The Attorney Network Digest is an annual update for attorneys working with Community Action Agencies (CAAs). The digest will feature legal, governance, and financial resources and publications developed by CAPLAW over the past year that address issues unique to CAAs. If you have any questions about the Attorney Network or any of the issues discussed in this digest, please contact CAPLAW for further information.

Note to Executive Directors: If your CAA’s attorney is not yet part of CAPLAW’s Attorney Network, we invite them to join our referral list and receive the latest legal developments impacting Community Action.

In this edition:

Model Policies
Shared Services Agreement • Whistleblower Policy
Webinars
UBIT • Attorneys as Board Members
FAQs
UBIT on Employer-Provided Parking • Recovering Shared and Indirect Costs
Articles
Public Charge • Census 2020 • Head Start Disaster Relief • Cloud Computing

Model Policies

CAPLAW develops a library of model documents for CAAs and their attorneys on the legal parameters of a CAA's operations and transactions.

Webinars

CAPLAW hosts webinars on an ongoing basis addressing a range of legal and financial issues facing CAAs and the legal professionals who work with them.

While UBIT typically arises as a consideration for tax-exempt CAAs when they turn to revenue generating ventures as a way to diversify their funding, recent tax reform expanded the application of UBIT to situations not previously subject to the rules. Part One of the webinar series discusses the history and elements of unrelated business income rules, as well as numerous exceptions and exclusions that may apply to CAAs, while Part Two discusses the impact of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on UBIT, including a new tax that nonprofit CAAs may owe on the expenses of providing parking to employees.

Presented by: Eleanor Evans, Esq. and Veronica Zhang, Esq., CAPLAW

This webinar examines issues unique to attorneys who serve as CAA board members. CAPLAW moderates a panel of attorneys sitting on CAA boards, who discuss topics such as the differing roles that attorneys on CAA boards might be asked to play, challenges lawyers could face as board members, how expectations can be managed, what potential conflicts of interest exist, and how to responsibly agree to represent the CAA.

Presented by: Jonathan Cohen, Esq., Michael L. Chaido, Esq., Leslie Scott Jean-Bart, Esq., and Tonmiel Rodriguez, Esq.

FAQs

CAPLAW's FAQ Archive offers answers to a range of questions covering topics that CAAs commonly face.

Articles

CAPLAW's eBulletin includes articles that address new and current legal issues specific to CAAs.

On August 14, 2019, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a new public charge rule that would deny green cards and visas to significantly more immigrants who use federal, state, and local government benefits. The final rule changes how U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services determines that an immigrant is likely to become a public charge, and thus deem that individual “inadmissible,” i.e., deny the person a green card or visa. Under the final rule, a person is inadmissible if that person is more likely than not at any time in the future to become a public charge, as determined by a totality of the circumstances test. The final public charge rule will go into effect on October 15, 2019.

The 2020 Census is just around the corner. The national Community Action Partnership and Community Action Agencies (CAAs) nationwide are gearing up to ensure that the entire community is counted. The Asian Law Caucus’s updated resource, The Citizenship Question, Confidentiality, Language Access, and Other Critical Issues on the 2020 Census, helps to educate community organizations, such as CAAs, about census-related issues and the legal parameters organizations must work within when performing census-related work. This resource offers useful legal guidance to better understand the census, the census survey process, and how to comply with requirements related to it. For additional information on the 2020 Census, including what role Community Action can play in it, please visit the National Community Action Partnership’s Census 2020 webpage.

On March 6, 2019, the Office of Head Start (OHS) issued Information Memorandum (IM) ACF-IM-HS-19-01 addressing Head Start grantees in areas affected by significant natural disasters, such as hurricanes, wildfires, and tornadoes. The IM offers Head Start programs flexibility in a number of operational areas when resuming or modifying their services to meet the needs of affected children and families, particularly those left homeless by the disaster.

To help CAAs understand the benefits and risks of cloud computing, this article highlights key differences between cloud-based applications and traditional hosted software, the potential impact that cloud software may have on a CAA’s operations and data security, and reasons your CAA may decide to adopt a cloud model. The article also provides a checklist of issues for your CAA to consider negotiating in its agreement with a cloud provider, to ensure your data is sufficiently protected.

This digest is part of the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Legal Training and Technical Assistance (T/TA) Center. It was created by Community Action Program Legal Services, Inc. (CAPLAW) in the performance of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Community Services Cooperative Agreement – Grant Award Number 90ET0467-02-00. Any opinion, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in these materials are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

The contents of this publication are intended to convey general information only and do not constitute legal advice. Any communication through this publication or through CAPLAW’s website does not constitute or create an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal advice, please contact CAPLAW or another attorney directly.