In June, lawyers from all sides in lawsuits over Annapolis public housing met to search for common ground.

If that mediation is successful, it will free the next mayor to move past an ugly history. If it fails, it could hobble the city with a crippling payout and more years of litigation.

Because it is almost certain that if this dispute — now in its fifth year — gets into court, Annapolis will lose.

“There really ought to be a resolution here,” said Joseph Donahue, the lawyer who brought the lawsuits. “Let this thing be done.”

Wednesday morning, former Annapolis Alderman Jared Littmann agreed.

“My vision is to resolve those suits. I’d prefer a settlement,” he said in a forum hosted by the Anne Arundel County NAACP and the Annapolis housing authority. “I don’t know what that settlement looks like.”

Alderwoman Rhonda Pindell Charles, his opponent in the September Democratic primary, told organizers she’s been questioned in the lawsuits and was advised not to attend the forum.

She removed any doubt about who advised her in an email to me: “If you have any further questions, comments, etc., then please contact our City’s Office of Law.”

I’m exploring problems the next mayor and City Council will face when they take office in December — both leftover challenges from Mayor Gavin Buckley’s seven-plus years in office and new ones.

And this is a painful hangover, one that could destroy Buckley’s legacy as a visionary mayor. A settlement could cost the city $52 million, but losing at trial could mean hundreds of millions more.

Right now, no Republican or independent candidate has declared for mayor, and there’s no sign of anyone with a secret plan for victory in November. That puts this problem squarely on Littmann or Pindell Charles.

Her silence is a lawyer’s choice, not a mayor’s. Voters should demand an answer.

Does she want to settle or to continue the course set by Buckley?

“We’re going to fight until the end,” Buckley said, “and we’ll see what the judges say.”

Five years ago, Annapolis and the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis, or HACA, made a fool’s bargain. They settled claims that conditions in some of the 800 townhouses and apartments owned by the authority harmed 52 families.

The city allowed mold, broken ceilings and other problems to persist, the families claimed, by exempting the authority from its annual health and safety inspections of rental properties.

City Attorney D. Michael Lyles argued the units were owned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and outside city jurisdiction.

Rather than go to court, the authority and the city split the cost of a $1.8 million settlement. But they failed to secure protection from lawsuits by other public housing residents. Worse, no money went to solving the underlying problem.

Donahue made an identical claim on behalf of two more residents the next year. A federal judge certified it as a class action lawsuit in 2023, and the city now faces more than 1,500 plaintiffs.

Buckley calls Donahue and other attorneys involved greedy. Donahue says his goal is to address the city’s historic neglect of its poorest residents.

Mayor after mayor ignored the authority’s problems until Buckley’s predecessor, Mike Pantelides, started inspections.

Buckley, saying authority leaders asked him to halt inspections that they warned would create a repair schedule they couldn’t afford, stopped them.

His administration sued the authority, which isn’t named in the lawsuits, and the authority sued back — casting a shadow over their partnership in a federal redevelopment program.

State lawmakers eventually required the inspections, and — just as predicted — the authority’s leadership warned it was headed for ruin because it had to close units it couldn’t afford to repair.

That’s when state Sen. Sarah Elfreth — since elected to Congress — arranged a $3 million bailout involving city, county and state funds. That same week in February, all sides agreed to mediation in hopes of resolving the lawsuits.

Buckley said he regretted the first settlement and opposes another.

“Because it’s just math, right?”

If the math of that first settlement holds, a resolution would cost the city almost a year’s worth of property tax revenue. It could be structured over several years, but it would sting even if state and federal aid weren’t shrinking.

If the city loses in court, all 1,500 plaintiffs would get a trial to determine their individual damages — years of litigation and a financial penalty many times worse.

Buckley’s thinking is hard to square. He’s worked toward “One Annapolis,” not one for public housing residents and another for everyone else.

The mayor still has time to direct Lyles to settle and structure the payments over a decade. He would leave office a hero — the mayor who addressed historic failings at a reasonable cost — and free the next mayor to reinvent public housing in Annapolis.

To argue that it’s not his job is ludicrous. The city created the authority. The mayor appoints the Board of Directors, which hires the executive director. The city runs its pool and helped support it through the pandemic.

Most importantly, these are city residents most in need of help.

The housing authority is broken, and there is too little affordable housing to keep people from being forced out for cheaper rent.

Littmann said he wants to create a housing czar, and argues that his central pitch — making planning, permitting and other government jobs work better — could attract more affordable housing.

Without Buckley’s support, mediation will fail and jeopardize a better future.

“Because we settled last time, now they’ve seen dollar signs,” Buckley said. “They’re not going after HUD. They’re not going after HACA. They’re just going after what they view as a soft target. So, we’re not going to be a soft target anymore.”

This mayor can still fix this. If he doesn’t, the next mayor should replace Lyles and settle.

Anything else will be a historic mistake.