Volume 11, Issue 3
SAVE THE DATE – UPCOMING TCAA EVENTS!
The 2016 Summer Conference at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort will take place on June 15-17, 2016. Details will follow soon in a separate email!
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 Bastrop. 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 2016 summer meeting in Bastrop on June 15-17 is April 24, 2016.
For downloadable criteria and a nomination form, please go to the Awards/Certifications link on http://texascityattorneys.org/.
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 Bastrop. 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 2016 summer meeting in Bastrop on June 15-17 is April 24, 2016. For downloadable criteria and an application form, please go to the Awards/Certifications link on http://texascityattorneys.org/.
Attorney General Issues Guidance on New Vendor Disclosure Requirements for Public Finance Contracts
A new All Bond Counsel Letter was issued on March 3, 2016, addressing the application of House Bill 1295 to public finance contracts. The letter is available here: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/files/opinions/20160303abc.pdf. All Bond Counsel Letters reflect positions taken by the Public Finance Division of the Office of the Attorney General in carrying out its statutory responsibility to review all public securities issued by political subdivisions and nonprofit corporations acting for or on behalf of political subdivisions.
2016 TMCEC Prosecutors Conference in Houston
The 2016 Texas Municipal Courts Education Center Prosecutors Conference will be held March 28-30, 2016, at the Houston Omni Westside. The brochure and registration form is available here.
LisTCAA Listserv: Update Your Preferences!
LisTCAA is a listserv available to all TCAA members. It is a forum to ask other TCAA members for help with tricky legal problems. To ensure that you receive new responses in your email (assuming you wish to do so), log on, and click on “My Profile” at the top of the page. On that page, click on “Notification Options” near the bottom of the page and set them accordingly.
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 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.