City Considers Merging Courts With County Officials To Study Whether Combination Would Save Money, Promote Efficiency

City officials are in the infant stages of considering whether to merge Municipal Court with Spokane County’s District Court.

The city wants to see if it can save money and eliminate duplication by combining the courts, which deal with minor criminal offenses and traffic violations.

“It’s something from a management position we’ve been interested in for a long time,” said Judge Mike Padden, who presides over both courts.

District courts have jurisdiction over both criminal and civil matters. They have criminal jurisdiction over misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors and criminal traffic cases such as DUIs, hit-and-runs and driving with a suspended driver’s license.

Municipal courts also handle misdemeanor violations of city ordinances.

The county oversees District Court, while the city operates Municipal Court.

District Court has a $3.7 million annual budget, and Municipal Court has a $2.9 million budget.

In 1982, the city and county entered into an agreement in which the city paid the county for 2-1/2 full-time judges to operate Municipal Court.

Shortly thereafter, with the advent of jury trials for all misdemeanor offenses, the allocation of judges to the Municipal Court increased to four full-time judges, based on an annual caseload of 12,500 misdemeanor cases, 30,000 traffic and 80,000 parking violations.

Some issues to be addressed are staffing levels, flow and scheduling of cases and case-tracking systems in place for both courts, said Assistant City Manager Dorothy Webster.

Webster said no one knows how much money, if any, would be saved.

Recent examples of city and county department mergers include combining the administrative functions of the two probation departments in 1997, and the formation of the Regional Domestic Violence Task Force in 1998, to provide a mechanism for intensive prosecution of domestic violence cases.

The city also is looking to study whether other criminal justice departments can be more efficient, Webster said.

Other departments include:

Jail/Geiger - Officials will study who is in jail and why, as well as whether attorneys and judges can find accurate information on defendants and inmates. It also will gather information on average sentences and how long people spend in jail awaiting trial.

Probation/Screening - The city will review the relationship between city and county probation functions and look for potential repetition.

Public defender - Officials will study whether attorneys have the information they need and whether they get it in a timely manner.