Maple Valley is looking for a new location to use as a municipal courthouse due to overcrowding at the Enumclaw courthouse.

At its Nov. 28 meeting, the City Council authorized City Manager David Johnston to sign a new one-year interlocal agreement with Enumclaw to use its municipal courthouse. It changed the hourly rate for use from $612 to $654. Maple Valley will also be directly billed for public defender, interpreter and jury fees.

Johnston explained that this was due to Enumclaw losing money, as the rate hadn’t changed since 1999, when the two cities first signed the agreement. Last year, Johnston and Finance Director Tony McCarthy met with Enumclaw’s finance director and administrator, where the costs were discussed.

“They said, ‘You know, we’re losing money (from the agreement),’” Johnston said. “That started the discussion.”

The conclusion reached by both cities was that Enumclaw’s courthouse is not large enough to accommodate the increased use by Maple Valley.

“They’ve expressed some concerns that the volume of their business is getting bigger than the facilities can handle, and they’re correct,” Johnston said. “With the volume of business that our growing community is sending down there it is really tough on their small lobby and small facility. We empathize with Enumclaw and respect their concerns.”

Although the city would like to build a new courthouse, it probably won’t come along in the near future.

“I think right now we’re not in a position to have one,” Johnston said. “As we take a look at city hall, in the next eight to 10 years that will have to be looked at.”

In the meantime, an in-house committee has been formed to look into possible options, which will convene in January.

The committee will make its first recommendations in June.

Johnston compared the situation to that of Covington, whose City Council voted in June to move inmates from the King County and Buckely jails to SCORE located in Des Moines starting Jan. 1.

“We’re in the same ball park,” Johnston said. “We have the same jail issues. We’ll have to find a new court, so it’s best to have a court near a jail, and we have to take a hard look at that.”

The interlocal agreement with Enumclaw expires at the end of 2012.