Last Call for Award Nominations: Galen Sparks and Susan Rocha Awards for Outstanding Public Service
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” is intended to recognize and honor a current or former city attorney or 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 in-house city attorney or assistant city attorney.
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” is intended to recognize and honor a current or former city attorney or assistant city attorney for significant and distinguished career achievements in the field of municipal law.
The TCAA board grants one award each year for outside counsel serving as a city attorney or assistant city attorney.
The recipients of these awards will be honored at the TCAA Summer Conference. In addition, TCAA will provide complimentary registration for the conference. The deadline to submit a nomination is April 21, 2023. The criteria and the nomination form are available here.
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 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: (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 Summer Conference. In addition, TCAA will provide complimentary registration for the conference. The deadline to submit a nomination is April 21, 2023. The criteria and the nomination form are available here.
2023 TCAA Summer Conference!
The 2023 Summer Conference at Westin Riverwalk in San Antonio will take place June 14-16, 2023.
The TCAA Summer Conference is the best CLE program created specifically for municipal lawyers. Earn up to 13.00 hours MCLE credit (including 2.50 ethics hours)! Bring the family to experience everything San Antonio 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: https://www.tcaasummerconference.org/.
Conference Topics Include:
- Public facility corporations
- Trends in charter initiatives
- Eminent domain
- Public corruption in procurement
- Strategies for addressing houselessness
- Legislative update
- Ethics
- And more!
88th Legislative Session
The 2023 legislative session began on January 10. Stay informed by checking TML’s Legislative Update weekly for summaries of city-related bills and associated articles.
Susan C. Rocha Memorial Scholarship
TCAA, in conjunction with the International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA), is proud to continue the Susan C. Rocha Memorial Scholarships for the 2023 IMLA Annual Conference.
In Susan’s memory, TCAA will provide four scholarships to in-house city or assistant city attorneys to the 2023 IMLA Annual Conference. 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 La Quinta, California September 27 through October 1, 2023. For more details about the conference, go to http://www.imla.org/events/conferences#news.
The winners will receive up to a $2,000 reimbursement for expenses that your city would have otherwise provided for attendance at the conference, including registration, travel, meals, and lodging at the conference hotel. The winners will be drawn from lots. There can be only one winner per city, and winners from previous years are not eligible.
To apply, send an email indicating your interest along with your full name and contact information to alyssa@tml.org. The deadline to apply for the drawing is 5:00 p.m. on May 12, 2023.
2023 TCAA Fall Conference: Call for Speakers
The Texas City Attorneys Association invites all attorneys interested in presenting at the 2023 TCAA Fall Conference, in Dallas, to submit your ideas to Evelyn Njuguna at evelyn@tml.org by May 19, 2023. This year’s conference will be held on October 5, 2023. Questions? Contact Evelyn Njuguna at evelyn@tml.org or 512-231-7400.
SAVE THE DATE – UPCOMING TCAA EVENT!
The 2023 TCAA Fall Conference will take place on October 5, 2023, in Dallas, and will be held in conjunction with the TML Annual Conference.
TCAA Online Membership Directory
Looking to find the contact information for a fellow TCAA member? You can find it using the TCAA membership directory, 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.
Continuing Legal Education
2022 Summer Conference and 2022 Fall Conference
These TCAA online seminars are FREE, allowing TCAA members who are city attorneys, assistant city attorneys, or attorneys who regularly practice municipal law to view the videos from the conferences in a single–session format. Viewing a session allows attorneys to receive participatory CLE credit with the State Bar. To view these seminars, please visit 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 Amber McKeon-Mueller at amber@tml.org.