TipSheet: Travis County, 1.26.21

The Travis County Commissioners Court meets every Tuesday at 9 a.m. To help our readers stay informed, each week we offer a selection of interesting items from the voting session agenda. The entire agenda is available at the Travis County website. The meeting will be streamed live on the Travis County website and the Travis County YouTube channel.

Special Joint Meeting

Monitor’s Take: Tuesday’s Commissioners Court deviates from most, as the Austin City Council will be joining the Jan. 26 meeting remotely for a Special Joint Council/Commissioners Court Meeting. They’ll get the Covid-19 brief from Dr. Mark Escott, a Commissioners Court regular. Last week, we heard that Covid cases in the county seemed on the verge of decline. Tune in today to hear whether the trend continues – at the Monitor, we have our fingers crossed. Expect the Covid brief and the subsequent Q&A to occupy the majority of the time.

Item 3: Consider and take appropriate action to approve the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) Community Development Block Grant CARES Act (CDBGCV) for $414,722.92 in CDBG-CV grant funds.

Monitor’s Take: The commissioners will decide whether to approve grant funds in the order of just under half a million dollars for the TDHCA, made possible through the CARES Act. The CDBG-CV funds, as part of the CARES Act, are intended to help respond to the spread of Covid-19. These funds have so far been allocated to various nonprofits around the state. A previous round of the same type of funding went to the NHCD for a homelessness prevention project in Austin.

Item 6: Consider and take appropriate action to approve the Austin Diaper Bank FY ’21 Partnership Agreement.

Monitor’s Take: Item 6 concerns a deal with Austin Diaper Bank that the county has continually renewed for a number of years. If approved, the plan will allow for the distribution of thousands of free diapers to low-income families through the Healthy Families program. (It’s the best diaper-deal in the history of diaper-deals, in our estimation: Expect this one to pass.)

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