I am proud of the programs implemented in the County’s judicial system including the Transformative Justice Program aimed at emerging young adults aged 17-24 and charged with a non-violent felony which helps them to develop mature decision-making skills and which upon successful completion clears the young person’s record. I’m a huge fan of the specialty courts for those charged with Drug and DUI offenses and the Veterans Court where those veterans accepted in the program may be facing a myriad of charges. We have very successful programs at the Central Texas Treatment Center in Granger and the powerful, trauma-informed program radically changing the lives of kids aged 10-17 in our Juvenile Justice Center. Our newest program is the Family Reunification Court for family which have been torn apart which, through targeted counseling and programs, works to bring family members back together and in stronger relationships.

Clean and available water for residents, recreation, and industry is always a challenge in Central Texas.  Water management is critical for balancing the needs of the public while protecting our environment for future generations of Texans. Safety for the public is a county responsibility as well.   Exploitation of the water table in Williamson County to provide additional water resources is uncertain with great risk to the public, especially for those families and business who rely on wells as their only water source.  Exploration of a variety of water sources is critical to supplying and sustaining life in this rapidly growing county.

Additionally, air and water are not constrained by geographical boundaries. We must work with our neighboring communities, states, and countries of the world to support growth in a viable manner.  As a member of the regional Clean Air Coalition, I and representatives of cities and other central Texas counties work together to define and fund air quality studies to support regional efforts to improve air quality including informing our constituents and commercial entities in Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson county areas of actions they can take. Our region is still in compliance with federal ground-level ozone standards which is critical for our health physically and economically.

Thoughtfully planned growth for the county includes environmental protections.  Mankind was tasked with dominion over all living things since the beginning of history.  This is a responsibility of extreme importance for our future.

Good roads, bridges, railway systems, public airways and airports, and ports are critical for personal movement and commerce. The public and businesses depend of them.  However our county’s population density remains insufficient to support a strong and wide-spread public transportation system integrating bus routes with rail service and Travis County services to reduce the use of cars for many residents. I represent Williamson County on the Capital Council of Governments’ Central Area Regional Transportation Planning Organization, CARTPO.  While we only meet quarterly, we are working on regional transportation issues. Williamson County is better situated than the other outlying counties but improvements are needed – again demand needs to be clearly present to increase service. Williamson County continues to create new and improved roads, bridges and intersections through our robust and citizen-supported bond programs. With limited federal and state funding, it is these bond-supported endeavors that help our citizens travel thru our ever-increasing traffic density and provide the foundation for continued economic growth.

A framework of protections includes more than borders, safety from invasions and crime. It covers regulation over commerce as to protect we, the People, from corporate corruption and greed.  This includes wise spending of our hard-earned tax dollars through a thoughtfully planned, annual county budget and with rigorously defined and followed processes, especially when contracting for services.  The Commissioners Court is a major economic driver in Williamson County with a very long list of contracts to provide county services and fill county needs.  We do have a strong evaluation and vetting process through our progressive purchasing department and sound contract management.

This includes livable wages and affordable housing. Our evaluations keep going up along with our tax bills. We don’t want to be Austin, nor reflect the California culture. The county is one of the largest employers in Williamson County. It could be a leader in Texas in supporting hard-working Texas families through innovative programs which team county leadership with the private sector. We do approve development of workforce housing apartment complexes who take advantage of federal dollars to create “affordable” rental properties, however we need to do more. We have no answer for kids released from the foster care program due to aging out at 18 and have no place to live and represent the largest percentage of homeless youth. There’s also those released from incarceration with no place to go, and yes, we have homeless individuals and families living under overpasses, bridges, and in parking lots. Our land costs are growing exponentially – how do we house them?

A quality education system is fundamental to sustain a vibrant workforce and to drive innovation.

Our businesses rely on it. Our families require it. While the Commissioners Court has no direct control over education, they do have the bully pulpit to draw the public’s attention to the failure of the state legislature to provide funding on per capita basis and annually tied to inflation and at least at the 50% level of actual cost to provide for each student. Otherwise we are forced as the citizens of the county to shoulder it through ever increasing property taxes. The 2023 legislation threatened public education with taking public funds and providing private school vouchers. While this failed to pass, despite huge state budget surplus that could have been applied to meet the current specified funding per student, nothing occurred and Texas remains underfunded on a per student basis in our public system.

We are blessed with education opportunities through Texas State Technical College in Hutto’s Eastern Williamson County Higher Education Center and ACC providing training and degrees in technical skills which are well paid with benefits and serve huge demands of industry for skilled workers. In Williamson County the Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area has formally introduced the federal program of paid internships in specific industries currently ballfield maintenance, culinary arts focused on hospitality industries, glass cutting and installation, HVAC, and plumbing and is seeking other industries to enroll in this formal program. Also at EWCHEC are Temple College and Texas A&M. We have an office for the Western Governors University, an on-line, accredited, very affordable, university with a variety of degrees. The administrative office is located in Austin (Williamson County) on eastern side of SH 183 off Technology Blvd.  We also have a campus of Texas State University and a Texas A&M Health Sciences campus in Round Rock and Temple College in Taylor.