The Bellevue City Council on Monday extended its contract to keep misdemeanant inmates at King County Jail through 2016, buying more time to develop a permanent plan.
The agreement includes a new fee structure that could cost an additional $50,500 by the end of 2011. However, the city is free to house inmates at other facilities if it chooses.
The county put its contract cities on notice nine years ago to find their own jail space by 2012, due to capacity concerns. But a drop in felony bookings over the past three years allowed for a deadline extension.
Bellevue has been working with a consortium of 23 cities in North and East King County to plan for a new regional jail that would serve all of those municipalities.
Bellevue intergovernmental relations director Diane Carlson said Monday’s contract extension is not an indication that the city is backing out of its work with the multi-jurisdictional group.
“It’s not a major change in direction,” she said. “It just gives us more time to make a decision and make sure we have beds available.”
Potential sites for the new regional misdemeanant facility include Bellevue, on 116th Ave. NE between NE Fourth and NE Eighth streets, Seattle, Shoreline, and unincorporated King County, near Redmond.
The multi-city planning group is completing an environmental-review process, and expects to identify a preferred location by the end of this year.
Bellevue is studying additional options, like contracting with Yakima County or SCORE – a new misdemeanant jail that that will open in Des Moines next year to serve seven South King County cities.
The city may also develop its own lockup at a location such as City Hall.
Early estimates indicate a new regional misdemeanant jail would cost $174 million.
Carlson said it’s unlikely that any group or city could agree on a site and build a new holding facility before the city’s contract extension with King County expires in 2016.
Plans for the SCORE lockup came about quickly because there was little controversy surrounding the location, and the site had a willing seller in the Port of Seattle, Carlson said.
Few people get excited about a new jail coming to their city. In Bellevue, residents have raised concerns about inmates escaping or being released on local streets.
