April 27 City Council Meeting
Monday’s meeting was a public safety and judicial branch study session. There were five agencies that presented, and a few questions from council members. The presenters also mentioned a number of resources for residents, which are linked below.
KING COUNTY DISTRICT COURT (KCDC)
Judges Rebecca C Robertson, Karama H Hawkins and Raul Martinez and Bardi Martin presented. KCDC is funded by the general fund (property taxes and sales tax, as well as city contracts). The therapeutic courts have other funding mechanisms. The vast majority (33.9%) of KCDC caseload is traffic infractions; parking infractions make up 46.7%. In Kenmore, 61,384 of the 61,625 cases filed were parking infractions (including traffic cameras). This is a 529% increase between 2024 and 2025.
Shoreline-Kenmore Community Court has a resource center to serve a variety of community needs: https://cdn.kingcounty.gov/-/media/king-county/courts/district-court/community_courts/tuesshorelinercschedule-new.pdf?rev=c888f547c6354db3aeff53ec0c4345ba&hash=C25699578E1A62C4640B141C81E8B021
DM Sasson asked how many people just pay their tickets. Presenters said 90% pay the ticket, about 7-10% dispute or ask for a hearing by mail.
Mayor Herbig said that we have had 90-99% drops in speeding in the areas where the cameras are, and is looking forward to expanding the program.
CM Adman asked about the time burden for the disputed vs. non-disputed tickets. Presenters will get back to him on that.
PROSECUTOR UPDATE
Prosecutor Sarah Roberts overviewed the job of the prosecutor and the process of prosecuting a crime. Over 35% of the cases that she has prosecuted in the last 12 months have been domestic violence. She spoke about the concerning nature of the DUI cases, including where collisions have been early in the day with extremely high blood alcohol content.
CM Adman asked how many cases she prosecutes a year. In the last 12 months, it’s 85 cases with 100 charges in total (some may have multiple charges); DUI was 19 charges.
CM Marshall asked how many trials. There was one jury trial; unknown on bench/stipulated trials. Most are resolved without trial.
CM Culver asked about a bill lowering the blood-alcohol content to .05, and assumed that it would up the case count. Response: there is conflicting info on whether someone is impaired on that. Dr Logan said you just don’t have the level of impairment at .05 as you do at a higher level.
PUBLIC DEFENDER UPDATE
Public Defender Jeff McNichols said Kenmore is the only city he works in that asks him to come and talk to them. The number of cases that he sees in Kenmore indicates that it is a safe city.
REGIONAL CRISIS RESPONSE AGENCY
Brooke Bader, director of RCR, joined by Emily Evans who is the crisis responder that responds in Kenmore. This was started in 2016/17 when police recognized that there was a need for social services intervention. They have an advisory board that includes people who have direct experience with crisis response, and need people to join. Kenmore cases are fewer in number than other cities but tend to be more complex. White vs. BIPOC population in responses tends to mirror the broader community. Long-term they see a 51% reduction in jail bookings, 26% reduction in emergency visits and 67% reduction in crisis services events.
CM Adman asked if RCR was 24/7. It has been 0600-0100, so there is a five-hour part of the day that there isn’t service. There is just over one call per day in that slice of time.
Mayor Herbig asked about the crisis center in Kirkland. It has been a bumpy start. It’s important that first responders have access, but right now ambulance services aren’t covered.
POLICE SERVICES REPORT
Full report: https://kenmorewa.portal.civicclerk.com/event/810/files/attachment/624
Presented by Chief Brandon Moen. We have 12 officers, with 3 vacancies, and one detective and one police chief. We have shared supervision with Shoreline, and use their facilities for things like holding cells and “things you usually see in a police station.” The records unit / public disclosure units require the most work right now because we have body cams and they require a lot of redactions. We have some of the lowest staffing for police and we are the 9th safest city in Washington.
They have a new Taser 10 - there are 10 darts that can be fired. It’s a great de-escalation tool; there’s a warning light, and a tone that gets your attention. They are getting good results from it.
Chief Moen talked about the Blue Bridge Alliance, which can provide emergency assistance in a variety of situations. More details can be found here: https://www.kenmorewa.gov/government/departments/kenmore-police-department/bluebridge-alliance
So far, they have been able to review all of the KAPE tickets while on duty (no overtime) but cannot guarantee that will always be the case. The RCR team has helped bring down the number of service calls required. Property crimes are down; DV arrests are down slightly, but a lot are repeats. There was a huge decrease in burglaries, primarily driven by commercial. Bike collisions actually went up this year; pedestrian collisions went down.
CM Loutsis asked about the decline in motor vehicle thefts. Chief Moen said generally criminals have figured out that what they could get away with a few years ago doesn’t work - police will pursue you now. Catalytic converter thefts aren’t as lucrative as they were, so they are down as well.
CM O’Cain asked if there is a percentage of KAPE violations that are rejected. Chief Moen said that absent a technical issue, they rarely get rejected.
CM Adman asked about the kids on e-motorcycles. Chief Moen said that we are better off here than most. Definitely an issue. He advises parents not to buy them for kids.
CM Culver asked about the vacancies and whether we want a more realistic contract. Chief Moen said that three vacancies is abnormal; two has been the norm. FIFA is a big part, but he expects the vacancy to go down. CM Culver asked about the workload of reviewing the KAPE tickets. Chief Moen said there’s an option to have civilians review under supervision, but they are not at that point yet.
Mayor Herbig asked about the priority X calls. Chief Moen said he wasn’t particularly concerned about those since they are such a small number.
COUNCIL COMMENTS
CM O’Cain said that Redeemer church is looking at housing options on their property, and she wanted to call attention to Homestead Community Land Trust that works with religious properties to create housing.
CM Loutsis learned at the town hall that we don’t have a policy for impounding when there is a DUI, and that leaves cars on the side of the road. DM Sasson said that NHUSA is putting together a lunch-and-learn and there will be details on the website.
