Volume 13, Issue 3
Register now for the TCAA Disaster Recovery, Mitigation, and Procurement Workshop
The Texas City Attorneys Association is teaming up with FEMA and TDEM to present a free Disaster Recovery, Mitigation, and Procurement Workshop on April 9. The workshop will be held at the Texas Municipal Center, 1821 Rutherford Lane, Austin. You can register now at https://www.tml.org/tcaa-disaster-mitigation-and-procurement-workshop. Due to the limited space and high interest, we expect the workshop to fill up quickly, so please don’t delay!!
If you have questions, please contact Heather Ford at 512-231-7400 or ford@tml.org.
2018 TMCEC Prosecutors Conference
The Texas Municipal Courts Education Center Prosecutors Conference will be offered March 21-23, 2018, in Houston. The brochure and registration form are available here.
Greenbook Survey Invitation
The Texas Law Review Greenbook Committee is currently preparing a draft for a new edition of the Texas Rules of Form, also known as The Greenbook. As part of this process, the committee has prepared a survey to get practicing attorneys’ opinions on possible changes. Please see the invitation to comment for more information.
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 at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort and Spa, Bastrop. In addition, TCAA will provide complimentary registration and lodging for the meeting. The deadline to apply to receive the award at the 2018 Summer Conference on June 13-15 in Bastrop is April 21, 2018. Downloadable criteria and the nomination form are available HERE.
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 at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort and Spa in Bastrop. In addition, TCAA will provide complimentary registration and lodging for the meeting. The deadline to apply to receive the award at the 2018 Summer Conference on June 13-15 in Bastrop is April 21, 2018. Downloadable criteria and the nomination form are available HERE.
2018 Summer Conference!
The 2018 Summer Conference at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort and Spa, Bastrop, will take place on June 13-15, 2018.
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 1.75 ethics hours) program! Bring the family to experience everything the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort and Spa 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:
- Regulating Game Rooms & Poker Rooms
- Employment Law Update
- Hot Issues in Zoning: Tiny Houses, Shipping Containers, and RVs
- Updating Your Right of Way Ordinance
- Hot Topics in Municipal Finance
- Top 5 (Or So) Home Rule Charter Issues
- Purchasing Property for Groundwater Supply Development
- Of Brewpubs and Breweries, Growlers and Crowlers: Craft Brewing and Distilling and the Texas Municipality
- Animals in the City – from Ordinances to Enforcement
- Common Municipal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Issues
- Drafting a Municipal Code of Ethics
- And More!
Conference Events:
- Wednesday, June 13 – Welcome Receptionhosted by Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta, LLP, and McCreary Veselka Bragg & Allen, PC
- Thursday, June 14 – Evening Reception hosted by McKamie Krueger, LLP
SAVE THE DATE – UPCOMING TCAA EVENTS!
Fall Meeting at IMLA 2018. Please join the Texas City Attorneys Association as we welcome the International Municipal Lawyers Association to Houston for its 2018 annual conference! In lieu of TCAA’s usual meeting in conjunction with the TML Annual Conference, TCAA has arranged to hold its fall affiliate meeting at IMLA, so that TCAA members can enjoy the benefits of both conferences. TCAA’s meeting will be held Friday, October 19, 2018. To register and receive the discounted rate for TCAA members, please visit our portal page at https://texascityattorneys.org/tcaa-day-at-imla-2018/. Agenda information for the TCAA Fall Meeting will be announced when confirmed.
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.
FREE CLE!
2017 TCAA Fall and Summer 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.