Howard proudly ruffling feathers her third year in office

For Travis County Commissioner Ann Howard, this year was all about employing the institutional knowledge she gained over her first two years in office.

“You know, I found the bathrooms and the light switches, and I’m sort of recognizing the themes and the issues, knowing who to call and understanding where my colleagues are coming from and how the different departments operate,” Howard told the Austin Monitor. “So I was feeling more comfortable with trying to influence the court.”

Howard’s Precinct 3 stretches from downtown Austin to beyond Briarcliff on Texas 71 to Jonestown on RM 1431 and includes the growing communities along RM 620 and U.S. Highway 183.

“Westlake, Lakeway. Now Bee Cave and Lago Visa are part of Precinct 2, but I have land and people all around them and beyond them,” Howard said. “It’s just a big area. So that’s been another thing – getting to know all of the different jurisdictions and the leadership. It makes for very full days.”

The regional work is where Howard thinks her skills can be best put to use.

“What happens in Travis County is really influenced by what’s happening around us,” Howard said. “That’s sort of where I can bring my people skill strengths – in getting to know people (and) getting them to have a good view of Travis County through my relationship with them. So I like that work.”

In 2021, the Commissioners Court pledged $110 million of its American Rescue Plan Act funds to solve housing and homelessness challenges within the community. This year, the court allocated the remaining $51 million into partnerships with private nonprofits including Caritas, SAFE, LifeWorks and Integral Care.

“That’s some of the work that, my goodness, it takes a long time,” Howard said. “I’m so glad that the federal dollars do have time constraints. You have to commit the money and spend the money. It does help the county and the community work with some deadlines and some urgency.”

Howard acknowledged that public and private development has faced challenges since the pandemic because of supply chain issues and changing interest rates.

Still, “that sort of one-time, catalytic investment by the county in affordable and supportive housing I think will be and is a game changer,” Howard said. “The city is working closely with us, and thankfully we had the city’s affordable housing bond funds that also are seeding and filling gaps in development of affordable housing. The private sector has made big investments with our nonprofits to keep their work going. It’s taking too long because people have needs today. But I think the investments in housing and services, it’s a game changer.”

With regard to emergency response and the potential for another severe winter storm in 2024, Howard said the county should prepare for flooding in addition to the ice the region experienced this year.

“It’s just a matter of being ready,” Howard said. “So I’m really glad that EMS is working to bolster their community health paramedics, and we’re helping pay for that. The more we can have people out there – the paramedics in pickup trucks or SUVs instead of ambulances – they can get around easier on bad roads, and they’re building relationships with vulnerable people.”

Howard urged the community to continue working to prepare for natural disasters.

“We’ve done a better job of getting to know our neighbors and our first responders knowing where people – who are on oxygen or living alone or not ambulatory – where these folks are, but we certainly haven’t finished that work,” she said. “As Santa’s checking his list twice, I hope people are adding to their list the emergency preparedness kits and flashlights. You’ve got to be ready.”

Howard said she believes the court’s biggest achievement was the overwhelming voter approval of a historic bond package that included more than $500 million in road and parks projects.

“I just think that was a real statement about our future. It was just good work. It showed how the county works, how we engage the public, how we educate voters on what we’re talking about and how we partner with the private sector. So I just thought that was a win-win-win.”

On the subject of opioid overdose prevention, Howard’s priority has been hearing from the harm reduction community to learn the best ways to leverage its resources. She pointed to how the court allocated the first round of opioid settlement dollars it received this year, which included funding for Narcan, methadone services and peer treatment groups.

“Part of what the county had said was when we signed on to this lawsuit, if we got any money we would use it to repay the General Fund for the expense we incurred in addressing the crisis. But so what? We had spent a few hundred thousand dollars trying to get Narcan in the community. But this is a crisis, people are dying every day. So I said, I don’t want to reimburse the county, I want to spend this additional money on additional strategies to address the crisis.”

That ruffled a few feathers, she acknowledged. Ultimately, the court found a way to compromise by reimbursing the General Fund while also allocating additional funding to address the crisis.

“It was the county really authentically trying to figure out how to work differently,” Howard said. “I think we’re learning and we’re willing to learn and then willing to figure out, OK how do we fit within our framework of addressing a health crisis (and) how do we fit with what the public are telling us to do?”

Going forward, she is committed to working on the county’s ongoing water issues.

“Our whole county is in a drought part of the world,” she said. “When it rains, we’re lucky. But we’re also in demand for residential and commercial development. And so how do we juggle both of these things? You know, county authority, we don’t really have any authority over water. We have authority over fire protection and fire code and making sure development has access to water to fight a fire.”

She continued, “But the whole providing water, restricting water – we don’t have that authority. But from a public health standpoint, this is where I think our relationships matter. Because we’ve got to be communicating with the (Lower Colorado River Authority) and the (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) and the groundwater districts and the utility companies. We’ve got to know who these folks are and be thought partners at least. How are we going to survive with less water?”

Howard plans to continue urging the county to be aggressive on this issue.

“Even though they like to tell me we don’t do water – we can do water,” Howard said. “Or we’re all going to be without water. We’ve got to influence the water and the infrastructure that carries the water.”

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