Escuela Viva Community School sued Multnomah County and several elected officials on Monday, alleging they made plans behind closed doors to establish a drug rehabilitation center in the Buckman neighborhood, violating Oregon state assembly law.
The preschool is a block from the diversion center being built in an old printing warehouse at 900 SE Sandy Boulevard. Parents and teachers protested the plan, saying security was too weak to prevent drug users brought to the facility from becoming a threat to students and staff.
The diversion center was born out of House Bill 4002, which re-criminalized drugs by repealing parts of Act 110. To avert a new battle in the war on drugs, the legislature required Oregon counties to divert people arrested with drug-consumable amounts from prison and provide them with treatment.
Multnomah County opted to build a brick-and-mortar center where police could bring people willing to attempt diversion. County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson led the process that led to the center’s creation, convening private meetings with the district attorney and sheriff, the Portland and Gresham police chiefs, and drug addiction and mental health experts.
“Oregon’s public meetings law expresses a simple but fundamental principle: ‘Oregon’s form of government requires an informed public aware of the deliberations and decisions of governing bodies and the information upon which those decisions were made,'” says the lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County District Court. “Therefore, the law requires that ‘decisions of governing bodies must be made openly.'”
Yet in “blatant violation” of the law, “Multnomah County and its officials held a series of confidential meetings to create a new drug ‘diversion’ legal system for the county,” the lawsuit says. “This closed-door process resulted in, among other controversial decisions, the county’s plan to open a poorly defined and poorly designed drug ‘diversion center’ a block from a preschool.”
The Multnomah County press office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the lawsuit.
Escuela Viva’s attorney, David Watnick, warned earlier this month that the preschool was considering legal action against the county. The lawsuit also names Vega Pederson, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt and County Sheriff Nicole Morrissey O’Donnell.
