A very, very long line of residents await entry into the courtroom for today’s continuation of the draining of the lakes hearing at the Guadalupe County Justice Center.
(Seguin) — It looks as though an agreement for a temporary injunction MIGHT be the outcome during today’s hearing regarding the draining of the lakes. However, a temporary injunction is just that, “temporary,” and that would mean a future trial date between all parties.
Over the weekend, GBRA’s Attorney Lamont Jefferson initiated a settlment discussion for the pair of plantiffis opposing the draining of the area hydro electric lakes. A list of bullet points regarding its settlement was provided to each of the attorney’s seeking a temporary injunction and/or temporary restraining order against the river authority.
Jefferson says the GBRA agreed to the tempoarry injunction order which would not lower spillgates. But in exchange is asking to keep folks off the lake until reports from the experts regarding the safety are received. He says the receipt of those reports would then help it determine what parts if any could be open to activity. Jefferson did state that he felt that the plantiff’s seemed receptive in ordering the temporary injuction order but were not in agreement with eachother on the plan and wanted to see if a settlement could be reached.
Attorney Ricardo Cedillo, who is representing 10 residents from Lake McQueeney and Lake Placid, says while they do see this as a good faith effort on behalf of GBRA, he wanted to make clear that he and the other Attorney Douglas Sutter, who is representing 295 plantiffs, are 95 percent in total agreement and not so separate as Jefferson might think. But he states that “the devil is in the details” and hopes to bridge that five percent gap when they return to the courtroom this afternoon.
As for Sutter, he says he is “caustiously optimistic” and is very concerned about putting this off and again reminded the court that if they agree to this temporary injunction, they, of course, will still have to go to trial.
Both Cedillo and Sutter also felt that it was unfortunate that all good faith efforts to reach a settlment prior to last week were not seriously considered by GBRA. Cedillo says his clients would rather have spent their money on finding a solution than on the cost of lawerys.
The attorneys also believed that they did not have sufficient time to go over the details of the settlement in time for today’s 10 a.m. hearing. The pair of attorneys are now meeting privately with GBRA and with each other to see if they can iron out the fine details of what GBRA is proposing so that they are able to move forward with the Temporary Injunction. Today’s hearing will resume at 1 pm at the Guadalupe County Justice Center.