'The Right Result' Was Key to Miers

Miers led the council's efforts to settle a key housing discrimination lawsuit after a federal judge ruled that the city had perpetuated segregated public housing.

Although at one point she criticized the resulting record $118.7 million settlement as so open-ended as to constitute a "blank check," the civil rights lawyers who brought the case credit her with hammering out the guts of the deal and said that Miers's problem was that certain provisions left the city open to liability indefinitely, not the substance of the agreement.

Among other things, the agreement forced the city to demolish or renovate dilapidated minority-occupied housing projects and increase the supply of low-income housing in more affluent, white suburban neighborhoods. Miers subsequently voted to make it easier to prove housing discrimination cases by lowering the burden of proof.

"She pressed hard for solutions, and she was the one who would come up with alternatives," said Mike Daniel, one of the lawyers who represented the plaintiffs. "She clearly perceived the need for a remedy."

The federal judge in the housing case subsequently handed down another important decision, on voting rights, saying that Dallas's election system discriminated against blacks and Hispanics. Opponents charged the judge was substituting his own preferences for the law, but Miers would not criticize him.

After initially supporting a voter-approved plan that was opposed by African American and Hispanic leaders, Miers switched sides and advocated the plan supported by the minority community -- a plan that eliminated citywide seats like hers.

Shortly before her term was up, Miers, reflecting on her two years in office, summed up her approach:

"I want to be respected, and I want to be viewed as being true to my convictions," she told a newspaper. "But I don't much care what people think."

Researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.