Family attorney Sagar Chada vows to hold city accountable

Thank you to the committee here today, to Speaker Menon, to Councilman Marte, to Councilman Shulman.

My name is Sagar Chada.

I'm a partner at Liakis Law.

I represent the estate and the family of Ramach Mahajan.

I just want to, first of all, point out what everyone else here has already said, but to highlight the fact that this incident was entirely avoidable.

Ramach's death will not be in vain.

He came to this city as a tourist, and he died as a son of this city.

And we will hold the city accountable for the decades of failures in enforcing and preventing this action from taking place.

Hitching posts, tethering points, no safety devices whatsoever to secure a 2,000-pound animal from consistently getting spooked and bolting.

This incident could have been avoided.

It should have never happened.

And if this law had been passed a year ago, on June 1st, 2026, there would be no horses in this city.

Ramunsh, unfortunately, passed away on June 17th.

His death will not be in vain.

This is not about the workers and the union members.

They, too, have called for better safety.

The Conservancy for decades has called for better safety, and we will hold the city accountable.

Thank you.

All right, thank you very much to all of you.

Now, are there any other family members that are here before I move on?

Okay.

I want to also recognize that we've been joined by Councilmember Murano, and now the administration will present their testimony.

So thank you.

Will the administration come up?

I will turn it over to the committee council to administer the oath.