Tribal Council approves grant application to help police better investigate drug-related crimes

By Danielle Harrison

Smoke Signals editor

During its Wednesday, April 22, meeting, Tribal Council approved an application to the U.S. Department of Justice for a grant that, if awarded, will help Tribal Police and its Yamhill County partners better investigate drug overdose cases and related crimes.

The Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant and Substance Use Site-Based Program grant will be for up to $1 million and be used for employee and contractual costs with the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office to administer the program.

“This grant will be used to support proactive investigations in partnership with Yamhill County focusing on illicit opioids, stimulants, overdoes cases and violent crime,” Tribal Grants Program Manager Wendy Sparks said during a Tuesday, April 21, Legislative Action Committee meeting. “Through the partnership, the joint Grand Ronde-Yamhill Street Crimes and Narcotics Team, will address narcotic and violent crime networks, address human trafficking and MMIP cases and pursue prosecutions for overdose related deaths. We will also enhance our existing drug take-back program.”

Tribal Police Chief Jake McKnight said the SCAN Team was formed a year ago after a state law passed making most drugs illegal to use again. Measure 110, approved by voters in 2020, had previously legalized drugs.

“Most drug teams got taken away when Oregon legalized drugs,” he said. “Now, we’re starting these teams back up and so part of this grant will be to pay for one of their street detectives and then partially for one of our detectives. … Part of the agreement when we gave them another detective is that they would work the area over here in Grand Ronde and we’ve already been pretty successful in that already. We’re hopefully going to continue to do so. … If we didn’t have that person on the team, they wouldn’t have to guarantee us that time over here. … We’re in the early stages of trying to build this back up and kind of seeing more where Oregon’s drug crime laws will go.”

McKnight noted that his department has seen a rise in drug overdoses.

“I think that’s based off of different chemicals that are being used to make the fentanyl and the meth,” he said. “I’m also seeing a lot of mixed drugs, where it’s fentanyl, meth and heroin. With these teams, it helps us quite a bit because these investigations can go on for months.”

In other news, Tribal Council:

• Approved terminating a lease with Full Gospel Lighthouse Recovery Services and replacing it with an annual permit offered to the church that will continue to provide space for all of its programming without interruption. The lease termination will return all facility management functions and community use scheduling to the Tribe, to ensure access for Tribal members who want to use the space;
• Approved appointing Sharon Wattier with a term ending March 31, 2027, to the Election Board; reappointing Angey Rideout and Jade Unger with terms ending March 31, 2028, and appointing Matthew Lux with a term ending March 31, 2028, to the Fish & Wildlife Committee; reappointing Darlene Aaron, Joanna Brisbois, Lise Alexander and Kelly Nelson with terms ending March 31, 2028, to the Health Committee; appointing Angey Rideout with a term ending March 31, 2028, to the Powwow Special Event Board; reappointing Marline Groshong and Wes Shaw with terms ending March 31, 2028, and appointing Raymond Petite with a term ending March 31, 2027, and appointing Steve Rife with a term ending March 31, 2028, to the Ceremonial Hunting Board;  reappointing Marianne Blanchard with a term ending March 31, 2028, and appointing Kathy Coley with a term ending March 31, 2028, to the Culture Committee; reappointing Flicka Lucero and Joanna Brisbois with terms ending March 31, 2028, and appointing Josephine Ingraham with a term ending March 31, 2028, to the Enrollment Committee; and reappointing Molly Leno with a term ending March 31, 2028, to the Veterans Special Event Board;
• Approved extending terms of the full Elder Board out by one year: Kimberly Contreras, Melody Wright and Pamala Warren-Chase with terms expiring March 31, 2027, and Darlene Aaron, Serena (Annabelle) Layman and Claudia Leno with terms expiring March 31, 2028;
• And approved enrolling two infants and 24 non-infants into the Tribe because they meet the enrollment requirements in the Tribal Constitution and Enrollment Ordinance.

Additionally, Tribal Council set the agenda for the next General Council meeting. It will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 3, in Tribal Council Chambers and via Zoom, and feature reports about the Tribal Community Development Plan and capital improvement projects.

To watch the entire meeting, visit www.grandronde.org and click on the Videos tab.