This year’s SC Municipal Attorneys Association Annual Meeting and Continuing Legal Education Seminar, taking place December 13 in Columbia, will take a closer look at standardizing business licensing practices under Act 176, as well as managing requests under the SC Freedom of Information Act. As in prior years, presenters will review the year’s federal cases, recent opinions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court, state cases and state legislation affecting local governments.
An affiliate of the Municipal Association of SC, SCMAA provides resources, consultation, training and networking for city and town attorneys. In past years, these meetings have featured sessions on the legal processes of closing nuisance businesses, short-term rental regulation, land use and zoning matters and state law preemption.
Here’s some of the more specialized topics to be included at the 2024 meeting:
Business licensing standardization
The conference will offer a presentation on administering business license appeals after Act 176 of 2020, the Business License Standardization Act. Because Act 176 provides a mandatory appeals process for business license assessment disputes, municipalities with business licensing have been working to ensure that their local appeal processes comply with the law. Having a clear — but also legally compliant policy — can help improve business licensing efficiency and to create an adequate record for possible further appeals.
The Municipal Association has recently updated and expanded its webpage gathering together all of its business licensing resources, including sample documents for the appeals process. Find more information online.
The SC Freedom of Information Act
The SCMAA meeting will offer a review of advanced FOIA topics. The law requires municipalities to provide timely and accurately responses to FOIA requests, but at the same time, municipalities often receive FOIA requests that are difficult to fill: for voluminous email records, or for entire personnel files. The session will explore these difficult aspects of FOIA responses in depth.
Parliamentary procedure
The conference will include a one-hour training session on parliamentary procedures for local government attorneys. Although parliamentary procedures are complex and sometimes confusing, city and town councils can function fare more effectively and efficiently when they understand and comply with orderly procedures.
The registration deadline for the SCMAA Annual Meeting and Continuing Legal Education Seminar is Friday, December 6. Find the agenda and learn more online.