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Travis County risk office seeks staff and systems as premiums, claims and compliance work grows
Summary
County risk-management leaders told the Commissioners Court they are consolidating data-protection and risk functions, facing rising premiums and large weather losses, and are asking the court to fund additional staff, a claim-management system, and ADA project management in the coming budget cycle.
Travis County officials on March 13 briefed the Commissioners Court on a multi-year effort to professionalize the county’s risk-management program and asked the court to consider budget requests for additional staff and systems to handle rising premiums, large claims and new compliance duties.
"We support Travis County as a whole," Brandon Rogers, chief information security officer for Travis County and director of risk management, told the court as he outlined a recent consolidation that now places cybersecurity, HIPAA privacy, and risk management under a single programmatic area.
Presenters said insurance premiums have grown rapidly in recent years and the county is facing higher property, workers’ compensation and aviation costs. Joshua Kubiak, a program staffer, summarized drivers: weather-related property losses, rising replacement costs and expanded county facilities — "we're approaching 90" county buildings — and changes in deductibles and policy structures that could increase county exposure.
Claims data presented to the court showed hundreds of active matters. James Alvarez, risk manager, said the county typically sees roughly 250 auto-related claims and an average of about 150 open workers’ compensation claims at any time. Large weather events produced spikes in payouts: presenters cited 2021 and the 2024 freeze as years with multi-million-dollar losses.
Officials asked the court to support several resource requests during the upcoming budget process: personnel for a countywide driver-safety program that will run Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) checks and training; an additional adjuster to handle property and general-liability claims; a project manager to run an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) program and replacement of aging AEDs (automated external defibrillators); a claims-management system with employee-facing status tracking; an audit of claims and reserves; and funding to secure an aviation broker after a recent RFP.
"There are only 2 full-time employees and 1 contract worker right now dedicated to claims," Alvarez said, describing current staffing and the need for cross-training and backfill during absences.
County staff emphasized process consolidation and enterprise risk management. Rogers said the office is using industry frameworks — NIST for cybersecurity, PRIMA for insurance, ISO for enterprise risk — to reduce duplicate contract reviews and to standardize risk identification, treatment and reporting across departments. He told the court the office found many contracts were being reviewed multiple times by different units and that consolidating reviews should free staff capacity.
Commissioner discussion recognized the program’s expanded scope and the need to improve countywide coordination. A commissioner who co-chairs an ITS subcommittee said consistent, timely responses from departments have been a challenge and endorsed giving risk staff more tools to compel and support compliance.
No formal budget decisions were made at the work session; staff said they will submit formal budget requests for the court to consider in the county’s budget process.
