King County Sheriff Patricia Cole-Tindall and King County announced Monday they have filed a complaint in U.S. District Court to ask a judge to weigh in on the constitutionality of Burien’s recently tightened camping ban.
The county is asking the court to determine whether the updated ordinance is unconstitutional and whether the interlocal agreement requires the Sheriff’s Office to enforce it, if so. In the meantime, Burien’s camping ban will go unenforced and the city is accusing the county of violating its responsibilities to the city.
This is the first time in the county or the sheriff’s history to take such an action against a municipality in federal court, said Cole-Tindall. The county has contracted with Burien to provide its law enforcement since 2000, according to the written legal complaint.
“When Burien hastily passed this new ordinance without consulting with us or legal experts, they put the rights of their residents in jeopardy,” Cole-Tindall said in a news release Monday afternoon.
Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling disagreed with the sheriff’s characterization.
“First of all, we did consult with legal experts. He’s called our city attorney,” Schilling said. “I have faith in our city attorney that what we drafted is, in fact, within the law and able to be enforced by city police and by city staff.”
On March 4, Burien City Council added more restrictions to its nearly 6-months-old camping ban and added a map that identifies numerous “buffer” zones, where people are not allowed to sleep.
The Sheriff’s Office interprets these changes as more expansive than previous versions, according to Erin Overbey, general counsel for the King County Sheriffs Office.
“We’re really asking the court to define the scope of what our deputies can permissively do,” Overbey said by phone Monday afternoon.
Overbey said a judge could weigh in on the case as early as April. Cole-Tindall said the instructions to her staff are clear until then.
“We are not enforcing this ordinance until we get a decision,” she said.
This legal action comes after the King County Sheriff’s Office told the city of Burien on Friday that it would not enforce Burien’s tightened camping ban until it was able to fully review “the constitutionality of the ordinance.”
King County officials have expressed concern over the past year that Burien’s handling of a small homeless population could violate a federal court decision, called Martin v. Boise, that says that cities cannot punish people for living outside if they have nowhere else to go. Many cities deal with that decision by ensuring there is available shelter when enforcing anti-camping rules.
The changes wrought by that decision are in question as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a related case, called Johnson v. Grants Pass.
Until Friday, people living outside in Burien were required to pick up their belongings and tear down their tent by 6 a.m.
In recent months, Burien has strengthened its camping ban from restricting people from staying in public parks to the current version, which bans overnight camping within 500 feet of several public features across the city, leaving a limited patchwork of places where people would be allowed to sleep at night.
These “critical areas” include schools, day care centers, libraries and parks, and could change, based on the city manager’s discretion, according to the ordinance.
It is among the most restrictive camping bans in the state.
In response to the county’s Friday announcement, Burien called the decision “a violation of the contract terms,” adding that Burien’s City Manager Adolfo Bailon has the authority to provide direction to law enforcement services within the city.
According to the complaint, after some back and forth on Friday with Cole-Tindall, Burien leaders told staff to “place a hold on any invoices received from the King County Sheriff’s Office until further notice” — essentially refusing to pay the agency.
The city of Burien released a statement Monday afternoon, saying the filing came as a surprise because the city was “actively working to schedule a meeting with King County Sheriff Cole-Tindall.”
This winter, a large portion of people living unhoused in Burien found a temporary place to live at a sanctioned encampment that was hosted by Burien’s Oasis Home Church and run by the Burien Community Support Coalition, a nonprofit organization.
That location closed and over the last month, the South King County city of about 50,000 people has seen a return of people sleeping on sidewalks in its downtown core, which is where Burien’s original debate over how to handle unsheltered homelessness began more than a year ago.
This is the second time that Burien’s camping ordinance is being questioned in court.
Three homeless people and the nonprofit Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court, claiming the ordinance “banishes” homeless people and inflicts “cruel punishment” that violates Washington’s constitution.
Alison Eisinger, executive director of the coalition, said the nonprofit is working with lawyers to amend its complaint to reflect the most recent ordinance changes. She said it plans to refile the amended complaint in the near future.
“I’m really impressed that we are not alone in our profound horror at what the Burien City Council passed into law,” Eisinger said Monday. “And I appreciate that people whose job is to uphold the law can distinguish between laws that are possible to uphold and those that are not.”
On Monday morning, Cydney Moore, board member of the Burien Community Support Coalition, said that she visited with unsheltered people who are camping in tents in downtown Burien, across the street from City Hall, and found it calm.
Because the Sheriff’s Office is not enforcing Burien’s camping ban, people are currently allowed to leave their tents set up on the sidewalk throughout the day.