18843_Authority_Dec

By Michael Hann As a new municipal authority board member, there are many things to learn about your new position, especially the importance of the Municipality Authorities Act (“Act”). Understanding municipal authorities and the responsibilities that they possess can be difficult to comprehend. As a new municipal authority board member, there are many questions that may arise when discussing an authority’s powers, jurisdiction, and obligations. The Act provides details that can help explain unanswered questions. However, within the Act there remains more questions because of unclear verbiage, that require more explanation or review. Reading the Act myself, I found some language to be ambiguous, and I compiled a list of questions that I thought needed more explanation that new authority board members may find useful. Section 5602 of the Act features key definitions used in the statute. One question that I had specifically within this section involved the definition of municipal authorities. The new board member must understand that when reading this statute, any reference to municipal authorities means the incorporating municipality and not the authority to which that person will become a board member. Therefore, as an example, when the Act states that municipal authorities appoint board members, it is the incorporating municipality, not the authority, that makes the appointment. Section 5604 details the process in which municipalities join and withdraw from joint authorities. When reading this section, I found it unclear exactly how a municipality becomes a part of an authority if the authority was not originally incorporated by the municipality. The requirements relating to joint authorities are more complicated than if an authority is incorporated by a single municipality. Therefore, board members must be aware of the Act’s procedures if a neighboring municipality wants to join an existing authority. It is important to note that an authority cannot automatically accept another municipality as a member of the authority because the municipality itself must publicly state its intent to join the authority via public notice. Similarly, if the municipality wants to withdraw from an authority, it must go through the same public notice requirement as it would when becoming a member of the authority. It was also unclear the specific reasoning as to why municipalities are permitted to withdraw from an authority after an obligation already had been incurred by an authority. One issue that must be considered by authority board members is whether the municipality withdrawing from the authority entered into any agreements with the authority that may still need to be considered. Another provision that an authority board member must consider if a municipality withdraws from or becomes a member of an authority, is whether there needs to be a reapportionment of members on the board based on the new municipality or municipalities becoming part of or leaving the authority. The board members must be reapportioned to better represent the municipalities that are now part of the authority. Section 5605 relates to the amendment of an authority’s articles of incorporation. A new board member should understand that an authority may amend its articles of incorporation for various reasons, such as amending its powers under its original articles of incorporation or increasing or decreasing the number of members on the board itself. However, the Act provides a clear procedure for amending an authority’s article of f irst t imE r EviEw of tHE m uNiCiPalitY a utHoritiEs a Ct : a ddrEssiNg K EY Q uEstioNs for N Ew B oard m EmBErs