County Magazine

Executive Director's Report

Fifty years ago, a group of county officials identified an urgent need for counties across Texas: workers’ compensation insurance. The Texas Legislature had just passed a measure mandating that counties provide this coverage to protect their employees. In response to this need, the first iteration of the TAC Risk Management Pool was created.

During the past 50 years, the TAC Risk Management Pool has grown as new needs have arisen for our members, including adding coverage lines for automobile liability, automobile physical damage, general liability, property, public officials' liability, law enforcement liability, and our newest coverage for cybersecurity protection. Thank you to all members who have made the TAC Risk Management Pool the success it is today. We continue to focus on identifying the needs of our members, including mitigating risk and providing unbelievable customer service. We are grateful for your trust.

This year, our focus is on ensuring we remain a trusted resource for our members, your constituents and our lawmakers on the state and federal level. I have embarked on a listening tour to identify what the needs are for counties of all sizes and geographic regions in the state. We take our responsibility to you seriously and want to ensure we are true to our mission to unite counties to achieve better solutions. Now that most of the primary races around the state have been decided, it will become even more important for counties to be united. Several representatives in the Texas House who took the time to understand counties and our needs lost their reelection bids. Now is the time to start sharing the county story with those who will be new members of the Legislature when next year's session begins and reuniting with those who will be returning. There are many tools available to assist you in these efforts on our website for Texas Counties Deliver. This summer's TAC Legislative Conference is also designed to provide you with the pertinent information you need as we navigate the upcoming legislative session.  

Thank you to all our election officials and workers who helped ensure that the March primary elections were safe, secure and well run. You are the front line of democracy in this state. We appreciate the endless hours involved in carrying out this important duty. For those who have not had an opportunity to attend our County Elections Academy, we hope you will check it out when we offer it again next spring. Our goal is to assist you in staying abreast of trends, changes and challenges in the election process.

We have a busy spring and summer as we make our way around the state, providing education and training for county officials and their staff members. You can find the schedule of events on county.org. I look forward to seeing you somewhere down the road this summer and hearing more about the needs of your county. We are stronger together.