The Sons of the Confederate Veterans and the City of Memphis are headed to mediation that will hopefully resolve the dispute concerning the removal of the city’s statutes.  Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle ordered the sides to mediation and told them their efforts need to be completed by mid-March.  Neither side is obligated to agree to a resolution in mediation, but they have been ordered to attempt to resolve the issue outside of the courtroom.

The order to attempt mediation was given the same day the case was put on hold until a hearing by the Tennessee Historical Commission could determine whether the city violated state preservation laws when it sold two parks and the statues contained within to Memphis Greenspace, Inc.  The statutes were removed by Memphis Greenspace immediately after the sale was completed.

The city and the Sons of the Confederate Veterans had originally agreed to mediation over the removal of the statues, but before the mediation could take place, the mayor moved ahead with a plan to sell the parks.

Each side will get a say in who the mediator will be and that decision needs to be made by early February.  Originally, a former state Supreme Court justice had been chosen to oversee the mediation.

The attorney for the city points out that Memphis wants to resolve the problem, but that it can only do so much because it no longer owns the statutes on the land from which they were removed.  The Sons group sought and received a temporary injunction requiring Greenspace to keep and preserve the statues, but the judge refused a request that the group be able to inspect the statutes for damage.