots of grief
initially from that but uh we'll come
back with a more detailed plan when we
come back to the committee probably in
the early
fall it looks like our City attorney
might want to add something to that not
really much to add just that's correct
and it would be kind of like findings
that you would adopt in an ordinance
that I'm sure you've seen before
findings a fact but just based on the
analysis that staff will provide so you
don't have to go do your own uh study
we'll we'll provide it for you and if
you agree with it then you can just
adopt
it thank you did you have a further
question all right so
um my thoughts on this uh yes sure we
should do the speed uh on Newport this
is a problem that's going to go away
when we add three roundabouts um people
won't just unless they're hot roding
they're not those roundabouts are going
to solve this problem
but you know when I first got on Council
in January of 2010 we were talking about
adding those three roundabouts and
they're not there yet so uh it's a good
it's a good stop Gap in the in between I
think we should do the uh red light
cameras uh uh study uh pilot program um
I think there is some debate the extent
to which red light cameras actually
reduce accidents uh I'm looking at a
Crosscut PBS study that was done about a
year and a half ago analyzing in a
number of King County cities and they
said that uh speed cameras absolutely um
but tra but uh stoplight cameras the the
results the studies are mixed as to the
impact and that's why I asked the
question about making sure that we would
pay to have some analysis done on the
data um so such that after some amount
of time we have a good idea of whether
uh those have an impact or not on uh on
public safety and then I don't know what
to do about this Park Drive question but
let me tell you Park Drive is I as a
driver find Park Drive to be the most
speedy section of Road uh in the city I
used to ride a motorcycle full-time and
I routinely would have to pull over by
the side of the road because people were
tailgating my motorcycle which is
incredibly dangerous and so I don't know
what we want to do with this but Park
Drive people just go too fast and the
fact that we have a school there makes
me think if if Park Drive is not part of
our initial consideration it should be
part of a it should be there somewhere
because people are going too fast on
that stretch of road and it's it's to me
it's even worse than Newport Newport yes
people drive too fast but but Park Drive
I I don't get it but it it we should fix
it
so do you have what you need from us
this evening
uh yes just an affirmative um mention
from the committee regarding Park
Drive I I see two
nods well the question would be what
what do we want them to do because
they're they're saying that right now
they they want to do one for Staffing
need they're going to do you're going to
do an analysis of further analysis of
Talis and I believe if we could do the s
a similar study of the Park Drive we're
not recommending Talis at this point oh
because the the you know we have some
good fresh information traffic
enforcement information there and we
don't believe at this point it warrants
it it may at some point in the future
yeah uh but if the council would like us
to pursue two School additional school
safety zones at Highland's elementary
school as well as on Newport Way would
just it would appreciate at least the oh
consensus of the
committee I was mishearing what you said
so what you're saying is we would add
Park Drive to the Newport Way right so
that we would ask the vendor we would
also go back to the police department
and gather up basically a package of
information to come back to the
committee in a few months yes I would
like to see that okay my vote is yes and
I would too but I see I see russle
furring his brow and just so I'm clear
that that would be a limited study
between on Park Drive between Central
Park Lane Northeast and the area that is
um down the hill from from the school
zone of where it ends it wouldn't be the
whole length of Park Drive is that
correct I I don't think legally we could
do that so I think we would look at
whatever the lawful zone is and then
have the vendor make a recommendation
just the placement of the all right
under those limited circumstances I
would support adding Park Drive to the
study sounds like you have the consensus
from the council thank you very much or
from the committee I should say uh Chief
thank you for presenting this evening on
this always great hearing from you on
this and any public safety issues C
administrator anything else for us this
evening all right any final closing
comments great me me all right with that
we are adjourned