Notices and Announcements

Volume 10, Issue 12

2016 Riley Fletcher Basic Municipal Law Seminar Registration Now Available

The 2016 Riley Fletcher Basic Municipal Law Seminar will take place on February 11-12, 2016, in Austin, Texas.  We hope you can join us in Austin, but if you can’t, the seminar will also be webcast live.  For more information or to register, please click here.

2016 TCAA Summer Conference:  Call for Speakers

The Texas City Attorneys Association invites all attorneys interested in presenting at the 2016 TCAA Summer Conference at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort in Bastrop to submit your ideas to Scott Houston at shouston@tml.org by January 22, 2016.  This year’s conference will be held on June 15-17, 2016. Questions? Contact Scott Houston at shouston@tml.org or 512-231-7400.

SAVE THE DATE – UPCOMING TCAA EVENT!

The 2016 Summer Conference at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort will take place on June 15-17, 2016.

Small MS4 General Permit for Stormwater Discharges

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s general permit for stormwater discharges from small municipal separate storm sewers, called the “small MS4 General Permit,” is fully effective.  The permit is part of the Clean Water Act’s program for regulating discharges of pollutants into waters of the United States.  The TCEQ has recently noted that more than fifty cities, counties, and special districts that were enrolled under the previous small MS4 General Permit have failed to re-enroll under the current permit.   Operators of small MS4s that are fully or partially located within an urbanized area as determined by the U.S. Bureau of Census and any previously covered small MS4 must enroll for coverage under the small MS4 General Permit.  Without permit coverage, discharges from storm sewer systems may be violating the Clean Water Act and may be exposing dischargers to liability from citizen’s suits and enforcement actions.  As part of the small MS4 General Permit, dischargers need to develop a stormwater management program that includes six minimum control measures.  MS4s that discharge to impaired waters are subject to additional controls.  If your city failed to re-enroll or has questions regarding the applicability of the permit to its discharges, contact the TCEQ Water Quality Division at 512-239-4671.

IMLA Salary Survey Report is Available

Released in February 2015, IMLA’s 2014 Compensation Report includes salary data for the following job classifications: chief legal officer, deputy chief legal officer, managing attorney, senior assistant (20+ Years), assistant IV (15-20yrs), assistant III (10-15yrs), assistant II (5-10 Years), assistant I (1-5 years), new lawyer with judicial clerkship, new lawyer with law review, new lawyer, paralegal, legal assistant, law clerk, and secretary.  For order forms, please email salarysurvey@imla.org.

Members: $199
Non-Members: $499

Emeritus MCLE Exemption Status Removed

The Supreme Court issued an order dated April 28, 2015, that amends Article XII of the State Bar Rules to eliminate the MCLE exemption for emeritus attorneys.  More information is available on the State Bar of Texas website here:  https://www.texasbar.com/Content/NavigationMenu/ForLawyers/MCLE1/Emeritus_Attorney_Exemption/default.htm.

FREE CLE!
The 2014 and 2015 TCAA Summer Conferences and the 2015 TCAA 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 singlesession 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.