USOC lawsuit discussion hushed

The Colorado Springs City Council shut the public out of a meeting Monday to discuss a lawsuit stemming from the highly touted but now troubled $53 million deal to keep the U.S. Olympic Committee headquartered in the Springs.

After the hourlong meeting, council members were mostly mum about the discussions.

"We're working very hard to reach a settlement on the lawsuit. That's all I can tell you, but we are working hard," Councilwoman Jan Martin said.

The closed-door discussion comes before a Thursday deadline for the city to respond to the lawsuit, which was filed in March by LandCo Equity Partners, the developer in the project.

LandCo is accusing the city and the USOC of failing to live up to their end of the deal.

"Obviously, we're talking about the different aspects of the lawsuit, how we could potentially get it settled, and how that would be settled and structured," Councilman Scott Hente said. "Obviously, we had to talk about the timeline because you're absolutely right, there is a deadline of Thursday in there."

Mayor Lionel Rivera declined to comment.

Hente said city officials want to provide the public more information about what's going on but are under a federal judge's order to keep the discussions private.

"We don't like having closed sessions any more than anybody else does," he said. "There is frustration among our citizenry. I'm sympathetic to that.

"But until this stupid lawsuit goes away, we are bound by a judge's order to keep that confidential.

"I like going up to Denver to go to the Rockies' games. I like going up to go to plays. But I don't want to go up to stand in front of a judge and tell him why I violated his order."

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