The City of Sammamish could save more than $25,000 a year if quit its contract with the King County District Court and transferred its court service needs to the City of Issaquah’s Municipal Court.

And that is exactly what it is looking at doing.

At a Sammamish City Council study session in March, Administrative Services Director Mike Sauerwein displayed figures that indicated Sammamish would have spent considerably less on court costs at the Issaquah Municipal Court over the past couple of years.

In 2008, Sammamish received $91,616 in court-related revenues (tickets and fines, essentially) but paid $101,026 in court costs, for a total cost of $9,410.

Using existing Issaquah Municipal Court fees for the same period, Sammamish would have received $72,857 in revenues and paid $56,152 in costs, coming out $16,705 ahead.

Both the King County District and Issaquah Municipal courts hear infractions and misdemeanors – things like simple assaults, DUIs that don’t cause damage or injury, petty shoplifting cases, as well as contested traffic infringements. According to Sammamish Chief of Police Nate Elledge, these are comprise the bulk of cases filed by Sammamish with the King County District Court.

The Issaquah Municipal Court is located in the same building as the Issaquah Council Chambers at 135 E. Sunset Way.

The King County District Court, which also happens to be situated in Issaquah but is not run by the City of Issaquah, is at 5415 220th Avenue S.E.

As it is doing with its investigation of fire service alternatives, Sammamish is eager to explore options for its court administration that would save money without unduly compromising levels of service.

“As my old statistics professor used to say ‘one year does not a trend make,'” Sauerwein said. But, he added, if these figures are anything to go by, savings were possible.

The City of Sammamish has contracted with King County for its court services since 2006. It is a 15 year agreement that can be revisited every five years. The first five years expires on Dec. 31, 2011, and if Sammamish wants to cancel its contract with the county, it needs to give them 18 months notice.

“When we signed that agreement, there was not any other option, unless we were to build our own court,” City Manager Ben Yazici said. “But here in Sammamish we don’t generate enough cases to make that financially viable.”

In Sept. 2004, the City of Issaquah created its own Municipal Court. However, at the time, state law had not explicitly approved the ability of one city to provide Municipal Court services for another city.

Following legal action involving two Eastside cities in 2006 and 2007, state law was changed to make it easier for one city to contract its Municipal Court services to other cities.

According to Issaquah Municipal Court Administrator Lynne Jacobs, two other cities contract with Issaquah for court services — North Bend and Snoqualmie. They opted to discontinue using the King County District Court and began using the Issaquah Municipal Court in 2007.

Jacobs said she was not aware of any official negotiations with other cities to provide court services, but acknowledged that a number of cities had expressed an informal interest in the court.

Presided over by Issaquah Judge Scott Stewart, the court handled 7,535 traffic and criminal cases in 2009 alone, not including the 4,917 cases generated by the city’s photo-enforcement speeding program. The court stays busy, but the majority of business they conducted there concerns Issaquah businesses and residents. The City of Snoqualmie accounted for 847 cases and the City of North Bend just 234 cases.

“We take in everything that’s given to us,” Jacobs said. “We’re busy, but that’s the nature of the game.”

The court usually generates a positive cash flow for the city’s General Fund, and brought in $1,078,246.27 in 2009, well above court expenses totaling $514,889.18. That is a large increase from years past, mainly due to fines collected from the city’s new school zone photo-enforcement program.

For North Bend and Snoqualmie, the cost of contracting with Issaquah rather than the county is also attractive. For example, in 2009 North Bend owed Issaquah just $7.18, while Snoqualmie netted $8,892.30 once court fees were accounted for and fine revenues were processed.

“I think it’s very reasonable,” Jacobs said of the contract city agreements. “I think they’re very happy with the services.”

Yazici stressed that Sammamish was only investigating its options at this stage.

“As a good, prudent business practice, we do that with all contracts, so we have the time to explore our options,” he said.

Adding a sense of some urgency to the question of court services is the rumor that King County may close its District Court in Issaquah. Yazici said he had not received any direction from the county on the future of the King County District Court in Issaquah, but believed they too would be looking at their own cost analysis, to determine whether the District Court here generated enough money to make its operation worthwhile. Should it close, district cases would likely be split between the District Courts in Redmond and Shoreline.

On the list of things the City of Sammamish needed to discover before making a choice was whether the cheaper service at the Issaquah Municipal Court would come with a reduction in service quality, and whether Sammamish would no longer vote for the judge which serves them.

As well as the cost savings, moving to the Issaquah Municipal Court would also mean a time saving for Sammamish Police. At present, Sammamish officers must transport prisoners from the Issaquah Jail to the District Court. Should they change court systems, prisoners would not need a Sammamish police escort, as the Municipal Court is adjacent to the jail.