Category Archives: Local Governmental Entities
What Does a Texas Magistrate Do? You See People in Jail?
If you are confused by the separate duties of magistrate and judge in Texas, how bail works and when a plea is taken, there are specific procedures for each. I currently serve as an Associate Municipal Court Judge for the City of Hedwig Village, Texas. The City Council appointed me Judge in July 2011…. Read More »
Why Is It So !@#$%^ Hard to Get Information out of My City?
Everyone believes in transparency in government, but the rub comes in implementing it. On the federal level, Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act – commonly known as FOIA – that applies only to the Federal government. On the state level, the Legislature passed the Texas Public Information Act. This Act provides for the… Read More »
Who? What? Where? When? Why? The Five W’s of Official Newspapers in Texas
Is a city in Texas required to designate an “official newspaper,” and if so, would the city would be required to publish notices in a newspaper that has its offices within the city limits? Does the city need to designate an official paper? It depends, in part, on whether the city is a home… Read More »
The City Attorney, Politics and Keeping out of the Bed of Strange Bedfellows
I am a City Attorney first and foremost. Today, I want to tell you what a City Attorney is not. The City Attorney is not a politician or elected official. That role is reserved for the Mayor and members of the City Council (i.e. the governing body). The City Attorney is not a policy maker…. Read More »
Urban Chickens: How Not to Get Flocked
A city council I represent recently deadlocked on whether to allow chickens to be raised by homeowners within the city limits. This was not a rural city but one that abuts Houston’s city limits. Amazingly, raising urban chickens has developed in to a cottage (dare I say coop) industry where for the price of… Read More »
A Primer on How a City in Texas May Conduct a Real Property Sale
For what must be centuries now, law professors, practitioners, and courts have analogized property rights as a bundle of sticks, with each stick representing a specific right which may be separated from the others, sometimes willingly and sometimes not. One such stick in particular is the right to alienate the property—that is, the right… Read More »
Demolition Plan: The Power of Cities To Destroy Buildings
How does a city deal with an abandoned building creating problems for neighbors? The Texas Local Government Code authorizes cities to abate nuisances created by substandard buildings if they establish and follow certain procedures. However, in 2012, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the Texas Constitution requires an “independent court review” of a city’s… Read More »
Free Speech and the Texas Open Meetings Act: Wide Open Country
“Do I have to sit here and take this?” After a particular contentious city council meeting over a public golf course, during which insults about making sandwiches where hurled at a councilmember who happened to own a Subway sandwich shop, he asked me that question. Though sandwich making has nothing to do with the… Read More »
Texas Municipalities Await a Hard and Fast Rule Against Releasing Dates of Birth under PIA
The very first section of the Texas Public Information Act (“PIA”) states that “each person is entitled, unless otherwise expressly provided by law, at all times to complete information about the affairs of government and the official acts of public officials and employees.” Our concern at the moment is with the part that says… Read More »
What Does a City Attorney Do?
What does a City Attorney do? Sounds Kind of Boring! At dinner parties and social gatherings, people often ask, “what do you do for a living?” This is not an easy question to answer. I am a private practice attorney who spends the majority of my day representing multiple public municipalities (i.e., cities) in and around… Read More »