The Daily Hustle: 8/2/10

The reverberations continue from City Council's decision not to settle the civil lawsuit brought by the family of Nathaniel Sanders II against former cop Leonardo Quintana. Late Friday, Mayor Lee Leffingwell, a prominent vote against settling, issued a statement outlining his thoughts.

STATEMENT BY MAYOR LEE LEFFINGWELL REGARDING THE NATHANIEL SANDERS II SETTLEMENT

  Last night the Austin City Council voted 4-3 to allow the legal case surrounding the death of Nathaniel Sanders II to proceed to trial.  I joined the majority in voting against the proposed settlement.  

This was perhaps the most difficult decision that this Council has faced over the past year, and it’s easy for me to see how reasonable people would disagree about the best path forward.   I don’t condemn anyone's point of view or their vote.  

This was a tragedy for the Sanders family, and a tragedy for Austin as a whole. Unfortunately, nothing that we do is going to change that.   That much is simple.  

But the facts of the case are complex, as evidenced by the different conclusions that different people and groups have reached after reviewing the facts as we know them.  

I think it was reasonable, from the taxpayer's perspective, for the city’s legal team to have recommended a settlement that they believed could be less than the possible cost to taxpayers to move forward with litigating the case.  I understood the business case.  

I also understood the emotional appeal of settling.  Some have argued passionately that this settlement would have helped to heal the Sanders family, and I do not discount the importance of that.   My heart goes out to this family.  If there was something meaningful that I could do to make this situation better for them, I would do it.  

But ultimately, after thinking and talking about it for many months, I believe that what's most important in all of this is to understand as best we can exactly what happened that night, so that we can then do everything possible to prevent it from happening again.  

It would be a huge failure on our part not to learn from this tragedy.  That should begin with determining, as completely and as impartially as possible, exactly what happened.  I believe the most appropriate place to do that is in the courtroom, in front of a jury.  

I’m fully aware that my decision was hurtful to some in the community, and I regret that.  I would like to have been able to make a decision last night that would have perhaps provided some immediate relief to people who I know are suffering.   

But I believe that our larger and longer-term responsibility – as difficult as it may be emotionally – is to make a full, fair and final determination about exactly what happened, so that we can then get on to the work of trying to keep it from happening again.

So where does this leave us? Randi Shade, one of two backers for settling at a lower amount, said this weekend she feels a settlement still might be possible. We'll see, although with the flames of tension so fanned, it's hard to see that far into the future. The Chronicle will have lots more in print on Thursday.

What the hell else is happening?

On the city calendar: The Citizens Water Conservation Implementation Task Force meets at Waller Creek Plaza, Room 104, 625 E. 10th, 5:30pm.

The Office of the Police Monitor Citizen Review Panel meets in Council Chambers in City Hall, 310 W. Second, 6pm.

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