Volume 12, Issue 4
Last Call For Award Nominations: Galen Sparks and Susan Rocha Awards for Outstanding Public Service by an Assistant City Attorney
Galen Sparks served as an assistant city attorney and dedicated public servant for the City of Dallas for over 27 years. He distinguished himself in a variety of areas of municipal law and generously shared his time and expertise in a way that substantially enhanced the professionalism of his fellow municipal lawyers. The TCAA “Galen Sparks Award for Outstanding Public Service by an Assistant City Attorney” is intended to recognize and honor a current or former assistant city attorney for significant and distinguished career achievements in the field of municipal law.
The TCAA board grants one award each year for an assistant city attorney from Texas’ eight largest cities (Arlington, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, or San Antonio).
Susan Rocha served as an assistant city attorney for the City of San Antonio early in her career, and went on to be a trailblazer in municipal law. She served as president of both the Texas City Attorneys Association and the International Municipal Lawyers Association, and was a mentor and role model for many attorneys in the field due to her hard work, many achievements, and – of course – irrepressible personality. The TCAA “Susan Rocha Award for Outstanding Public Service by an Assistant City Attorney” is intended to recognize and honor a current or former assistant city attorney for significant and distinguished career achievements in the field of municipal law. Because of her work with smaller cities, the TCAA board grants one award each year for an assistant city attorney from any city other than Texas’ eight largest cities (Arlington, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, or San Antonio).
The recipients of these awards will be honored at the TCAA Summer Conference in South Padre Island. In addition, TCAA will waive the recipients’ seminar registration fee and reimburse the recipients up to $500 for transportation and lodging for the meeting. The deadline to apply to receive the award at the 2017 Summer Conference on June 14-16 in South Padre Island is April 23, 2017. For downloadable criteria and a nomination form, please go to the Awards/Certifications link on http://texascityattorneys.org/.
Last Call For Award Nominations: TCAA Outstanding Mentor Award
Just about every lawyer has a mentor who guided his or her career. In an effort to recognize the efforts of a special municipal law mentor, the TCAA Board of Directors recently created the TCAA “Outstanding Mentor Award.” The award is intended to recognize and honor a municipal attorney for his or her significant and distinguished mentoring achievements related to young attorneys and their practice in the field of municipal law.
The nominee must have demonstrated the qualities of a mentor to one or more young municipal attorneys by, for example: (1) serving as a role model to young municipal lawyers in his or her community; (2) fostering the development of young municipal lawyers; and (3) significantly contributing to the profession and/or the community.
The recipient of this award will be honored at the TCAA Semi-Annual Meeting in South Padre Island. In addition, TCAA will waive the recipient’s seminar registration fee and reimburse the recipient up to $500 for transportation and lodging for the meeting. The deadline to apply to receive the award at the 2017 summer meeting in South Padre Island on June 14-16 is April 23, 2017. For downloadable criteria and an application form, please go to the Awards/Certifications link on http://texascityattorneys.org/.
2017 IMLA Annual Conference Scholarships
TCAA, in conjunction with the International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA), is proud to continue the Susan C. Rocha Memorial Scholarships for the 2017 IMLA Annual Conference.
In Susan’s memory, TCAA will provide four $2,000 scholarships to the 2017 IMLA Annual Conference for in-house city or assistant city attorneys only. Two will be from the eight largest cities (Arlington, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, or San Antonio), and two will be from the remaining cities. The conference will be in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, October 14-18, 2017. (For more information on the conference, go to www.imla.org.)
The winners will be drawn from lots. There can be only one winner per city, and winners from previous years are not eligible. The deadline to apply for the drawing is 5:00 p.m. on May 8, 2017.
If you wish to submit your name for the drawing, please send an email to Heather Ford at ford@tml.org. Include your name, position, city, address, phone number, and email address.
2017 Summer Conference!
The 2017 Summer Conference at the Schlitterbahn Water Park and Resort, South Padre Island, will take place on June 14-16, 2017.
The TCAA Summer Conference is the best CLE program created specifically for municipal lawyers.
Earn your entire year’s participatory CLE requirement with a 13 hour (including 2 ethics hours) program! Bring the family to experience everything the Schlitterbahn Water Park and Resort has to offer and join us as we continue the TCAA tradition of excellence.
For more information, including housing, and to register for this conference, please go to: www.tcaasummerconference.org.
Hotel Information: The online hotel reservation portal is under the “General Information” tab.
Conference Topics Include:
- Contracts Immunity Update
- Employment Law Update
- Defending Emergency Exception Cases
- Legal Framework for Municipal Fees
- Handling PIA Requests
- Regulating Your City’s Homeless Population
- Tax Foreclosed Properties
- Hoarding
- Regulation of Drones
- Emerging Right of Way Issues
- Legislative Update
- And More!
Conference Events:
- Wednesday, June 14 Welcome Reception hosted by Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta, LLP, and McCreary Veselka Bragg & Allen, PC
- Thursday, June 15 Reception hosted by McKamie Krueger, LLP
- Friday, June 16 Shrimp Boil hosted by Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal Hyde & Zech, PC
TCAA Adds Online Membership Directory
Looking to find the contact information for a fellow TCAA member? You can now find it easier than ever using the convenient TCAA membership directory, available here:
http://members.tml.org/Web/Online/Directories/TCAA_Directory.aspx
TCAA Adds Paralegal and Law Clerk Memberships
At the 2016 summer conference, the TCAA membership approved the addition of two new membership classes. A person is eligible to be a “Paralegal Member” if he or she meets the definition of “paralegal” as promulgated by the State Bar of Texas, is employed by an active, associate, or honorary member, and is interested in the representation of municipalities and the general improvement of municipal law practice and the purpose of TCAA. A person is eligible to be a “Law Clerk (Student) Member” if he or she is enrolled at an accredited law school and is interested in the representation of municipalities and the general improvement of municipal law practice and the purpose of TCAA. For more information, visit http://texascityattorneys.org/tcaa-membership-information.
85th Legislative Session
The 2017 legislative session began on January 10. Stay informed by checking TML’s Legislative Update weekly for summaries of city-related bills and associated articles.
2017 TMCEC Prosecutors Conference
The Texas Municipal Courts Education Center Prosecutors Conference will be offered June 26-28, 2017, in Addison. The brochure and registration form are available here.
IMLA Membership
Membership with IMLA doesn’t just mean discounts to their events. It’s much more than that. Click here to view a quick video about IMLA membership.
FREE CLE!
2016 TCAA Summer and Fall Conference Sessions are Available Online
The TCAA Online Seminars are FREE, allowing TCAA members who are city attorneys, assistant city attorneys, or attorneys who regularly practice municipal law to view videos of past seminars in a single−session format. Viewing of the session allows attorneys to receive participatory CLE credit with the State Bar. To view available seminars, please visit www.tcaaonlineseminars.org. (Use the case-sensitive password “FreeCLE” to gain access to the sessions.)
If you would like to have an article considered for publication in the TCAA newsletter, please send your request to Christy Drake-Adams at christy@tml.org.