Tri-Cities lawmaker pulls proposal to split Superior Court after judges raise concerns

A Kennewick state lawmaker has killed his controversial amendment aimed at separating Benton-Franklin County Superior Court.

Republican Rep. Matt Boehnke told the Herald on Friday he was getting calls from Tri-City judges concerned about the measure, and decided the best decision was to “hit pause for now” so there can be a more discussion on the issue after the 2020 legislative session is over.

Benton County Commissioner Jerome Delvin asked Boehnke to add the language to the House’s proposed supplemental budget.

However, Franklin County commissioners and bicounty Superior Court judges were caught off guard by the action.

When the issue first came to light in news media reports and Boehnke began fielding questions from the community, he changed the language in the proposal to ensure Franklin County would have to agree to any plan to split court operations before the Legislature took action.

As the measure moved along, however, Boehnke said he decided to completely remove it altogether this year.

Similar law proposed

Benton County Commissioners have wanted to split bicounty services from Franklin County for some time, but only the Washington state Legislature has the authority to sever the system.

The counties have shared judges since 1951 and before that they operated a joint judicial system with several other Eastern Washington counties.

Under the current arrangement, the state pays part of the salaries of the court’s seven judges. The judges, along with the bailiffs and court stenographers, move between the two counties as assigned by a court administrator.

Each county has its own courtrooms, prosecutors, clerks and computer systems.

When the issue of dissolving joint court operations came up four years ago, the seven Superior Court judges made their position very clear.

They were unanimously opposed.

“Your attempts to undo this structure would undermine the court’s ability to serve the public, at an increased cost to the taxpayers,” said their letter at the time.

They’ve argued that the bicounty approach makes more efficient use of the judges’ time, and both counties benefit when they unite to apply for grants, such as the ones that fund the juvenile justice system.

Benton County commissioners have raised questions about the cost-sharing arrangements and have moved to separate other shared agencies.