Notices and Announcements

Volume 16, Issue 3

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 16, 2021. The 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. In addition, TCAA will provide complimentary registration for the conference. The deadline to submit a nomination is April 16, 2021. The criteria and the nomination form are available HERE.

SAVE THE DATE – 2021 TCAA Summer Conference!

The 2021 Summer Conference will take place on June 16-18, 2021. Please watch your inbox for more details in the coming weeks!

87th Legislative Session

The 2021 legislative session began on January 12. Stay informed by checking TML’s Legislative Update weekly for summaries of city-related bills and associated articles.

TCAA Joins TML’s Our Home, Our Decisions Campaign

The TCAA Board voted to join TML’s Our Home, Our Decisions Campaign which seeks to: (1) ensure that local decisions are made locally and oppose attempts to harm the ability of local governments to represent their constituents without state interference; (2) preserve the ability for local governments to retain the experts needed to achieve the goals of their communities; and (3) allow local governments the flexibility to fund essential services for their community such as law enforcement and first responders, roads and bridges, clean water, broadband connectivity, and more. Partners in this campaign help TML amplify this message and maintain a unified and effective voice at the Capitol throughout the legislative session.

State and Local Legal Center – Supreme Court Midterm Webinar

The Supreme Court’s 2021 docket is set for the 2020-2021 term. This webinar will include discussion of the most interesting cases for states and local governments to be decided this term, featuring: Dan Geyser, Alexander Dubose & Jefferson’s Supreme Court chair, who will argue a case about appellate costs for the City of San Antonio; Matthew Littleton, Donahue, Goldberg, Weaver & Littleton, who wrote the SLLC’s amicus brief in a takings case; and Sarah Harris, a partner in Williams & Connolly’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice, who represents a school district in a case involving student off-campus speech and the First Amendment. Thanks to NACo for hosting!

Date: March 18
Time: 1PM Eastern
Register here

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

2020 TCAA Fall Conference, 2020 TCAA Summer Conference and 2020 Riley Fletcher Seminar

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 single-session 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 Evelyn Njuguna at evelyn@tml.org.