BOISE -- For years, the cities of Meridian and Garden City have been at odds with Ada County over obligations for courthouse costs and services.
Ada County officials want the cities to obey a 22-year-old court order to either build their own magistrate courts or help pay for services the county provides.
But mayors from both cities argue their taxpayers are being unfairly singled out in the process.
In her recent state of the city address, Meridian Mayor Tammy de Weerd characterized the dispute as a "disagreement with the county."
"It's serious, it's looming and if it goes a direction other than our desired outcome it will impact Meridian and Garden City taxpayers unfairly," she said.
Ada County Commissioner Jim Tibbs says the issue stems from a 1994 court order that's still a point of contention.
"A judge ordered that the cities did have to pay for magistrate court. They had to provide their own magistrate court services," said Tibbs.
Cases heard by magistrate judges in Idaho range from infractions, to small claims, to traffic and misdemeanor criminal cases.
Right now, all of that happens at a centralized location: the Ada County Courthouse.
"We're providing those services now," said Tibbs. "The citizens pay taxes and that goes into part of it, but Boise City, again, is paying the county to provide the magistrate court services. Meridian, Garden City, both large enough, significant contributors to the magistrate court cases and it's time that they pay their fair share."
Tibbs told KTVB the city of Boise pays close to $1 million a year for Ada County to provide those services.
The cost would work out to about $660,000 a year for Meridian and Garden City combined -- a cost that so far, hasn't been enforced.
Or there's another option.
"If they want to build a magistrate court, that's totally up to them," said Tibbs.
Meaning some cases would be heard in another courtroom in the county.
"What doesn't make sense is to decentralize it and then confuse the residents in our county on what courtroom do they go to," said de Weerd.
Garden City Mayor John Evans says it also doesn't make sense that taxpayers in other Ada County cities aren't included in the order since they use the courthouse as well. They impact the courthouse case load, too.
"The city of Eagle is 25,000 people now. City of Garden City is 11,000 people. Kuna is larger than Garden City," said Evans.
"This is a countywide issue and it ought to be dealt with under that countywide umbrella," he added.
We asked Commissioner Tibbs whether Kuna, Eagle and Star will face the same issue.
"At some point they will," he said.
An administrative hearing with district judges will be held soon to try and help sort this all out.
But Mayor de Weerd hopes the cities and the county can agree on at least one thing before then.
"We would love the county commissioners to stand with us and say the 1994 order is immaterial at this point," she said.