Notices and Announcements

 Volume 15, Issue 7

SAVE THE DATE: TCAA 2020 Fall Virtual Conference

The Texas City Attorneys Association Fall Virtual Conference will be held on October 15, 2020.

Topics include:

  • Qualified Immunity
  • Human Resources and COVID-19
  • Redistricting
  • Preemption
  • Sign Regulation
  • Municipal Court Best Practices
  • Religion in the Workplace
  • And more!

Attorneys can earn up to 5.25 MCLE hours, including .5 ethics hour. Registration details will soon be available.

TCAA to Fill Board Positions on October 15, 2020

Those interested in applying for a place on the board of the Texas City Attorneys Association should fill out an application and return it via email to Christy Drake-Adams at christy@tml.org. Application forms are available here and under the “About TCAA” tab, “Board of Directors” section, on the TCAA website at https://texascityattorneys.org. Applications must be received by 5:00 p.m. on August 21, 2020.

The Role of the City Attorney and TCAA in the Legislative Process

In February 2020, the TCAA Board appointed a subcommittee to examine the role of a city attorney and the TCAA in the legislative process. The subcommittee’s report concludes it is often difficult (and sometimes unwise) for a city attorney to take on an advocacy role in dealing with the Texas Legislature, that TCAA should support and be available to the Texas Municipal League (TML) as a resource, and that TCAA should have neither a legislative agenda nor advocacy program independent of TML’s. The full report is available here.

TCAA 2020 Summer Conference Correction

Please note the “Utility-Related Update” presentation has been corrected to reflect that in the wholesale water rate appeal case PUC Docket No. 46662, the Cities of Garland, Mesquite, Plano, and Richardson appeal of wholesale water rates of the North Texas Municipal Water District, the rates were determined to be against the public interest.

State & Local Legal Center – U.S. Supreme Court Review Webinar

This State & Local Legal Center webinar will review the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2019-20 term. Join Elbert Lin, Hunton Andrews Kurth, who argued the most significant water case in over a decade, Jeff Harris, Consovoy McCarthy, who argued an employment case, and Adam Liptak, New York Times, in a discussion of the term’s most interesting and relevant cases to states and local governments. Topics of some of the other cases covered in the webinar include DACA, abortion, and “faithless electors.” The webinar is FREE, but MCLE credit is not available. Thanks to NACo for hosting!!

Date:  July 29
Time: 12 PM Central
Register here

2020 City Tax and Budget Resources

A pre-recorded TML webinar addressing the basics of SB 2 is available here. (MCLE credit is not available for this session.) Tax and Budget Deadline Memos and an explanatory Q&A are available here. Guidance from the comptroller is available here, including worksheets and notice forms

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: 

http://members.tml.org/Web/Online/Directories/TCAA_Directory.aspx

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

2020 Riley Fletcher and 2019 TCAA 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 each video from the conference in a singlesession format. Viewing a session allows attorneys to receive participatory CLE credit with the State Bar. To view available 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 Christy Drake-Adams at christy@tml.org.