The Oklahoma Bar Journal November 2022

M unicipal L aw

Municipal Law: Come Join Us Under the Big Top!

By Beth Anne Childs

A T THE END OF THE MOVIE ARGO , CIA operative Tony Mendez is told by his boss, Jack O’Donnell, that he will be receiving the Intelligence Star, one of the highest hon ors of the clandestine services. Tony requests to push receipt of the award off a week so his son can attend. Jack advises him that the award is classified, and no one can know about it. Tony’s response is, “So they are going to give me an award and then take it back.” Jack acknowledges that is the case and says, “If we’d wanted applause, we would have joined the circus.”

meetings, open records, criminal, labor, employment, public trusts, purchasing, competitive bidding and constitutional interpretation and application. Municipal budgets are, more often than not, heavily dependent upon sales tax collec tions, a fairly volatile source of revenue. This creates budgetary constraints on cities and towns struggling to provide basic services like fire and police protection, water and sanitary sewer service and solid waste removal. Further complicating the problem is the attitude of elected officials who expect attorneys to represent their cities and towns either for free or at a greatly reduced rate as part of their civic duty. This perspective does a disservice to the attorneys and the city and town officials who fail to appreciate the complexity of the issues handled by local gov ernment practitioners, the time required to research and prepare municipal legal documents and the many nuances of the practice that can protect cities and towns from liability.

I have spent the better part of my 29-year career in public service, particularly representing munic ipalities. I frequently remind my elected and appointed officials that what they do is important, and if they want applause, they should join the circus. Although that anal ogy is not always well received, it drives home the point that public service should be performed not to receive accolades but to make deci sions that advance their communi ties for the public good. Although to some, municipal governments can be viewed as a circus, it is far from a series of entertaining events. It is rather the level of gov ernment that most directly impacts its citizens on a daily basis. Elected and appointed officials are public servants and need to appreciate that the decisions they make are not always popular or easy and certainly may not result in a standing ovation.

THE MUNICIPAL ATTORNEY An important part of any well run municipality is the local govern ment lawyer. In recent years, I have concentrated my practice on the representation of smaller municipal ities. One evening, I had a gentle men approach me following a board meeting, where the feasibility of hiring a police chief was discussed at length. He told me that hiring a police chief was very important to the town, and while he didn’t have much, he had worked hard for what he had. I have never forgotten what he said and frequently use his remarks as a reminder to work hard to help communities find solutions to their most important and chal lenging issues. Most attorneys don’t fully appreciate that municipal law is highly specialized, requiring knowledge, information and expe rience in a vast number of areas. It is common for municipal attorneys to advise on matters involving public finance, land use, planning and zoning, eminent domain, torts, complex transactions, open

NOVEMBER 2022 | 7

THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL