SECTION NEWS  

Local Government’s Role at the World Jurist Association 22nd Biennial Congress in Beijing and Shanghai, China

By Daniel J. Curtin, Jr. and Brian P. Mulry

Daniel J. Curtin, Jr., is a past Chair of the Section and practices in the Walnut Creek, California, office of Bingham McCutchen LLP. Brian P. Mulry is a law clerk in the Walnut Creek, California, office of Bingham McCutchen LLP.

The World Jurist Association’s (WJA) 22nd Biennial Congress of the World, entitled “The Rule of Law and Harmony of International Society,” took place in Beijing and Shanghai, China, September 4–9, 2005. The WJA, a nonprofit, nongovernmental, international law association based in Washington, D.C., sponsored the conference. As the late Charles S. Rhyne, founder of the WJA and a former President of the American Bar Association (ABA), once stated: “What we lawyers want is to substitute courts for carnage, dockets for rockets, briefs for bombs, warrants for warheads, and mandates for missiles.” This conference was dedicated to promoting this ideal. According to Ronald Greenberg, president of the WJA, “under the current world situation, no theme is more timely and important than ‘the Rule of Law and Harmony of International Society’ for the [C]ongress.”

Over 1,500 delegates took part in the week-long Congress, including justices, prosecutors, lawyers, law professors, and senior judicial officials. Among them were 450 overseas delegates from sixty countries including Chief Justices and Justices of High Courts from over sixty nations. A total of 160 people from over thirty countries and regions spoke at the panel sessions covering twenty-two topics.

The 22nd Congress also represented a dramatic return to China, which last hosted the 14th Biennial Congress in 1990. Since then, China has experienced significant economic changes, while also making important social and political strides. According to Chief Justice Xiao Yang, president of China’s Supreme People’s Court, “By 2010, China aims to have a fairly complete and modern legal system, covering all aspects of social life and grounded in social equality and justice.” Since 1978, China has enacted a new constitution, more than 400 laws, and 800 administrative rules.

Many members of the ABA State and Local Government Law Section, as members of the International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA), spoke at this important conference. The members served on a variety of panels to discuss methods for implementing effective local governmental structures through the Rule of Law.

The Real Estate and Property Law panel presented innovations in land use law that help municipalities determine what development they want to introduce into their communities. Such approaches will be useful to countries developing land use strategies that ensure sustainable growth. Ed Sullivan, Section Chair-Elect and partner at Garvey Schubert Barer, spoke of projects in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area that implemented regional policies for future growth and sustainability. Prof. David Callies, past Section Chair and a law professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, William S. Richardson School of Law, explained the United States’ approach to eminent domain, including the process for ensuring “just compensation” for displaced property owners. Daniel J. Curtin, panel co-chair and past Section Chair, discussed how local governments can use the general plan to guide local land use decisions, using California and China as examples. Jack Basey, Q.C., city solicitor of Victoria, British Columbia, described the city’s new “Dockside Project.” This public/private project represented an excellent case of community involvement in brownfield redevelopment and sustainable growth.

The Judiciary and the Media panel discussed the importance of Freedom of Information in the media to both effective governance and the Rule of Law. Patricia Lynch, Section budget director and city attorney for Reno, Nevada, presented on how educating the public and arming it with knowledge creates an informed electorate and effective government. Lynch had the privilege of being the only Western speaker on a panel made up entirely of Chinese judges, lawyers, and scholars.

The Municipal Governments and Civic Participation panel, co-chaired by Patricia Lynch, contemplated the implications of community involvement in local government decision making. Lynch offered closing remarks on the importance of public participation to ensure a check on government power. Steve Meyers, managing partner of California’s Meyers Nave, addressed the delegates on the topic of transparency in local government. Quoting James Madison, Meyers advocated for sunshine laws, open meeting laws, and public records in the democratic process.

The Public Health Crises and Health Law panel, held while Hurricane Katrina was ravaging the Gulf Coast, addressed local government involvement in public health crises. Panel co-chair Roger Nowadzky, city attorney of Marshalltown, Iowa, shared his advice to help attorneys and government officials in preparing for, and addressing, a city emergency. Nowadzky drew from his experience as corporate counsel to the City of Des Moines, Iowa, when it experienced its 1993 flood, the greatest natural disaster in Iowa’s history.

The International Trade panel featured insightful information on strategies for competing in an increasingly sophisticated global marketplace. Iris Jones, Section Council member and a member of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, Washington, D.C., advised the audience on how to capture and expand business opportunities in an era of market globalization.

The International Cooperation on Anticorruption panel discussed a variety of methods for eliminating government corruption. Benjamin Griffith, Section vice-chair and a partner in Griffith & Griffith, Cleveland, Mississippi, addressed the effectiveness of international monitors and similar efforts on a global scale to eradicate national corruption, focusing primarily upon the promotion of transparency in the national electoral process.

The conference also served as a forum for informal discussion, as the Chinese government hosted many social events designed to promote cultural awareness and to share ideas. Among them were a reception hosted by Chief Justice Xiao Yang in the Great Hall of the People, a reception hosted by Wang Qishan, mayor of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, a reception hosted by the WJA at the Fangfeiyuan, Diaoyutai State Guest House, and a farewell banquet hosted by the People’s Government of Shanghai Municipality. Notable attendees from the U.S. Delegation were Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy and California Supreme Court Justice Ming Chin.

Our Section’s involvement in this important conference shows its ongoing commitment to advancing the interests of local governments on the international level.

The Greening of a City— Chicago’s Story  

By Carol L. Dorge

Carol L. Dorge is in private practice in Lake Bluff, Illinois, and is a past chair of the Lake Michigan States Section of the Air & Waste Management Association. She was co-chair of “The Greening of a City” program, representing the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law as chair of the Environmental Committee.

The Lake Michigan States Section of the Air and Waste Management Association and the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law, along with the Union League Club, co-sponsored “The Greening of a City—Chicago’s Story” on August 4, 2005, at the Union League Club in Chicago. The program was scheduled in conjunction with the ABA Annual Meeting, which was being held in Chicago, to allow ABA members and others to hear “ Chicago’s Story.”

The City of Chicago and its Mayor, Richard M. Daley, are nationally recognized as leaders in environmental initiatives. The program explored environmental initiatives in Chicago and the region and showed that job growth and economic development can co-exist with major environmental initiatives. The program presented “ Chicago’s Story”— Lake Calumet restoration efforts and the creation of a significant environmental park with Ford Motor Company’s involvement; the Chicago River and Lake Michigan; brownfield success stories; green buildings; and redevelopment incentives, both financial and through development codes that make it easier to do the right thing.

The response of attendees to the program was overwhelmingly positive. The speakers all made strong points, highlighting Chicago’s and the region’s environmental success stories and the tools for promoting environmental, as well as economic, development.

City of Chicago representatives Suzanne Malec and Joe Deal introduced Chicago environmental initiatives within the Department of the Environment, the mayor’s office, and throughout the city’s organization, including Green Building and other initiatives in the Building, Planning, and Zoning departments, among others. Joe Deal emphasized the important contribution of Lake Michigan and the Chicago River to the city’s recreational and people-friendly environment, as well as its growth and progress.

Mary Culler followed the city speakers, elaborating on Ford Motor Company’s initiatives in the Calumet area. Chicago was an early leader in brownfields initiatives and its recent efforts include the redevelopment of the old Allied Signal/ Republic Steel property to a manufacturers/suppliers park in conjunction with a major modernization of the Ford Motor Company’s Torrence Avenue plant.

Significantly, Ford Motor Company chose Chicago for major new product launches and the creation of the manufacturers/suppliers park, despite fierce competition between Chicago and other cities, including Atlanta, Georgia. Mayor Daley and former Governor George Ryan were recognized for their joint efforts and commitments to making the project a success. (Coincidentally, the author shared an elevator with former Governor Ryan immediately after the program. He was clearly proud of the success in bringing “Ford and Boeing” to the city and Illinois.)

At the time of redevelopment, Ford’s Torrence Avenue plant was one of the company’s oldest and outdated. Ford invested $200 million and modernized it to a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. An additional $120 million in governmental incentives contributed to new infrastructure, job training, and supplier incentives, such as lease subsidies and environmental cleanup. The manufacturers/suppliers park has proven its worth over and over as suppliers are able to respond rapidly to manufacturer requirements in conjunction with new product (car) launches.

The environment benefited from the environmental cleanup of the Republic Steel brownfields site, which was largely TIF funded, and from Ford’s $6 million investment in the Ford Lake Calumet environmental center, which included a “ Green Building” and demonstrated the reuse of materials such as slag, long associated with the area’s industrial past.

Tony Smith’s presentation focused on the nuts and bolts of TIF financing. TIF funding is available in areas meeting statutory criteria as “blighted.” A number of factors need to be considered to determine eligibility for TIF funding. Once the statutory criteria are met and a TIF district is properly established, TIF funding is available for environmental remediation and redevelopment, among many other specified things.

Darryl Davidson elaborated on the funding mechanisms that facilitate these projects and discussed some recent developments involving the law of eminent domain, including the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of NewLondon. The Kelo case upheld the right of a city to condemn property for economic redevelopment and has received widespread publicity. Kelo is significant in that the properties involved were part of a redevelopment plan for the town and its waterfront that projected to create more than 1,000 jobs, increase tax and other revenues, and revitalize an economically distressed city.

Kelo is also significant in the response that it has stimulated at the local and state levels. Some local governmental bodies have already reacted—giving property owners additional protection against condemnation for redevelopment in order to prevent a Kelo-like takings of one person’s private property for redevelopment.

The Kelo case was compared to an Illinois case, Southwestern IllinoisDevelopment Authority v. NationalCity Environmental, LLC (the SWIDA case), which involved an effort to condemn land by quick take for a parking lot benefiting a racetrack. This use was ruled not a “public use,” but a “purely private taking” that could not withstand the scrutiny of the public use requirement. In addition, there was no blight. Therefore the condemnation was held to be invalid.

Greg Vanderlaan’s presentation was a case study demonstrating a practical approach to the cleanup of a large brownfield site—the old International Harvester/Wisconsin Steel site. The site was broken down into smaller parcels with differing characteristics and contamination issues. The “easier” parcels were addressed first, accomplishing cleanup and allowing the parcels to be sold for redevelopment. This generated cash flow, helping facilitate the remediation of the more difficult areas. Technical efficiencies were also achieved including the ability to re-use slag as fill material.

Scott Goldstein showed a number of examples of land use configurations that accomplished numerous environmental benefits. Notably, he demonstrated how creative platting, which took into account the natural environment, resulted in more attractive and marketable properties, while preserving natural features. Other benefits include reducing the required infrastructure, including roads and utilities, among others. While showing a slide that compared a traditional “grid” to an environmentally sensitive plat, Goldstein said that he often asks mayors and public officials which town they would rather govern—the one with the creek running through a number of properties or the one preserving natural space around that creek.

Finally, Henry Henderson, Chicago’s first commissioner of the environment in the early 1990s, had an opportunity to provide his observations, commenting more globally on the overall subject of the great progress that had been made to improve Chicago’s urban environment.

Law Students, This May Be Your Chance to Be Published

The ABA Section of State and Local Government Law is offering law students a chance to possibly be published in the Section’s Urban Lawyer.

Each spring the Section solicits “Hot Topics” articles on topics of peak interest to lawyers. The best are then published in the summer issue of The Urban Lawyer.

This year the Section’s Environmental Law Committee would like to extend an invitation to law students to submit a Hot Topics paper related to environmental law. If this is your area of interest and you would like to have a chance to have your article published and also present your paper during the Section’s Spring Meeting in San Diego, send your article to Jack Minan, Environmental Law Committee Chair, ABA Section of State and Local Government Law, 321 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60610, or via e-mail at statelocal@abanet.org.

Submissions must be received by Monday, February 6, 2006.