Mayor Thomas introduced Municipal Court Consulting Judge Mara Rozzano to Monroe City Council on Oct. 28 during the regular business meeting of the Monroe City Council. Mayor Thomas will be recommending Consulting Judge Rozzano for formal appointment to the position sometime in November, at which point council will be given the opportunity to confirm his recommendation by way of majority vote.
"As you all are aware, we are opening a municipal court, and back in September I had the distinct honor to interview four candidates,GÇ¥ Mayor Thomas said. "We had five or six apply.GÇ¥
Since the judge position is part-time it does not require an election. Consulting Judge Rozzano is currently working under contract to help establish the new municipal court office.
The municipal court will have jurisdiction over all traffic infractions and misdemeanor offenses that occur in the city of Monroe. Currently, such offenses are processed at the Snohomish County Evergreen District Court, located by the Evergreen State Fairgrounds. Monroe Police Chief Tim Quenzer presented the municipal court proposal in front of council in January of 2013 as a method of providing more expedient court services to citizens and reducing costs associated with outsourcing court services.
Civil cases will continue to be managed by Snohomish County's Evergreen District Court.
Municipal Court proceedings will take place every Wednesday-áin Monroe Council Chambers. Alterations and construction of the jury room have been ongoing at city hall for the past few weeks.
The ordinance establishing the new Municipal Court of the City of Monroe will be formally adopted on Nov. 4 at the regular business meeting of the Monroe City Council. The court will begin operating on January 1, 2015.
East Monroe
Also on the agenda for Nov. 4, is further discussion on long-contested east Monroe rezone proposal. The two controversial rezone ordinances, which passed last December, have faced steadfast opposition by a group of citizens who assert that the environmentally challenging piece of property is not conducive to General Commercial zoning.
The group appealed to the Washington State Growth Management Hearings Board in an effort to put a stop to the rezone. In August, based largely on environmental concerns, the board issued a determination of invalidity on the ordinances, remanding them back to the city.
The 43-acre piece of property, located on the north side of U.S. 2 and east of Woods Creek, is owned by Heritage Baptist Church in Monroe. On Oct. 14, after analyzing the costs associated with the supplementary environmental impact statement required by the hearings board, council voted five-to-two to cease pursuit of the rezone.
The following week, Heritage Baptist Church Pastor Thomas Minnick presented to council and informed them that the church would be willing to foot the bill for the additional costs. Minnick then followed up with a letter on Oct. 28.
"At last week's meeting, I spoke briefly on behalf of Heritage Baptist Fellowship. I informed the city of our willingness to assume all of PACE's professional fees to prepare the SEIS required by the Growth Management Hearings Board's ruling,GÇ¥ Minnick wrote. "Let me repeat that PACE has reviewed all the documents integral to the upcoming work. No one knows that property and its associated environmental issues like they do. They are fully prepared to move forward to produce a compliance document.GÇ¥
He expressed that the city's reasoning for ceasing pursuit of the rezone appeared largely based on concerns over cost, and that he hoped to be given further consideration after Heritage's offer to mitigate this concern.
Towards the end of the meeting, Councilmember Kurt Goering requested that further consideration be placed on the agenda for discussion on Nov. 4.
"I think it's worthy of a discussion,GÇ¥ Goering said. "I'd love to at least have that discussion on the fourth. If it goes somewhere then we could take further action, such as rescinding the previous action, and if not, we can leave it where it is.GÇ¥
Goering requested that PACE Engineers, the Kirkland firm responsible for the existing Environmental Impact Statement, be present at the meeting and available for consult.
"If there's some way to work that out that would be awesome, again, just making sure that we have the most information,GÇ¥ Goering said. "I'd appreciate the opportunity, since we'll all be here, to consider it and we can decide to either do nothing or do something.GÇ¥
Councilmembers Ed Davis and Jim Kamp both concurred.
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