Thirteen members of IMLA recently participated in panel presentations at the World Jurist Association’s 24th Biennial Congress on the Law of the World. The WJA Congress was held October 23 – 28, 2011, in the Congress Centre of Prague, Czech Republic, and centered on the international theme “National Legal Cultures in a Globalized World.”
The first panel, “Protecting the Public – Local Law,” featured Robert Alfton who spoke on Labor Law in the Public Sector, Aashish Srivastava who addressed Cyberbullying Laws in Australia, and concluded with a joint presentation by Iris Jones and Patricia Lynch, who discussed the Need for a Global Response to Cyberbullying.
The second panel, “Governance in the Public Sector,” featured Phillip Sparkes who addressed The Ethical Obligation of Government Legal Advisors, a joint presentation by Charles W. Thompson, Jr. and Robert N. Hills on Graffiti Vandalism in America – Shaping the Municipal Response, and concluded with a presentation by Susan Moore on Innovation in ADR to Resolve Political Impasses.
The third panel, “Stewardship, Sustainable Use and Development of Land and Resources,” featured Edward Sullivan who discussed Land Use and Forestry Protection, Timothy D. Hollister who addressed Black and White Issues in the Evolution of Green Building Standards, and Benjamin E. Griffith who gave a presentation Fracking for Shale Gas – Energy Security and Sustainable Water
Resources.
The fourth panel adhered to the same overall theme of the third and featured Julian Grant who discussed Ownership and Care of the Beaches and Coastal Regions of the U.S. and the World, Steven R. Meyers who addressed Public Private Partnerships in the Global Economy, and Dwight H. Merriam who gave a presentation on Private Residential Communities – A Cross Cultural Comparison.
THE WJA World Congress was attended by over 350 members and guests representing over 50 nations. Support and staffing was provided by WJA staff, the Czech Bar Association, ICC Paris and National Committees of the region, as well as local law faculties in Prague and Plzen and IMLA.
The diversity of the many panels was matched only by the breadth of the legal topics and issues addressed during the five day Congress.The participation of IMLA members as speakers and presenters at the WJA 24th Biennial Congress signifies the continuation of a rich and meaningful collaboration between IMLA and WJA dating back to over 2 decades.
The Supreme Court recently granted cert in Magner v. Gallagher, a case that will likely have implications for local governments. IMLA submitted an important amicus brief in this case, you can read our brief here and see a mention of our brief in a recent Forbes.com article.
Like many cities, St. Paul has a property maintenance code which establishes minimum maintenance standards for all structures, including provisions on light, ventilation, heating, sanitation, fire safety, etc. In 2002, the City established the Department of Neighborhood Housing and Property Improvement (DNHPI) as an executive department responsible for administering and enforcing the code.
The director of DNHPI increased the level of code enforcement target at rental properties, and directed proactive “sweeps” to detect code violations. DNHPI sought to compel property owners to take greater responsibility for their properties or, alternatively, force changes in ownership. To achieve its objectives, DNHPI employed a variety of strategies for renter-occupied dwellings, including orders to correct or abate conditions, condemnations, vacant-building registration, fees for excessive consumption of municipal services, tenant evictions, real-estate seizures, revocations of rental registrations, tenant-remedies actions, and if necessary, court action.
Plaintiffs in this case are essentially landlords, with portfolios ranging from one property to over forty properties. These landlords received code enforcement citations that in many cases, cited between ten and twenty-five violations per property. As a result, Plaintiffs claim they suffered increased maintenance costs, fees, condemnations, and were forced to sell properties in some instances.
Plaintiffs brought a number of claims (11 in total), and the district court dismissed all on summary judgment. The plaintiffs appealed to the Eighth Circuit Court of appeals, where the Court affirmed in all aspects except one. On review, the 8th Circuit held that disparate impact theory applied to a claim of racial discrimination under the FHA when a city applies its housing maintenance code to substandard housing, because the cost to repair tended to reduce housing options for people of color. The standard used by the 8th Circuit is that a plaintiff “must show a facially neutral policy ha[d] a significant adverse impact on members of a protected minority group.” Plaintiffs are NOT required to show that the policy or practice was formulated with discriminatory intent. The Circuits are split on this. The Seventh Circuit (and a few others have follow) includes the following factors to be used: (1) how strong is the plaintiff’s showing of discriminatory effect; (2) is there some evidence of discriminatory intent, though not enough to satisfy the constitutional standard of Washington v. Davis [426 U.S. 229 (1976)]; (3) what is the defendant’s interest in taking the action complained of; and (4) does the plaintiff seek to compel the defendant to affirmatively provide housing for members of minority groups or merely to restrain the defendant from interfering with individual property owners who wish to provide such housing.
SCOTUSblog is a good place to follow the action.
As local government lawyers, most of us are familiar with RLUIPA and what keeps us up at night is the question: What do institutionalized persons have to do with religious land use? [RLUIPA - Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act].
Well, it may be a while before we get an answer to that particular question, but the question trail doesn’t end there. IMLA joined an certiorari-stage amicus effort in City of San Leandro v. Int’l Church of the Foursquare Gospel. [Read Ninth Circuit decision here] [Read San Leandro's cert petition brief here]
It’s an interesting case, and if SCOTUS grants cert, it might be the case that clears up some of the ambiguity of RLUIPA. The Questions Presented in the cert petition are:
1. Whether cost and/or inconvenience can be sufficient for a religious landowner to prove that an adverse land use or zoning decision imposes a “substantial burden” under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc(a)(1) (2006).
2. Whether case-by-case analysis of a land use application constitutes an “individualized assessment” under the Free Exercise Clause and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U.S.C. §2000cc(a)(2)(C) (2006).
3. Whether neutral, generally applicable planning principles may be a “compelling interest” of local governments under the Free Exercise Clause and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, 42 U.S.C.
§2000cc(a)(1)(A) (2006).
See IMLA’s amicus submission here.
IMLA welcomes our new intern for the month of April, from the country of Georgia.
I am Teona Tavelishvili. I am visiting here through the Legislative Fellows Program organized by American Councils for International Education in hopes of learning about how local governments operate in the United States. The program facilitates month long internships with local and state governments throughout the United States and is designed to help young professionals from other countries gain a better understanding of the legislative and political processes.
I am lawyer of the local administrative body of Sagarejo municipality. This is a town in Kakheti, in eastern Georgia with 12,000 population. During my interning period I attended the Mid-Year Seminar which took place in Washington DC. I met representatives of counties, city attorneys and other members of IMLA from different states of America. I listened to their interesting speeches and representatives shared each other their municipality’s issues. They were talking about their counties problems and offered their solving ways. Some of them are similar to my municipality’s others are not. But what I found interested here is that this organization makes many good things for municipalities and such meetings and seminars is very important, to improve working systems in local bodies.
My great desire is when I go back to my country tell my region about IMLA and make presentation about the functions and goals of IMLA and offer Georgians to create the similar organization in our country.
Here’s a redirect to an interesting interview heard recently on NPR.
Here’s the description provided on the NPR website of the audio feed: As the foreclosure crisis continues, derelict properties have become a growing problem in neighborhoods nationwide. Webster, Mass., has come up with an innovative way to deal with buildings deemed nuisances: posting the names and contact information of the owner in front of the property.
How is your community dealing with abandoned properties? Have any other communities tried posting a “wall of shame” on a owner’s abandoned property?
