Lawsuit Claims CPCC Hid Info About Public Safety Training Facility
Suit also alleges acts of retaliation against opposing community members, violations of First Amendment
Despite President Dr. Kandi Deitemeyer’s repeated insistence that no more public outreach is necessary for a planned public safety training facility on Central Piedmont Community College’s Levine campus in Matthews, the school’s Board of Trustees now faces a lawsuit regarding its lack of transparency around the project.
Filed by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice on behalf of several private residents who have been calling for school officials to answer questions about the planned facility, the lawsuit claims the CPCC Board violated North Carolina’s Open Meetings law by holding its discussions and making its decisions about the facility behind closed doors then retaliating when members of the public started asking questions.
Recently renamed “Community Lifeline” by developers but known as “Cop City” by opposition groups, the project will be split into two parts.
The main development will include training facilities for law enforcement, fire and rescue, EMS, forensics, detention and telecommunication staff on 24 acres northeast of the existing campus that was gifted to the college by Hendrick Automotive Group last summer.
That portion will include a single-family residential home, a townhouse, a convenience store, a burn building, a vehicle burn area, an entrapment space, and an indoor firing range. Another related facility to the west of campus will include a driver training course for first responders, taking up 14 acres of existing Central Piedmont property.
Mecklenburg County has allocated $116 million of the project’s $118 million estimated total cost.
While the idea for the project was first proposed in 2022, CPCC did not announce it until July 2024, according to the lawsuit.
After becoming aware of plans for the public safety training facility, students and community members opposed to the idea launched Stop Cop City CLT, a decentralized movement that began with an Instagram page, where they post any available information about the planned development, questioning the school’s involvement and the need for the facility.
Residents have opposed the development for a range of reasons including environmental issues, concerns about the presence of a firing range on campus, and the need for broader police reform.
When community members began to raise questions and demand answers about the facility by attending public Board of Trustees meetings, CPCC limited access and threatened those in attendance with criminal charges if they were deemed disruptive, the lawsuit claims.
It adds that officials failed to provide agendas for its meetings and illegally went into closed sessions to have discussions about the project and make decisions out of public view.
As reported by Queen City Nerve in March, two women, one of whom a part-time student, were banned from campus after attending a meeting in search of more information that month. Queen City Nerve was present at the meeting and saw no antagonistic behavior from either of the banned parties.
Mina Ezikpe, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, was one of the women banned from campus and said CPCC later retaliated against her by contacting her employer.
“Being banned from a public campus and having my employer contacted just because I attended a meeting is more than retaliation — it’s an attempt to intimidate,” Mina Ezikpe said in a release announcing the lawsuit on Wednesday. “This is about more than a building. It’s about our right to speak up and be involved in decisions that affect our communities.”
The lawsuit asks that the court stop CPCC from continuing its unlawful meeting practices; nullify the decisions that occurred during its closed sessions; and hold CPCC accountable for violating the First Amendment rights of two plaintiffs.
“We showed up at a public institution — the second largest community college in North Carolina — to ask questions about a huge project being planned for our backyard, and instead of answers, we were met with closed doors, silence and retaliation,” said Xavier Torres de Janon, another plaintiff. “CPCC’s Board didn’t just shut out the community — they shut down transparency, accountability and our right to be heard.”
CPCC President Dr. Kandi Deitemeyer has been tight-lipped about the project, though in one rare public statement during a Jan. 28 Q&A at Queens University she insisted that no more public outreach would be done as the project was already in the works.
“I do not have to hold a public hearing because the money has already been appropriated and the project has already been approved,” Deitemeyer said in that instance. The students who questioned Deitemeyer about the project were later asked to leave the forum.
When asked if anyone at CPCC was willing to comment on the lawsuit on Thursday, a spokesperson responded, “As you can imagine, a filing of this length will take some time to review — and we are doing so with our legal counsel.”
UPDATE: On Friday, April 25, CPCC provided Queen City Nerve with a full statement about the suit: “Our commitment to the residents of Mecklenburg County and the first responders who serve them will not waver. Central Piedmont strongly disagrees with the allegations outlined, which are based on inaccurate claims. We will respond more specifically in court. We stand by our history of striving to comply with public records and open meeting requirements as a steward in the community. Our free speech policy provides for robust speech and debate while maintaining a respectful and secure campus environment.”
Read more: Community Members Speak Against ‘Cop City’ Construction in Matthews
In addition to violating the state’s Open Meetings law, the suit claims CPCC and other defendants — including Deitemeyer and three unnamed officers who banned Ezikpe from campus — violated public records law and the First Amendment.
“CPCC’s disregard of North Carolina’s Open Meetings Law threatens core democratic principles,” said Janki Kaneria, counsel for Justice System Reform at SCSJ. “Backrooms and closed meetings do not further the public’s interest. The public is entitled to information without fear of retaliation or intimidation.”
An email from Deitemeyer to members of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners from April that was included in the 259-page lawsuit states that construction has already begun at the site.
Annie Keough contributed reporting to this story.
