Municipal Law
Municipal Law
Established in 1979, Municipal Law (ML) is an optional AML program that operates as a self-funded risk management trust to benefit member cities and towns. Municipal Law was originally established to “provide extraordinary legal defense and extraordinary expenses” in lawsuits filed against municipal officials and employees of participating municipalities, which continues today through the Litigation Defense team. Since then, ML has expanded to provide its members additional services such as inquiry, grants, education, legislative advocacy, ordinance/code, city planning and cable television franchise management.
Municipal Law Portal
Click below to submit a coverage request for a new lawsuit.
Municipal Law Bylaws
Click below to download the brochure.
Litigation Defense
Municipal Law Portal
Click below to submit a coverage request for a new lawsuit.
Legislative Advocacy
The legislative advocacy team includes numerous League attorneys and staff members, as well as several consultants across a wide range of fields. The legislative advocacy team works diligently to track bills, advocate for cities and towns, and update municipal officials and employees throughout the fast-paced legislative sessions. They provide crucial information to AML’s executive and advisory committees, which allows those committees to make informed decisions on proposed legislation impacting local government. Most importantly, the legislative team bridges the gap between municipal officials and legislators to work together on drafting and amending bills to enhance the lives of every Arkansan.
Education Services
Municipal Law offers education services in conjunction with the Arkansas City Attorneys Association by providing bi-annual continuing legal education opportunities to city attorneys. Municipal Law recently expanded its education services to include regional training events that focus on issues impacting municipalities across the state, ranging from condemnation, employment law, FOIA and updates required after legislative session. Educational opportunities are provided by members of several ML teams, including litigation defense, inquiry, grants, legislative advocacy and ordinance/code.
Working in municipal government isn’t always easy—the rules, regulations and nuances of managing a city or town can sometimes be confusing. In response, ML attorneys—with help from various AML staff—have written and regularly update The Civilpedia Handbook: A Guide to Municipal Government in Arkansas. This FREE publication is an essential guide broken down into five sections: 1. Introduction to Municipal Government; 2. Municipal Finance; 3. Municipal Human Resources and Personnel; 4. Planning and Zoning; and 5. Freedom of Information Act. For individual PDFs of each Civilpedia section, please visit our Publications page.
The Civilpedia is a great starting point, but it does not replace the need to consult with your city attorney. As always, don’t hesitate to consult the inquiry team if the Civilpedia or other AML publication does not answer your question.
Inquiry Service
The inquiry service team provides* ML members with answers to questions on issues involving municipal government. Legal questions submitted to the inquiry team are handled by ML staff who provide answers to municipal officials’ questions by telephone, email, memorandum, referral, special survey or on-site consultation. Inquiry attorneys are bound by rules governing conflicts of interest and are unable to opine on any matters involving internal political disputes between officials.
*Inquiry services does not draft or review documents such as resolutions, ordinances, or contracts and does not respond to legal questions from private citizens.
Legal questions can be submitted by municipal officials and employees by emailing the inquiry team at the link below.
Ordinance & Code Service
The ordinance and code services team provides cities and towns with assistance in the development of municipal codes of ordinances. The ordinance and code service provides a thorough study of all the ordinances of an individual city or town and the drafting of a code based on the ordinances. For more information, call 501.374.3484, ext. 256.
Grants Service
The League offers an in-house grants service for our members. Led by Senior Grants Counsel Caran Curry, services include disseminating information about grant opportunities, coaching local grant writers through application processes, teaching educational and certification classes, operating a listserv and more.
City Planning Service
Municipal Law offers city planning services to member cities with access to a registered city planner for teaching at seminars and for technical consultation. The first visit each year is complimentary. Jim Von Tungeln, the League staff city planner, reaches every member city through his quarterly City & Town column. Contact Jim at [email protected] or 501.372.3232.
Cable Television Franchise Management Service
Municipal Law offers cable television franchise management services through Local Government Services (LGS). The goal of the program is to ensure that local governments have access to the expertise required to negotiate for the benefits and services needed in our communities on reasonable terms and conditions.
In return for a nominal fee, which is, in part, based on a city’s population, participating cities and towns can obtain the following services: assistance in negotiating new terms and conditions for cable television franchise renewals, including the preparation of the franchise document; determining cable companies’ compliance with existing franchise terms and conditions including franchise fee payment review; developing and implementing a community needs assessment to determine the future cable-related needs and interest of cities; assistance for electric cities in negotiating pole attachment agreements and conducting pole count inventories; assistance in the development of public, educational and governmental channels (PEG); assistance with processing requests from companies to transfer an existing cable franchise; and assistance with negotiating tower leases. LGS provides these services in conjunction with the law firm of Moses and Barnett and with the assistance of William Pohts, an engineer specializing in the emerging technologies in telecommunications and electronic systems. For more information or participation in this program, contact Greg Fender at [email protected] or 404.375.7084.