BREAKING NEWS: TASO files lawsuit against the UIL

[HoopInsider_Cooper]

Austin, Tex.  – The Texas Association of Sporting Officials (TASO) has filed suit in Travis County District Court to block the University Interscholastic League (UIL) from what TASO sees as an illegal and unauthorized takeover of sports officiating in Texas. The lawsuit charges that the UIL not only is attempting to exercise powers that it does not possess, but that its proposed rule changes would create monopoly control over sports officiating and impose an illegal occupation tax.

The attempted takeover marks a serious rift in an otherwise cooperative relationship that has spanned 33 years. Until now, Section 1204 of the UIL’s constitution and contest rules has recommended that schools use officials registered with TASO for their varsity games. At the UIL’s Legislative Council meeting on Oct. 26, however, the organization approved new language requiring sporting officials to register and pay a fee with the UIL, rather than TASO, in order to officiate at UIL varsity games. The new rules, adopted in final form on Nov. 6, take effect July 1, 2010.

Although the UIL constitution states that it subscribes to the Texas Open Meetings Act, the TASO lawsuit alleges that the amendment was not publicized prior to the meeting, nor was TASO’s leadership notified of the planned change, even though two UIL representatives serve as ex-officio members of the TASO Board. Adding further insult to injury, Tony Timmons, an assistant athletic director for the UIL, allegedly attempted to intimidate and coerce Houston sporting officials two days after the October vote, telling them it would be “bye-bye” for those officials who did not comply with the new UIL registration scheme.

“It is a sad day when an organization such as the UIL that professes fair play and rule enforcement is not even able to follow its own rules,” said Austin attorney Gary Schumann, who brought forth the lawsuit on behalf of TASO.

“Although the UIL has the right to regulate its own members and their activities – the law will not allow it to use this power in a back-door fashion to regulate other professions and trades,” said Schumann, a partner in the law firm Savrick, Schumann, Johnson, McGarr, Kaminski & Shirley, L.L.P. “What are they planning to do next? Require that all the sod farmers throughout the state register with the UIL if they want to provide sod to football and baseball and soccer fields?”

At issue is what power, if any, the UIL has to regulate and/or tax sporting officials, who contract with and are paid by individual school districts. As it currently exists, the UIL’s legal status is unclear. Its only governing documents are its own self-drafted constitution. Over the years, various courts have wrestled with whether the UIL is a private association or a state administrative entity. Most courts have concluded that the UIL is simply a “voluntary-member association of Texas public schools.” The courts have further noted that there is no statute creating the UIL or empowering the University of Texas to create the UIL. The UIL professes to be a non-profit organization. The Texas Secretary of State, however, has no record of the UIL ever having filed any organizational documents.

In 2003, Rep. Joe Nixon (R-Houston) introduced House Bill 580 to abolish the existing UIL and replace it with a legitimate state agency having clearly defined powers. Nixon said in its current form the UIL does “not legally exist” and “has no legislative oversight” and “is not subject to sunset review.” Nixon’s bill, however, failed to become law.

TASO, in contrast, has a clearly defined mission and a long and distinguished history of advancing the ideals of good sportsmanship and fair play through qualified officiating and encouragement of respect for the authority of officials. Its roots go back to the late 1930s, when the Southwest Conference (SWC) recognized the need for training sports officials and developing local officials’ associations. The Southwest Conference Official's Association (SWOA) was established to handle football and basketball officiating duties. Many high school sporting officials joined the SWOA ranks in those early days, even though the association’s original focus was to train collegiate officials.

By 1977, the Texas football, basketball, and baseball officiating associations had joined together to form the Southwest Officials Association (SOA), a statewide governing body for high school officials. The SOA umbrella soon expanded to include volleyball, softball and soccer. Operating under the TASO name since 1999, the Austin-based professional trade association registers Texas sports officials, provides educational materials and training, promotes the professional interests of the officiating trade, and advocates on behalf of its members. TASO also conducts formal disciplinary hearings and oversight of its member officials. Its more than 15,000 members officiate at varsity and sub-varsity games throughout the state.

“Most of our members have been doing this a long time,” said TASO Board Chairman George Coit. “We do it because we love the sport and are concerned about the student athletes. We want the kids to have a fair and equal chance to win or lose. To do that, we need to have the best quality of officials out on the field.”

The TASO lawsuit, filed Dec. 3 in Travis County District Court, requests a temporary injunction against the UIL until the legal issues surrounding the UIL’s new rules are resolved.

“We don’t think the UIL has the power to do any of this, and we don’t want our members feeling pressured to pay what may be an illegal fee to protect their jobs until the court sorts this out,” said Coit.

On the surface, the UIL changes apply only to certain varsity sport contests, but TASO says the new rules requiring sporting officials to pay a special fee and register with the UIL would have a much deeper and widespread impact.

“School districts don’t contract with a few sporting officials for each individual varsity game and a whole different set of officials for each sub-varsity game,” said Coit. “They don’t have time to do that and it’s not efficient. They use the same group of officials for all their games. So if our members decide to hold off on paying the UIL fee, which essentially duplicates the fee they already pay the TASO association, they risk being shut out of all the games, not only the varsity ones.”

The TASO lawsuit states that the UIL, by virtue of its mandating a sporting official registration fee and its stated intent to form a “UIL Officials Department,” is seeking to usurp the functions of TASO and force all sporting officials in Texas to submit to the UIL as their representatives for obtaining insurance, lobbying, and looking after the interests of their profession. TASO’s attorney notes that UIL currently has no authority to undertake any of these “trade association” activities it now advertises on its website.

“If the UIL wants to engage in such significantly new operations, they would have to amend their constitution with the approval of their membership,” said Schumann. “They haven’t done this. Instead, a few of their staff members have initiated what seems to be a poorly thought-out raid on a respected professional trade association.”

Schumann believes this situation, which is being forced upon Texas sporting officials, is a clear conflict of interest.

“It is impossible for the UIL to operate as the sole advocacy group for sports officials in everything from obtaining insurance to lobbying, as the UIL’s website now implies it will be doing, because the UIL’s true allegiance is to their members, which are the school districts,” said Schumann. “That’s why the UIL currently has the sole power to set the pay scale and working conditions for sporting officials – they are negotiating the pay scale on behalf of their member schools. But now the UIL seems to think it can play both sides. That it can hold down the official’s pay per game and then run around to the other side of the field and operate as a pseudo-TASO entity and pretend it is representing the best interests of sporting officials. It doesn’t work that way.”

For its part, the UIL rules state that the new fee it seeks to impose would be “to help offset costs of programs for officials.” This explanation, however, makes little sense to TASO, whose individual sports divisions already produce training programs and educational materials that are highly respected within the sporting official profession.

“I have a hard time imagining the UIL taking over this function,” said Coit. “For example, we just printed 6,000 copies of our new baseball mechanics manual. The baseball division’s budget, which comes from TASO membership fees, paid for the printing expenses, but developing the manual was something our people did on a volunteer basis over the course of three years. They weren’t getting paid for it, but these experienced officials knew the manual needed to be done and they wanted to make sure it was done right. There’s a lot that goes into officiating a game properly. You don’t accidentally end up in the right spot to call a play. This is all stuff sporting officials have to learn. That’s why we focus so much on training.”

Of specific concern to TASO is the fact that the UIL rules, as newly approved, require all sports officials to register with the UIL if they want to practice in their profession and give the UIL the unfettered right to charge sports officials an unlimited amount in “fees” to offset the cost of the programs and services that the UIL in its sole discretion intends to provide.

“In short, the UIL is essentially empowering itself to charge an ‘occupation tax’ on a historically independent profession, without any limit or cap on its powers, and without giving sports officials any say in the leadership that would be controlling them and charging them fees,” said Schumann. “The fact is the UIL has absolutely no right to tax and regulate TASO’s membership. It is not a governmental agency and the legislature has given it no authority to impose fees, tax, regulate, require registration, or act as the sole or exclusive trade association of an independent profession.”  This gives new emphases to the phrase, “Taxation without representation.”

TASO is also asking the court to curtail the UIL from travelling around the state to meet with local TASO divisions and chapters. In these meetings, the TASO lawsuit alleges that the UIL has made substantial misrepresentations in an effort to coerce and intimidate TASO members into leaving the association and registering with the UIL rather than TASO. TASO further claims that the UIL has put pressure on local TASO divisions and chapters to turn over TASO monies and assets to the UIL. And, according to TASO, the UIL has tried to obtain proprietary TASO membership and contact information from the venders who provide “sign-in” software to TASO chapters.

“Basically, we’d like their guys to stop bad-mouthing our association and threatening our members until the court figures out what power the UIL has,” said Coit. “We’re hearing a lot of troubling things from our members, including that representatives of the UIL may have convinced some of our local chapters to turn over TASO dues money to the UIL. If this has happened, it would be illegal.”

The TASO lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order and temporary injunction to: (1) block the UIL from enforcing, implementing or taking any action to pursue the adoption of the Nov. 6 changes to UIL Rule 1204; (2) prevent the UIL, its employees and agents from taking any action to compel, coerce or encourage any person not to register with TASO as a sports official or to register with the UIL in lieu of registering with TASO as a sports official; and (3) bar the UIL, its employees and agents from charging or collecting any fee, tax or other revenue directly from any sports official as a condition of engaging in the officiating profession.

“It’s a shame that TASO finds itself in this position,” said Schumann. “We always advise our clients that litigation should be the last resort to resolving a problem. Unfortunately, the UIL’s improper efforts to push through this power-grab over Texas sports-officiating left my clients with no options other than filing this lawsuit.”

For more information about the TASO lawsuit, contact Gary Schumann at 512/347-1604 or 512/431-6544, or email [email protected]

[PoppaBearstarr]

This is going to get real interesting...... :o

[DP#1FAN]

That's sad.  >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(