Officials: King County budget cuts "seriously jeopardize" criminal-justice system

Cuts under King County's proposed 2009 budget would "seriously jeopardize" the criminal-justice system's ability to serve the public, law-enforcement and court officials said at a town meeting in Shoreline Monday evening.

While a few of the cuts would help streamline the system, many would eliminate vital programs, putting public safety at risk, King County Sheriff Sue Rahr, Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, District Court Presiding Judge Barbara Linde and Superior Court Presiding Judge Bruce Hilyer told about 30 people at the Shoreline Convention Center.

"A few years ago, I was really proud of our system," Satterberg said. "Now we're seeing it start to crumble."

The budget, unveiled by County Executive Ron Sims last week, aims to close a $93.4 million deficit by cutting funding to all major program areas.

Layoffs and unfilled vacancies by the end of 2008 would cut the county's payroll by about 390 full-time workers out of nearly 14,000. Additionally, 134 employees would be laid off June 30 unless their programs — funded for six months under a "lifeboat plan" — get more funding.

Sims will ask the Legislature for authority to save the lifeboat programs — which include criminal justice and health and human services — by transferring money from other county spending accounts. He also is asking unions for concessions.

Although a significant portion of the proposed cuts for the criminal-justice system fall under the lifeboat plan, Rahr said she is not optimistic. She planned her cost-saving recommendations around the worst-case scenario for her department: about $8.8 million in cuts.

Rahr expects to cut 79 employees, among them two animal-control dispatchers, two gambling and vice detectives, a warrant detective and most drug-enforcement officers. The Sheriff's Office would have to restrict the hours during which citizens could obtain certain licenses and eliminate all investigations of property crimes under $10,000.

The cuts would mainly affect unincorporated areas. Cities that contract for service from the Sheriff's Office and provide their own funding wouldn't be affected, Rahr said. "It's not going to impact our ability to answer 911 calls for help because we're cutting everything else [in unincorporated areas]," she said.

Satterberg said the Prosecuting Attorney's Office would have to convert some felony offenses, such as some drug-possession and property-theft crimes, into misdemeanor cases to save money.

Hilyer said the Superior Court would switch from paper to electronic records. Other possible cuts include family-court workers or the county's drug-court program.

Linde said the District Court has already tightened its belt and there is little left to cut aside from its probation system, the re-licensing court or the mental-health court.

"We turned over every rock," she said.

Noelene Clark: 206-464-2321. Information from The Seattle Times archives was included in this report.