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CHAIR’s Message
Patricia E. Salkin is Chair of the Section and the director of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School in Albany, New York.
As I write this column, the Section leadership is finalizing the last minute details for our Spring Meeting in New Orleans. Special thanks to Justina Cintron Perino who did an amazing job coordinating all of the committee activities and managing to deliver a new baby boy, Gabriel David, at the same time! Thanks also to Lee Keatinge who was able to coordinate a wonderful walking tour in the French Quarter to continue our community development/community culture exploration wherever our Section Spring Meeting takes us. Special thanks also to Phil Erickson for coordinating the details for our keynote speaker on the Michigan affirmative action case. I am confident by the time you are reading this we will have had another successful CLE program covering government operations, land use, environmental law, ethics, homeland security, and public finance.
Please join the Section in Atlanta for the ABA Annual Meeting in August. Your attendance at one of our CLE programs and/or our committee meetings and full Council meetings is an excellent way to start getting more involved in Section governance issues. We need more volunteers and welcome your active participation. The Land Use Committee is planning a wonderful program on transportation planning, and Prof. Robert Freilich will return once again to deliver the popular “Freilich Report”—an annual U.S. Supreme Court update on state and local government law.
So, what’s new? I am pleased to report that we have just established a new Committee on Condemnation Law. Thank you to our two new Committee leaders—Darius Dynkowski and Professor Stephen Eagle—who look forward to working with any Section member interested in condemnation. The Jefferson Fordham Society, under the leadership of Anita Miller, has been working with Ernie Abbott, chair of our Homeland Security Committee on a wonderful proposal to produce a videotape and accompanying materials for municipal officials on disaster preparedness. We look forward to success in obtaining funding for this ambitious initiative. The Section leadership has been involved with the ABA Section Officers Conference in reviewing the impact of ABA financial issues on the sections. Sections are working to develop appropriate recommendations and strategies to retain section support, maintenance, and growth.
Thank you to Section Vice Chair Prof. Tom Roberts for participating as our Section representative at the Affordable Housing Law Forum’s recent program in Miami, Florida. Our Section was a co-sponsor of this wonderful CLE program. Karen Mathis also deserves more thanks than this column can provide for getting our Section’s membership program reinvigorated and for leading a team of talented Section members through a strategic membership recruitment and retention planning exercise. Their plans and recommendations will serve our Section well into the future.
I look forward to continuing to meet Section members as our meeting locations take us to a region near you!