The three-member board that finances most Texas water construction meets Oct. 14 for a work session at which, by the agenda’s own terms, it will take no final action on anything. The notice it will work from is the fourth the agency filed in a three-hour stretch, and the item on how the state will spend its newest water money is not on it.
The Texas Water Development Board lends and grants to cities, districts and water corporations for the projects in the state water plan. Its substantive item is a draft of the report it owes the Legislature by Dec. 1 on the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas, the revolving fund voters created in 2013 and seeded with $2 billion from the rainy day fund. State law requires that report every even-numbered year. The 2024 edition counted nearly $14.5 billion committed to 66 projects; a staff memo a year later put it near $17.2 billion across 71.
The filing sequence is the odder story. The agency posted the Oct. 14 notice at 12:53 p.m. on Oct. 6, revised it at 1:20, revised it again at 1:58, and filed a fourth version at 3:37. The first three carried a bullet for a Texas Water Fund implementation plan — written as “Texas Water Foundation” in the first. The operative notice does not carry it. The board has published no reason and the Dispatch found none.
That fund is the one Texans have twice voted money into: $1 billion approved in November 2023, then a dedication last November of up to $1 billion a year in sales tax revenue starting in fiscal 2028. The board’s own April accounting showed $716.5 million of the first billion committed, with the New Water Supply for Texas Fund — the piece meant to buy new supply rather than repair old pipe — sitting at $11 million of a $250 million allocation.
The last item is a discussion of water loss waivers. Utilities that borrow from the board must spend part of the money fixing leaks once their losses cross a threshold the board sets, and the statute lets the board waive that for a utility already addressing the problem. The notice says nothing further. Anyone wanting to speak must register by 8:30 a.m. Oct. 14. Nothing will be decided — which is the point of watching, since a work session is where the board’s thinking shows before it reaches a voting agenda.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 9:30 AM, Wednesday, October 14, 2026. TRD 2026005915 was filed October 6 at 3:37 p.m., replacing three earlier notices filed the same afternoon.
- Where
- 1601 Congress Ave., Barbara Jordan Building, Room 2.029, Austin. Visitors who wish to address the board must register online and email the agency by 8:30 a.m. the day of the meeting.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Water Development Board — three full-time members appointed by the governor. Chairwoman L’Oreal Stepney, named to the post in January 2025. Bryan McMath is executive administrator.
- Format
- A work session, not a board meeting: an executive administrator’s update, a financial programs update, public comment and a possible closed session. The notice states no final action will be taken.
- Live video
- The board’s regular agendas carry a “View Board Meeting Video” link to a state webcasting vendor. No such link appears on the Oct. 14 work session notice, and the Dispatch could not confirm whether it will be streamed.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · agency work session page
Board members
- L’Oreal Stepney — chairwoman; Pflugerville; engineer, former TCEQ deputy executive director.
- W. Brady Franks — Austin; former state budget director in the governor’s office.
- Ashley Morgan — Georgetown; attorney; term expires February 1, 2027.
Names, cities and terms are from the board’s roster page, checked October 7, and match the governor’s appointment releases for all three; no seat is vacant. The agency’s roster gives Stepney’s city as Pflugerville and her own biography page gives an Austin address; the governor’s release supports Pflugerville. Morgan’s seat comes up in under four months. The SWIFT dollar figures are the board’s own, from its 2024 report to the Legislature and a December 2025 staff memo; the agency’s SWIFT program page still carries a lower, apparently stale figure, which the Dispatch does not print.