The Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA) allows members of the public who wish to address their local government to add items to the official meeting agenda. This is a positive way to involve residents in their local governments' decisions. Still, it can add too many issues...
Meterorological summer begins today: June 1 and runs until August 31. This is not to be confused with astronomical summer which is from June 20 to September 22. Meterorological summer is usually the sunniest, hottest time of year. It is also the time when teens are...
Any parent of a toddler knows that in any given situation, the question "Why?" is first and foremost, and sometimes annoying. When it comes to why we have laws, the answer seems obvious, "Because." Enough said. However, taking a deeper dive into the question of the...
In Texas we do not divide our counties into townships. Instead we have cities or municipalities that are either incorporated or unincorporated. It can get confusing when different words are used to mean the same thing. You call it a what? Other areas of the U.S. also...
The short answer is no. There are, when you think about it, many occasions when a quorum of members may be present; either at an event related to or wholly unrelated to government process. Three times when a quorum is not a meeting For precise language about this...
No, this is not a post about the Sherman Antitrust Act or the FTC. It's about the game Monopoly, and how conventional wisdom about the game's origins can be misleading. Two different inventors According to the book The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal...
Municipal law—those laws relating to a city, as opposed to a state, nation or many nations— can be traced to medieval times. As far as we can ascertain the city of Freiburg im Breisgau was one of the first urban areas in Europe to institute municipal laws. These laws...
You hear it all the time; that a school board is trying to pass a referendum. You see it on your voting slip. People might ask you, are you for the referendum or against it? Some of us are profoundly involved in the referendum process. To us, it can be a real...
There are many reasons that might prompt someone to move to or from a city. Before the advent of the pandemic the three top reasons for a move according to Livability.com were for family reasons and: To get a new home or a better home To have their own home or...
Everyone wants to talk about municipal law. Well, that may not actually be the case. The truth is that not many people truly understand the full scope of municipal law. What is compelling is that it can, and often does, influence and affect our day-to-day lives....
