After 2012, the City of Auburn and other cities will have nowhere to put their misdemeanor inmates.

That’s because the Yakima County and King County jails, burdened with overcrowding of their own, have announced they will no longer accept misdemeanor inmates from the cities after 2010 and 2012, respectively.

These approaching deadlines have put the cities that contract with the counties for jail services in a bind.

Now, seven South King County cities — Auburn, Burien, Des Moines, Federal Way, Renton, SeaTac and Tukwila — have agreed to pool resources and build a $100-million, 686-bed jail.

Auburn City Council members voted Tuesday to make the city a party to the interlocal agreement. The Federal Way City Council passed the same ordinance Jan. 6, Des Moines did so on Dec. 22, Burien on Jan. 12, and SeaTac on Jan. 13. The Tukwila City Council also passed the ordinance Jan. 20, and Renton will do so Jan. 26.

“We’re not building just a jail,” Councilman Gene Cerino said before voting yes. “A correctional entity has to have more than just beds. One of the problems we have is that some of the people in jail need other kinds of services, and this would be a complete facility.

“When we send somebody to Yakima because we don’t have the bed space here and they get sick, then Yakima has to take care of that and send us the bill for it,” Cerino said. “It’s kind of like going to the hospital; you never know what kind of bill you’re going to get.”

The agreement calls for the formation of a governmental administrative agency known as the South County Correctional Entity (SCORE), which would issue and serve bonds secured by the full faith and credit of the cities to provide for jail financing. The maximum principal amount of bonds to be issued by SCORE cannot exceed $100 million.

Member cities insist SCORE could build the jail at a lower total cost than each city could provide on its own or by taking advantage of available alternatives. The jail would serve not only the seven cities but federal and state agencies and other local governments that may contract with SCORE in the future to provide correctional services.

City Finance Director Shelley Coleman said the property tax rate would be unaffected.

The proposed site for the jail is in Des Moines. Renton has agreed to act as the host city for the formation of the corporation. Auburn’s current share of the facility is 29 percent, or up to $29 million of the proposed $100 million project. Des Moines share would be 5 percent, Federal Way’s 17 percent, Renton’s 34 percent, Tukwila’s 8 percent, Burien’s 4 percent, and SeaTac’s 3 percent.

“The financial model anticipates the daily cost of bed space at about $110 per day after ‘profits’ from rented beds,” said Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis, adding that the financial model is based upon 2007 adult daily jail populations where the owner cities are using 393 beds and there are 150 rented beds.

Once the City of Renton passes the ordinance, the finance directors will reconvene on Jan. 28 and start preparing for the financing.