2023 TCAA Fall Conference in Dallas
The Texas City Attorneys Association (TCAA) Fall Conference will be held in conjunction with the TML Annual Conference and Exhibition on October 5 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas.
Topics include:
- Employer Drug Testing
- Training Staff to Deal with Uncivil People in a Civil Manner
- Preparing for Mass Gatherings: The City of Fredericksburg and the Total Eclipse
- Think It Over: Dealing with Fiber Companies that Want to Use Your City’s Right-of-Way
- AIE, AIE, AIE, and AI: What Special Issues Does Artificial Intelligence Pose for Employers and Attorneys?
- Recent Federal Cases of Interest
- The Nuts and Bolts of a SOAH-Contested Case Hearing (including Virtual Hearings)
- Procurement Disputes: Preventing, Managing, and Litigating
- Ethics: Protecting the Attorney Client Privilege with In-House Counsel
Click here for information about registration and housing. Note: The schedule for the TCAA program is under “Affiliate Programs,” and most attorneys who will not be attending the entire TML Annual Conference and Exhibition will want to choose the “one-day registration” option, starting at $250.
District Court Ruled HB 2127 Unconstitutional
On August 30, a Travis County district judge declared that H.B. 2127, the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, is unconstitutional. H.B. 2127, among other things, prohibits home rule cities from adopting or enforcing an ordinance in a field of regulation occupied by eight specific codes unless expressly authorized. Following the bill’s passage, the City of Houston—later joined by the cities of San Antonio and El Paso as intervenors—filed a lawsuit in Travis County to have H.B. 2127 declared unconstitutional.
After a two-hour hearing and arguments from both sides, Travis County District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble granted Houston’s Motion for Summary Judgment and denied the State’s Motion to Dismiss. Further, the court declared H.B. 2127 to be unconstitutional in its entirety. The court’s final judgment can be accessed here.
While the ruling represents an encouraging first step for the preservation of constitutional home rule authority in Texas and a first step victory for those citizens who believe in local control, it marks just the beginning of the legal wrangling over the new law. The state already appealed the ruling to the Austin Court of Appeals.
Even with the ruling, H.B. 2127 technically went into effect on September 1.
S.B. 2 Tax Rate Setting Resources
A pre-recorded TML webinar addressing the city property tax rate setting process following the passage of S.B. 2 in 2019, with additional insight into the impact of state legislation passed in 2021, is available here. (MCLE credit is not available for this session.) Tax and budget deadline memos and an updated explanatory Q&A are available 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 at their events. It’s much more than that. Click here to view a quick video about IMLA membership.
Continuing Legal Education
2022 Fall Conference and 2023 Summer 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 the videos from the conferences in a single–session format. Viewing a session allows attorneys to receive participatory CLE credit with the State Bar. To view these 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 Amber McKeon-Mueller at amber@tml.org.