King County Sheriff Patricia Cole-Tindall and the county filed a legal complaint with the United States District Court on Monday, Mar. 11, 2024, to determine the constitutionality of the latest expanded anti-camping ordinance passed by the Burien City Council earlier this month.
Burien’s expanded camping ban, Ordinance 832, is unique in establishing broad exclusion zones (see map here) where unhoused persons risk committing a crime just by being present.
“After completing a legal analysis of the ordinance, the King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) has serious concerns about the constitutionality of the ordinance, especially when the exclusion zones are determined solely at the discretion of the City Manager and can be changed at any time,” the Sheriff said, and adds:
“The ordinance significantly departs from a previous anti-camping ordinance to essentially ban individuals from engaging in vaguely defined “living space” activities in large parts of the city at any time of day, for any purpose, and brings with it serious questions of the law’s enforceability and constitutionality.”
The Sheriff’s complaint asks the Court to determine whether the interlocal agreement between Burien and the Sheriff’s Office requires the Sheriff to enforce unconstitutional laws, and to determine if the updated ordinance is in fact unconstitutional. The City of Burien contracts with the King County Sheriff’s Office to provide public safety services as the Burien Police Department.
“The promise I made as a sworn peace officer calls on me to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution. Doing our job for the communities we serve requires legal clarity on the constitutionality of the laws we’re asked to enforce,” Sheriff Cole-Tindall said. “When Burien hastily passed this new ordinance without consulting with us or legal experts, they put the rights of their residents in jeopardy. A ruling from the Court is a crucial step in ensuring that the rights of all people within our jurisdiction are protected and upheld, and our deputies have the guidance they need to do their work.”
Erin Overbey, Chief Legal Advisor for the Sheriff’s Office, cited Martin v. Boise and Johnson v. City of Grants Pass as precedents for this issue at a press conference held on Monday afternoon, Mar. 11, 2024 (see video below).
It appears that the City of Burien was taken by surprise by Cole-Tindall’s complaint filing.
“The filing of a complaint in federal court has come as a surprise as the City of Burien was actively working to schedule a meeting with King County Sheriff Cole-Tindall later this week, per the Sheriff and King County’s request, to discuss the existing issue between our respective agencies,” the city said in a statement. “It is unfortunate that King County and King County Sheriff’s Office have chosen to cast the shadow of a federal complaint over a meeting that was intended to seek a mutually benefiting solution to a complicated issue. Despite these actions, the City of Burien looks forward to meeting with King County Sheriff Cole-Tindall later this week.”
“In 2021, voters in King County decided to remove their right to vote for a Sheriff,” Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling told The B-Town Blog on Monday. “This is the undemocratic situation that occurs when a higher government official gets to dictate what occurs in local governments. The City of Burien pays millions of dollars to the King County Sheriff’s Office with the expectation they will enforce our city codes and laws to keep the community safe and publicly accessible for all. Right now, the County Executive Dow Constantine and the appointed Sheriff is prioritizing politics over public safety. Burien is going to work to re-examine our Inter-Local Agreement with the Sheriff’s office. And if that doesn’t bear fruit, we will begin discussions to create our own city police department.
City Withholding Payments to KCSO
According to the Sheriff’s complaint, the City of Burien is withholding ILA payments to the KCSO, and has directed Burien’s financial staff to “place a hold on any invoices received from the King County Sheriff’s Office until further notice.” This action came in direct response to the City Manager’s directive “not process any invoices from the King County Sheriff’s Office” and not to “issue any payment to the King County Sheriff’s Office” – all before Cole-Tindall filed the complaint on Monday.
The complaint is the first step in resolving the constitutionality of Burien’s unique homeless ordinance. A motion for preliminary injunction addressing the Burien ordinance will be filed later this week for the court to decide in early April.
Video
Below is video from the Sheriff’s press conference held at the King County Chinook building on Monday afternoon, where the Sheriff said that the legal complaint is “not political” (running time 17-minutes, 13-seconds):
City of Burien Responds
Below is full text of the City of Burien’s response to the Sheriff’s complaint released on Monday, Mar 11:
“The City of Burien was disappointed to learn of a complaint filed today in federal court by King County and King County Sheriff’s Office against the City of Burien. The filing of a complaint in federal court has come as a surprise as the City of Burien was actively working to schedule a meeting with King County Sheriff Cole-Tindall later this week, per the Sheriff and King County’s request, to discuss the existing issue between our respective agencies. The date and time of the meeting – confirmed through a telephone call between Sheriff Cole-Tindall and City Manager Bailon this afternoon – was set for the morning of Wednesday, March 13, 2024 in advance of a prior engagement set on the calendar of Sheriff Cole-Tindall.
“It is unfortunate that King County and King County Sheriff’s Office have chosen to cast the shadow of a federal complaint over a meeting that was intended to seek a mutually benefiting solution to a complicated issue. Despite these actions, the City of Burien looks forward to meeting with King County Sheriff Cole-Tindall later this week.”
Mayor Schilling Responds
Here’s full text of Burien Mayor Schilling’s response:
“In 2021, voters in King County decided to remove their right to vote for a Sheriff. This is the undemocratic situation that occurs when a higher government official gets to dictate what occurs in local governments.The City of Burien pays millions of dollars to the King County Sheriff’s Office with the expectation they will enforce our city codes and laws to keep the community safe and publicly accessible for all. Right now, the County Executive Dow Constantine and the appointed Sheriff is prioritizing politics over public safety. Burien is going to work to re-examine our Inter-Local Agreement with the Sheriff’s office. And if that doesn’t bear fruit, we will begin discussions to create our own city police department.
“Ultimately, this is about outcomes. This County Executive was first elected in 2009, when I started high school. Now, as a 30-year-old Mayor, we are seeing that for years problems have not been solved. Instead, King County has the highest level of homelessness ever, the highest number of overdose deaths in the country, and continuously increasing taxes for programs that do not show results or solve problems. This ordinance is copied from the City of Bellevue. Numerous cities in Washington State have ordinances of this nature. What this action signals is the County Executive saying local communities shouldn’t be able to utilize law enforcement to get folks the help they need. And instead perpetuates failed policies surrounding allowing folks on the streets without getting them into shelter and services. Shelter and services that this County Executive has had since 2009 to establish.
“I believe in government accountability and individual responsibility. This isn’t a liberal or conservative problem. The issue of homelessness, drug addiction, mental health issues, and criminal activity cuts across traditional partisan divides. We need to ensure that we our prioritizing treatment over tents, and public safety over politics so that we can get folks off the streets and into shelter and services.”
This is ridiculous. Did they sue Bellevue, too, for a similar law? The sheriff needs to
lose her job for wasting money and time.
have enough to do with crime everywhere?
Burien acting like King Co was the one who escalated this, when Burien has been busy publicly criticizing the sheriff.
So the city manager decided unilaterally to defund the police? Where is the outrage over that?
Thank you King County for preventing the criminalization of the unhoused by Burien city council. Despite the claims of mayor Schilling , providing adequate housing, mental health and policing are political issues that are well defined along partisan lines. These policies have been systematically de-funded by conservatives at the federal and local level (remember the “drowning government in the bathtub” folks, well they succeeded) and have left communities like Burien holding the proverbial bag. Now NIMBY conservatives also want to further cut loose the unhoused who are often afflicted with many of the conditions not addressed by what’s left of welfare. There is admittedly no solutions to these systemic problems at the local level but we at least could be humane with the unhoused.
The sheriff should be fired. She is hired to enforce the laws of the municipalities that contract with the services she is managing. She is not a politician, a lawyer, a judge or a jury. Stay in your lane sheriff and do your job if you are capable, which apparently you are not.
Let’s see more housing, and yes fascism, in Burien
The Sheriff is correct. Cities may not just pass any ordinance they want, particularly if it violates state or federal law. In this case, I suspect that if this were to go to court, Burien would lose. Courts have ruled more than once that if you don’t provide reasonable shelter for the homeless you cannot make their camping illegal. It violates their constitutional rights. These ARE people and they deserve the right to be able to BE somewhere. Cities may not like that there are citizens that are unhoused, but it is their duty to provide reasonable care and services. The KCSO is right that they should not be and cannot be required to enforce conflicting laws.
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How about the Burien homeless I’m about to describe: the ones who are openly refusing to get help even when there are homeless groups willing to take them in ?????????
These are the same homeless that I’ve witnessed multiple times pooping/peeing openly on the public walk, lighting up the pipes and tinfoil in front of business’ doors, screaming/yelling and having mental breakdowns on the public sidewalks – whether that’s from drugs or disease its TBD and this has been going on for a long time now as all of us know
WHAT DO YOU DO WITH HOMELESS THAT REFUSE TO BETTER THEIR LIVES AND ONLY DESTROY/ENDANGER THE ENVIRONMENT AROUND THEM????? Should you just allow it and not have public ordinances inside inner cities? ( Wake up, some people shouldn’t be allowed to govern…. ever. )
I find it interesting that the defenders of the homeless, have no ties to downtown Burien. They go home to their families and secure house.
They pontificate. About the poor homeless, but why don’t they just take them home?
They could solve the issue in a weekend. I suspect it is because they really don’t want drug addicts and mental ill people in their back yard. But they have no problem putting them in my back yard. Very hypocritical in my opinion.
I would also ask this, unfettered homeless have destroyed every downtown city core they taken over, why would Burien be different?
Talk is cheap, come down here, and clean the poop and pee, pick up the needles, pick up the filth, or take them home. Perhaps that might change your point of view.