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Auburn begins internal planning to stand up municipal court as residents raise due-process concerns
Summary
Council members and the mayor said internal “stand‑up” meetings have begun to prepare Auburn Municipal Court for a planned Jan. 1, 2027 transition from King County; a public commenter urged repeal of city code Chapter 5.22 and proposed a police-run community gun range.
Auburn officials said the city has begun internal “stand‑up” meetings to prepare for the transition to an Auburn Municipal Court ahead of the planned Jan. 1, 2027 transfer from King County.
The change matters because it will require the city to build court operations, technology and procedures now handled by King County; Mayor Nancy Backus said the first internal meeting to identify needed work took place in early June and that “many, many more of those meetings” are expected.
During the City Council’s public‑comment period on June 2, Kobe Clark, an Auburn resident, urged the council to protect civil liberties tied to the court transition. Clark said that “chapter 5 2 2 of the city code requires property owners to inspect apartments for criminal activity on behalf of the city as a condition for leasing their space,” and asked the council to consider repealing that provision to avoid what he described as potential violations of tenants’ and landlords’ constitutional rights. Clark also asked the council to consider “establishing a community gun range operated by our local police department.”
Council members did not take formal action on Clark’s requests at the June 2 meeting. Backus’s report described only the internal planning meetings that have begun: “On the 20 first, we began the Auburn Municipal Court stand up meetings internally to identify all of the areas that we are going to need to work on to ensure that 01/01/2027, we have our Auburn Municipal Court ready to go for the transition from King County District Court.”
The record shows discussion and planning underway but no ordinance, resolution or vote on code changes or on a community gun range during the June 2 meeting. Any formal repeal of a city code chapter or establishment of a city run facility would require future council action, public notice and likely staff reports on legal and budgetary implications.
For now, city officials have signaled the transition is a multi‑year effort with additional internal and public work to come.
