The three-member board that finances most of Texas’s water construction meets Oct. 23 with exactly one item on its agenda it can vote on: naming a person to act on the board’s behalf while its executive administrator is away. Anyone who wants to speak to the board has to register with the agency by 8:30 a.m. that morning.
The Texas Water Development Board lends and grants money to cities, districts and water corporations for the projects in the state water plan. Its executive administrator is the staff officer who runs the agency day to day and carries out what the board decides. Bryan McMath has held the job since September 2024, after six months in it on an interim basis. The notice does not say why the board is taking this up now, whom it would name, or whether McMath expects to be away. Nothing in it points to a vacancy, and the agency’s roster page still lists him in the post.
It is also the only substantive line on the agenda the board has not flagged as taking no final action; the other two are standing reports on agency activities and on the board’s financing programs. The Water Code handles some absences: the chairman may name another member to act in his place, and the executive administrator may hand powers and duties to deputies. The Dispatch found no provision covering who acts for the board itself while its administrator is out, and no earlier board or work session agenda carrying this item. The agency has posted no materials for the meeting; its page for the session still read “Coming Soon” on Oct. 16.
That is a thin day for a board that moves real money. On Oct. 1 the same three members worked through 21 numbered items — new lending rates, two fiscal years of spending plans for the federal-state revolving funds that pay for most Texas water construction, and about $22 million in loan forgiveness for water and sewer work by six local borrowers.
Public comment is item 4, ahead of a possible closed session, and what the board says in the room is the only place the reason for the appointment is likely to surface before the vote.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 9:30 AM, Friday, October 23, 2026. TRD 2026006130 was filed October 15 at 9:58 a.m.
- Where
- 1700 N. Congress Ave., Stephen F. Austin Building, Room 540E, 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. Bryan McMath is executive administrator.
- Format
- Five numbered items: two standing updates marked no final action, one action item on the appointment, public comment, and a possible closed session.
- Live video
- The agency’s page for this session lists its only resource as “Coming Soon” and says nothing about a stream. The Dispatch could not confirm whether it will be webcast.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · agency session page
Board members
- L’Oreal Stepney, P.E. — chairwoman; Pflugerville; engineer; term to February 1, 2029.
- W. Brady Franks — Austin; former state budget director; term to February 1, 2031.
- Ashley Morgan — Georgetown; attorney; term expires February 1, 2027.
Names, cities and terms are from the board’s roster page, checked October 16, which shows no vacancy and matches the governor’s appointment releases for Stepney as chairwoman in January 2025, Franks in September 2025 and Morgan in October 2025. No appointment release later than October 2025 was found for this board. McMath’s start date is from the agency’s own executive administrator page, which gives September 4, 2024 and notes no interim or acting status now; the governor’s office addressed him as the sitting executive administrator in a letter dated September 14, 2026.