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Multnomah County Circuit Judge David Rees rejected an attempt by Escuela Viva Community School to halt the opening of the county’s nearby Coordinated Care Pathway Center, clearing the way for it to begin operation at 7 am Monday, as planned.
Escuela Viva owner Angie Garcia had sought a temporary restraining order against the opening, arguing that Multnomah County officials, meeting in secret, had failed to develop plans to safeguard her staff and students from people arrested for drug possession and taken to the center for “deflection” as an alternative to the criminal justice system.
“The judge concluded that the preschool suing the county had failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of their claims,” Multnomah County said in a press release. “The result is that the Pathway Center operations can continue as planned.”
David Watnick, Escuela Viva’s attorney, said the preschool was considering its options.
“We are disappointed in the result,” Watnick said. “We don’t think the judge got it right. The ruling gives public officials the green light to determine how the criminal justice system operates without the public transparency required by law and without public transparency for the citizens impacted by these decisions.”
In documents filed with the court, Escuela Viva hammered County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, Sheriff Nicole Morrissey O’Donnell and District Attorney Mike Schmidt for meeting behind closed doors with other officials to plan the deflection center.
“Not surprisingly, these confidential meetings produced baffling decisions which would not have been made had defendants subjected their meetings to public scrutiny, as the law requires,” the motion for the restraining order says. “Individuals in the throes of fentanyl addiction will be transported by police far from home, to a facility one block from a preschool, and be free to leave the facility at will.”
Escuela Viva’s Pine Street location serves about 75 children up to age 5, who play outside on the school’s playground every school day, Garcia said in a declaration filed with court documents. Her school offers tuition-free attendance through Multnomah County’s Preschool for All program.
“We fear that the deflection center will invite drug use, drug dealing, and violence into our neighborhood and onto the sidewalks surrounding Escuela Viva,” Garcia wrote. “Staff fear that they, and the students they care for and protect, may be subject to physical violence in such an environment. And staff fear that students may inadvertently be poisoned by fentanyl from paraphernalia discarded by deflection center users on or near Escuela Viva’s playground.”
The deflection center, to be housed in an old printing warehouse on Southeast Pine Street at Sandy Boulevard, has generated opposition from neighbors since the county announced plans to open it in July. After overturning Measure 110 and recriminalizing possession of illegal drugs, the Oregon Legislature encouraged counties to set up pathways to treatment for people wishing to avoid jail. Multnomah County chose to do deflection at a dedicated center.
County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson led closed-door meetings with law enforcement officials and city staff to craft the county’s deflection plan. Earlier this week, Vega Pederson wrote to a committee of neighboring businesses and residents to tell them that she planned to open the center Oct. 14, even though the county and the committee hadn’t reached a “good neighbor” agreement guaranteeing the conduct of operations there.
The county had planned to open the deflection center on Sept. 1, the day that arrests for possession recommenced under House Bill 4002, but it couldn’t remodel the building in time. Instead, the county has been operating a mobile deflection program that has served more than 70 people. The success of that program shows that the county doesn’t need a fixed location, Escuela Viva says.
“It is not obvious why defendants would ever require a round-the-clock center to serve two individuals a day, but it is clear that defendants will not be harmed if they are required—at least on a temporary basis—to continue the mobile-only deflection model they have so far employed with self-reported success,” Escuela Viva says in its motion for a temporary restraining order.
In her letter earlier this week, Vega Pederson sought to allay concerns about the center.
“Security will remain on site 24/7 and patrol the perimeter of the facility and parts of the surrounding neighborhood,” Vega Pederson wrote. “As discussed, those patrols will be able to report suspected criminal behavior and high-impact encampments, and will be able to intervene under Oregon’s Good Samaritan law. In addition to security, we are committed to safety and clean up beyond the facility.”
Escuela Viva says that’s not good enough.
“The county’s draft operational plan proposes an enforced security perimeter that covers little more than the deflection center itself, and ends immediately across the street from Escuela Viva,” Watnick, the attorney, wrote. “The plan acknowledges that security will not have authority to respond to crime or other dangerous activity beyond the perimeter.”