Where is King Solomon when you need him?

Bainbridge Island City Council members got an update this week on their quest for a new police station — their most extensive briefing since the council picked Coates Design Architects late last year to serve as consultants for the project — and added two additional sites to their list of potential locations.

But the council discussion this week briefly touched on — but skirted — the looming issue of just how much stuff should be crammed into a new public safety building.

Some on the council wondered aloud if the council had actually come to consensus already (some said yes, some said no) on whether the new facility should not only house a new police station, but a new municipal court, as well.

While cost and location are factors, indeed, we still remain skeptical of the idea that a combined facility is the best choice for Bainbridge.

Simply put, city officials have not presented a compelling case for the need of a new facility for its municipal court. And we believe that was one of the reasons, though there were many, why Bainbridge voters rejected the November 2015 ballot measure for a new public safety facility. The scope was just too much.

It’s beyond debate that a new police station is needed, but the rationale for spending millions of dollars for a new court has been lacking, and still is.

The current location, in leased space in Rolling Bay, is ideal for a department that has fewer than five employees. The building was recently renovated, and there are no issues about parking, which will be a huge consideration if the city moves forward with a combined facility.

It must also be noted that Bainbridge’s municipal court has seen four straight years of a continuing decline in the number of cases filed, the number of hearings held, the number of protection orders filed, and so on.

Why, then, press forward with a combined facility?

We can’t get over our suspicion that supersizing the new public safety building is simply the means for some city officials to keep insisting that a new police department won’t fit if rebuilt in its current location.

The council should make a wise move, and save our time, money and energy, by cutting the municipal court component out of the new public safety building proposal.