Judge sets court date, parameters for Amarillo Civic Center litigation
With the city of Amarillo hoping to move forward with its issuance of $260 million in tax and revenue notes to fund its civic center plan with an expedited judgment, Judge William Sowder set a court date that derails the city’s hope to move forward quickly as a cost-saving measure.
After deciding to allow the combing of both civic center lawsuits into one trial, Sowder took a few days to make a judgment on how soon the case could proceed, what further discovery Amarillo business owner Alex Fairly entitled to in pursuing his lawsuit, and whether it would be a jury or bench trial.
Fairly, in his lawsuit, has asserted that the city’s use of Texas Government Code 1431 was not proper usage of the measure and that the amount of funding dwarfed any other city’s usage of the code. The city’s lawsuit wanted to combine all lawsuits on the matter and for a judge to make an expedited judgment on the legality of its funding mechanism.
With an email sent to both parties, Sowder set the court date for the first week of October during a period not to exceed two days. Originally, Fairly’s team sought to push back the trial to next year while the city was hoping for a court date within the next three weeks. The city has urged that it needs to move forward quickly to secure the funds with interest rates on the rise to keep costs down long-term for taxpayers.
In a setback to Fairly’s request for a trial by jury, Sowder chose to set it for a bench decision. Sowder said in his email that Fairly is not entitled to a jury by the provisions of Chapter 1205 of the Texas Government Code and/or there are only legal issues to be resolved in this case by the court.
Expedited and expanded discovery were allowed in this case, including depositions which must be completed by Sept 23.
Ruling that depositions will be allowed in the case, Sowder stated that each party is allowed two hours of questioning in the case, except for Mayor Ginger Nelson and City Manager Jared Miller who can be questioned for up to three hours in their depositions.
More:Amarillo City Council vote to fund Civic Center; challenged in court
The court found that specific and direct actions of the city of Amarillo acting through its representatives in passing Ordinance 7985 for funding the civic center project were relevant to discovery to determine if any violations of Texas law with its statutes occurred in the city’s decision. Sowder stated in his email that the specific subjective intent or motive of the council was irrelevant. Executive sessions are exempted from discovery other than references in agendas.
Included in expanded discovery for documents, Sowder wrote that the following documents must be provided by Aug. 5
Ordinance 7985, in all drafts and forms, including as presented or proposed prior to the May 24 Regular Meeting and as written afterward.
All correspondence, including emails and texts, attaching and/or discussing drafts of Ordinance 7985.
All agendas, minutes, Amarillo City Council Agenda Transmittal Memos and public notices for all Amarillo City Council meetings during which the City Council discussed, voted upon, considered or imposed the taxes pledged to the payment of the anticipation notes at issue in the lawsuits.
Final report submitted by Garfield Public/Private.
All records and transcriptions of proceedings submitted by the City of Amarillo to the Public Finance Division of the Texas Attorney General’s office in connection with the City’s pursuit of approval and authorization of the notes at issue in this case.
All records and documents, including memoranda and work notes showing calculations regarding the calculation of tax rates necessary to satisfy the pledge of ad valorem taxes purportedly made in Ordinance 7985 and the notes.
All documents, records, meeting minutes and communications involving City Council members or city employees in which all discussions - written and oral – involving the concept of using anticipation notes to finance the Civic Center project involving members of City Council are commemorated or referenced.
When reached for comment on the judger’s decisions in the case the city of Amarillo stated that there will no further comments until the case is settled and will not comment to ongoing litigation.
More:Nelson on Civic Center: This is the hand we have been dealt; I wish we had more time
The last comment from the city on the matter where from Nelson and councilmember Howard Smith who both stated that they believed the city’s actions to be valid and legal and expect the court to confirm that.
Nelson’s last statement on the litigation was:
“I remain committed to the ongoing legal process, and I am certain this process will confirm the validity of the city Council's action related to the tax notes for the civic center. My primary hope is that this matter can be resolved as quickly as possible with the least expense to our citizen taxpayers both in litigation costs and added expense to the project overall.”
Reaching out to Fairly for comment the Globe-News asked him about the decision passed down for the trial by the judge. Fairly said that he was pleased that more time was given, and more discovery was allowed in the process.
“We are grateful to receive both the time and the opportunity we asked for to conduct investigation and discovery to prepare for a fair trial, Fairly said.
In response to the issue of not receiving a jury trial Fairly posed a question to the city.
“In regard to the issue of a jury trial, we believe the pertinent question is why did the city not want one?” Fairly questioned.
Fairly spoke about the importance of the case for city taxpayers and for other cities that try to use this as a funding measure.
“We look forward to digging into the merits of what will become the biggest tax note package in Texas history if the city is allowed to go ahead with its plans,” Fairly added. “It is now time to dig in and get to work which is what our focus will be between now and October.”
As new developments arise in the case look for new reports in the Amarillo Globe-News or Amarillo.com for more news on the matter.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Judge sets court date, combines Amarillo Civic Center lawsuits
