It started back in 2010 and lasted five years. The extreme drought that put a dry, dusty chokehold on Wichita Falls forced a number of changes in the lives of its residents. None of the changes were harder to swallow than the switch to Direct Potable Reuse (DPR) – a...
Texas Municipal Law Blog
Texas cities looking at monetizing data to generate new revenue
It’s commonplace for city governments eager to serve constituents to face funding challenges. But the extraordinary challenges presented by a year-plus of pandemic are compelling cities to look for new revenue streams to meet today’s and tomorrow’s needs. The North...
Texas municipal employees unions breathe sigh of relief
Police and firefighter unions in municipalities across the state likely breathed a sigh of relief when the Texas Court of Appeals decided in favor of the Houston Professional Firefighters Association (HPFFA). The union and city have been skirmishing over firefighters’...
Texas police reform effort dies in House
In the year since George Floyd’s death in police custody, cities, counties and states across the nation have grappled with an array of police reform proposals that sought to hold police officers accountable for misconduct. One of those efforts recently ended when a...
Texas county and petrochemical company settle lawsuit
A mid-March weekend two years ago was interrupted by a Saturday afternoon fire at Exxon Mobil’s Baytown refinery. News reports stated that the blaze was extinguished after about four hours. Details of that incident were forgotten by area residents less than 24 hours...
Tiny Texas town under the TCEQ microscope
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) says that it “strives to protect our state's public health and natural resources” in a way that allows for “sustainable economic development.” Its goals are clean air and water, it says, but environmentalists aren’t...
Parents sue Texas school district over mask mandate
If you drive about 50 miles northwest of League City, you will arrive in Katy, Texas. The city of about 20,000 residents is home to a group of parents that is suing the Katy Independent School District (ISD) over its decision to require masks in schools. In court...
Rio Grande Valley mayor runs afoul of Texas Ethics Commission
You can’t go any farther south in Texas than Cameron County in the Rio Grande Valley. Back in December of last year, San Benito – one of the fast-growing county’s 18 cities and towns – held a run-off mayoral election. Though Ricardo “Rick” Guerra won the tight race,...
When and why small Texas cities use outside counsel
While large Texas cities employ a city attorney who has a full-time staff, many smaller cities have just one attorney on staff to handle their legal needs. Some of the smaller cities use a combination of staff and outside counsel, while others use outside counsel...
New Shareholder Announcement
Shareholder Announcement The law firm of Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal & Zech is proud to announce that as of January 1, 2021 Clarissa M. Rodriguez, Robert Drinkard, Scott M. Tschirhart, Rebecca S. Hayward, and T. Daniel Santee. II and have been promoted to...
