Draft January Minutes — original pdf

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AUSTIN TRAVIS COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH COMMISSION Wednesday, January 7th, 2025 AUSTIN TRAVIS COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, January 7th, 2026 The Austin Travis County Public Health Commission convened in a regular meeting on Wednesday, January 7th, 2026, at 301 West 2nd Street in Austin, Texas. Chair Natalie Poindexter called the Austin Travis County Public Health Commission Meeting to order at 2:32 pm. Board Members/Commissioners in Attendance: Natalie Poindexter, Chair Jawad Ali Chris Crookham Cara Dahlhausen Board Members/Commissioners in Attendance Remotely: None Enrique Lin Shiao, Vice Chair William Rice Martha Lujan Jacob Whitty Board Members/Commissioners Absent: Larry Wallace, Jr Ex-Officio and Staff in Attendance: Adrienne Sturrup, Direcor, Austin Public Health Dr. Desmar Walkes, Austin/Travis County Public Health Authority Daniela Romero, Staff, Austin Public Health Juanita Jackson, Staff, Austin Public Health Ex-Officio and Staff in Attendance Remotely: Perla Cavazos Ana Almaguel Ex-Officio and Staff Absent: NONE PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: GENERAL None Megan Cermak, Director of Public Health Strategy, Policy and Disaster Response, Central Health APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. Approve the minutes of the Austin Travis County Public Health Commission regular meeting on January 7th, 2026. The minutes for the regular meeting of November 5th, 2025, were approved on Commissioner William Rice’s motion, Commissioner Chris Crookham second on a 5-0 vote. (Abstaining: Commissioner Jawad Ali, Off-Dais: Vice Chair Enrique Lin Shiao & Commissioner Martha Lujan, Absent: Commissioner Larry Wallace, Jr.) DISCUSSION ITEMS 2. Received updates from commissioners on assigned actions items. The Commission reviewed the status of several ongoing projects and action items. UT & Harm Reduction, Commissioner Dahlhausen and Commissioner Whitty: Item has hit a wall with UT due to lack of response from them. Item is being tabled for now but will revisit in the future. “Cap & Stitch” Project, Commissioner Crookham: A draft is being developed to advocate for using tax revenue from the project to address public health funding gaps. Commissioner aims to complete a draft recommendation by next month’s meeting. Sexual Health Funding Recommendation, Commissioner Whitty: A draft recommendation is in progress. Commissioner is waiting on specific data and fiscal information from APH to justify the requested dollar amounts. Capital Metro/Del Valle Transportation, Commissioner Martha Lujan: Currently waiting for a response from CapMetro. Goal is to coordinate a multi-agency meeting in addition to scheduling a presentation from CapMetro on a future agenda. 3. Discussed revised Harm Reduction Outreach Expansion recommendation. Commissioners expressed general support for the finalized draft presented by Commissioner Dahlhausen. No further revisions were requested by members present. Commissioner Dahlhausen will send revised document to Travis County Health & Human Services for final revision before final submission. 2 DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS 4. Discussed and approved goals for the 2026 fiscal year. Commissioners discussed several goals for them to focus on in 2026 including focusing on local level intervention, engaging local stakeholders and addressing lack of public health education. Commissioners decided to postpone goal setting for next month’s meeting to allow commissioners to streamline their ideas. No action was taken at this time. 5. Discussed and approved the 2026 annual schedule of the Public Health Commission. Commissioners discussed and agreed on the following topics of discussion for their meeting from now until June 2026. Items included presentations focusing on food insecurity, harm reduction, recommendation discussion and approval. Commissioners agreed to focus on the set topics in the coming months, with the understanding the set schedule is tentative depending on outside organizations’ availability. The motion to approve the 2026 annual schedule passed on Commissioner Chris Crookham’s motion, Commissioner Cara Dahlhausen’s second, on a 8-0 vote. (Absent: Commissioner Larry Wallace, Jr.) FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Draft “Cap & Stitch” recommendation by Commissioner Crookham. Vote of finalized Harm reduction recommendation. Presentation by OneVoice on their work on food insecurity. Presentation by Refugee Services. Presentation by Texas Food Services. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS ADJOURNMENT Chair Natalie Poindexter adjourned the meeting at 3:56 p.m. without objection. 3