Law suit

The management of Clackamas County Service District #1 and the county administrator has

filed a Slapp suit and an injunction against the chief petitioners. The bases of the suit was

authorized by the county commissioners in executive session. The real purpose of the suit

was to block the Citizens Constitutional right to vote on the Clearwater plan and to

intimidate the petitioners by naming us in the suit as well. The suit goes on to say that the

petitioners would be responsible for damages, legal fees, and court costs.

The basis of the county's suit is a so-called question of whether the commissioners' vote for

the Clearwater plan was an administrative versus a legislative decision, meaning that we

may not have referendum rights in the district. Even though our rights are clearly stated in

the Oregon Constitution and in ORS 451.487, the county administration has chosen to listen

to bad legal advice and has challenge us in circuit court.

When we brought this fact to Larry Sowa and Bill Kennemer (the county commissioners

after they had returned from vacation), they were upset when they found out what really

happened. They immediately told their attorney to remove the damages claims, the court

fees, and they even offered to remove our names from the suit. Since we had already

received the court filing papers and had hired our own attorney to defend us, we had to make

a decision at this point for us and the Citizens of our district: To stay with the case and

defend the Citizens right to vote, or to accept the county's injunction and take our chances

with a county attorney on the referendum question. We chose to stay with our attorney and

defend our case.

The county commissioners could have done a number of things before going to court to

resolve this matter if they wanted to:

They could have dropped the suit and paid our attorney fees.

They could have cleaned house at the county and fired those involved.

Or...they could have called for an election giving us our right to vote.

It was their choice, and they did nothing because they wanted to see if they could beat us.

______________________________________________________________________

We went to court, beat the county, and this is a Summary of the Results:

Damages claim: Dropped by the county commissioners

Injunction: Court ruled against county in pre-trial motions

Administrative question: Never ruled on by the court

Initiative Petition: Court ruled against county. We have the right to!

______________________________________________________________________