March 25, 2008 ~ Farmers Branch City officials acknowledged on Tuesday that an annual license renewal form sent to some local apartment complexes in February contained language that was sent in error. However, the improper form did not specifically ask owners and managers to check tenants' legal residency status.

Fifteen apartment complexes in the City of Farmers Branch received the proper license renewal forms from the city in November of 2007. These forms had been used for a number of years. By February of 2008, only six of the 15 had returned their applications.Because of the delinquent status of their license renewal, the city re-sent application forms to the nine remaining complexes.

At that time, the supply of hardcopy forms had been exhausted. City staff used an electronic version to print new forms to send to the nine complexes. However, following passage of Ordinance 2892 in November of 2006, the electronic version of the form had been amended to "acknowledge receipt of a copy of the Article IV - Apartment Complex Rental of the Code of Ordinances of the City ofFarmers Branch and agree to abide by the same as a condition of licensing, including Section 26-116(f) of the Code of Ordinances relating to Citizenship or Immigration Status Verification."  This language references the portion of city code that is currently under injunction by the federal court.

Unfortunately, the electronic version of the application still contained the amending language dating back to November of 2006, and was inadvertently distributed to the nine delinquent complexes.

City officials said it is important to note that the City did not include a copy of the specified ordinances in the "late packet" with the unintentionally improper form.

City Manager Gary Greer characterized the incident as purely unintentional and unfortunate. "Our intent all along is to comply with all court orders," he said. "We sincerely apologize for the error and for any confusion this may have caused."

A letter explaining the error and containing the proper form is being distributed to the apartment complexes involved. A response will also be filed with the federal court.

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