Williamson County department heads outline staffing, IT and facilities funding needs at budget hearing

Department heads and elected officials told the Williamson County Commissioners Court at a special meeting that they will seek dozens of new staff positions, expanded information-technology support and one-time facility and equipment funding as the county prepares next year's budget.

The presentations, delivered to the commissioners at a roughly 10:08 a.m. meeting, ranged across public safety, courts, elections, infrastructure, the tax office and other county operations. Officials repeatedly warned that federal grants and short-term ARPA positions are phasing out and that state or local funding will be needed to preserve services.

The point was underscored by County Attorney Diaz, who said the office currently has five ARPA-funded positions that it seeks to retain in the general fund and requested six additional hires — four attorneys and two investigators — to meet rising juvenile and discovery workloads. Diaz also urged continued investment in IT to process discovery and AG reporting requirements.

District Attorney Sean (district attorney) said his office will need to absorb three ARPA positions into the general fund and expects a new district court next year that typically brings nine employees; he estimated an immediate need for three staff and three more later depending on an emerging attorney general ruling. The DA also urged more IT resources, saying the office faces an enormous volume of digital evidence ("about 1,150,000 pieces of evidence" in cases at any one time) and limited attorney hours to review it.

Elections Administrator Bridget Escaladeo requested four new positions, including an internal GIS analyst, a ballot-by-mail coordinator and a voting-system analyst to manage programming, security and increased workload. She told the court the county has about 431,000 registered voters and warned that pending state and federal requirements to verify citizenship could require touching every record, substantially increasing staff time and mailings.

Sheriff Matt Levin, on his 101st day in office, requested about 37 new positions across patrol, corrections and investigative units, and said the county jail population that morning was 678 inmates; he noted a policy trigger at 700 that requires opening an additional pod and extra staffing. Levin also proposed a swing shift to reduce overtime during peak hours.

Emergency Services Senior Director Bill Zito outlined requests across EMS, emergency management, the fire marshal's office and emergency communications. Zito asked for a deputy director for emergency services, about eight paramedics, three lieutenants, four EMTs, a clinical captain, a logistics associate and additional preparedness staff. He also requested equipment replacements, ballistic protection pilot testing for at least one ambulance, body-worn cameras, ECG monitors and grant-writing contract funds.

The tax office asked for six additional front-line staff to serve roughly 300,000 annual visitors and to staff drive-through lanes at the county's new building; the director said the office is experimenting with inspection-station partnerships to reduce lobby volume. The office cautioned that increases in postage rates and transaction volume will raise operating costs.

Infrastructure Director Bob Day said the department seeks an engineer/planner to help with state-mandated "shot clock" reviews for plats and nine additional field staff, several of whom would require dump trucks or pickups. He noted some road-and-bridge positions are tied to a separate tax rate and could not be repurposed for other county needs.

The Expo Center reported construction of an 81,000-square-foot arena on the West Side and asked for one FTE (about $37,000 in ongoing salary), roughly $62,000 in annual operating dollars and about $127,000 in one-time equipment costs to support expanded events. Directors said revenue at the Expo has grown and event days have roughly doubled since FY20.

Animal Services and shelter leadership described a proposed shared facilities position with the county's facilities group to extend building life and maintenance; they also said Georgetown is discussing formally joining the county-run shelter as a partner and would fund a building to serve city animals.

Other requests included new GIS and courts-and-justice analyst positions in technology services, additional jury and court-clerk staffing from the district clerk, a nurse and vehicle replacements for juvenile services, and reclassification and possible creation of an independent risk-management department.

Multiple presenters flagged unfunded mandates and court or legislative actions that increase local workloads but do not supply ongoing funding. Several department heads asked the court to consider moving short-term grant-funded positions into the general fund to preserve services when federal or grant dollars end.

Commissioners and the county manager reminded presenters of key administrative deadlines: department budgets are due May 2, and the revised adoption calendar aims to finalize the budget by Aug. 26 rather than the originally planned Sept. 2. The court adjourned at about 11:39 a.m.