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Medical Lake approves interlocal court agreement with Airway Heights; filing fee language amended
Summary
The City Council approved Resolution 25-7-58 to contract municipal court services with Airway Heights, amended the filing-fee wording to "not to exceed $1,542," and discussed case-transfer mechanics, collections and anticipated annual savings of about $40,000.
The Medical Lake City Council unanimously approved an interlocal agreement to contract municipal court services with the City of Airway Heights, with a late amendment specifying that the court filing fee would be "not to exceed $1,542." The resolution (25-7-58) replaces the city's prior arrangement with Cheney Municipal Court and includes expanded indemnification language, updates to case-transfer timing and consolidated per-case compensation language.
City staff explained the changes at length during the council discussion. Key contractual edits include removal of redundant language in the agreement's purpose section; a provision delaying manual case transfers until Airway Heights completes its statewide case-management conversion (anticipated by June 2026); and a clarified indemnification clause requested by Medical Lake.
On compensation, staff explained the new model uses a per-case filing fee intended to be inclusive of prosecution, public defense and electronic monitoring. The agreement lists a filing fee figure of $1,542; councilors moved and approved an amendment to change the phrasing to a filing fee "not to exceed $1,542" to reflect that Airway Heights will finalize its 2026 per-case calculation during its budget process.
Council members asked how open or collection cases would be handled. Staff said all active municipal cases would transfer to Airway Heights once the case-management system push is available; outstanding cases currently in collection would remain with Cheney Municipal Court until the transfer to avoid manual re‑entry costs. Staff explained the manual-transfer charge (a stated $200 per hour fee in draft language) could be avoided by waiting for the system conversion and automated transfer.
Financial impact and cost-savings were discussed. Council member Schafer, speaking from finance committee review, said the consolidated per-case model would produce roughly $40,000 in annual savings by folding prosecution and public-defense costs into the interlocal arrangement.
Councilors discussed therapeutic-court and probation services; staff said Airway Heights operates a therapeutic (specialty) court model and has probation and wraparound services that would be available to transferred cases. Staff also noted some cases close within months and others (e.g., criminal cases or therapeutic enrollments) could remain open and require one‑off coordination between the parties.
After debate and the amendment to the filing-fee language, the council voted to adopt Resolution 25-7-58 with the "not to exceed $1,542" wording. No further amendments were recorded.
Ending: The agreement will take effect according to the contract timeline; staff will return with details on which open cases remain in Cheney collections and any prorated costs for prosecution and defense for those cases.
