5 minute read
POLITICS
photos courtesy Rupal Chaudhari
Transparency for Travis County
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Travis County business owner and immigration attorney Rupal Chaudhari never considered running for public office until her business was threatened by public safety issues. She began studying the causes and impacts and realized local elected leaders were not going to give her the answers she needed. As the 2022 Republican nominee for Travis County Judge, Chaudhari is on a quest to bring accountability and transparency to residents and keep Travis County open and safe for business.
“Overcoming the volume of party votes is just one of the challenges in my campaign but there are many drivers in elections and things are changing,” Chaudhari said. “Growth will continue to come to Travis County and people are frustrated. As an immigrant, I have so much love for the city and county and I know people are simply looking for common sense solutions.”
CLARIFYING ISSUES
Chaudhari’s concerns mirror Williamson County’s, as last year the City of Austin voted to spend $9.5 million to purchase and use Candlewood Suites as a homeless shelter. Despite being owners of the adjacent property, the Chaudharis had to learn about the plan in the newspaper. Among other grievances, they worry that the shelter will house only 50 residents and is located near schools and businesses but far away from relevant social services. She said, “The solution is not simply giving people a place to live. We must also provide services to support the mental health and addiction recovery needs that are proven to be the source of much persistent homelessness. I studied the problem and spent three and a half months just getting a meeting with officials. I made a 45-minute presentation and, 18 months later, I still have no answers.” Her concerns for the business community are many. “We have a customer-facing business and we sometimes find needles on our property. Homeless individuals come for the hotel’s free breakfast and become hostile when they are asked to leave. We can call the police but the calls might go to voice mail, then none will come—which is another problem in need of a solution—and I cannot be there 24/7 to protect my employees. I know it is the same with people panhandling and shoplifting at gas stations and convenience stores. Travis County will not prosecute theft under $1,000 but that is unsustainable for a small business.” She added that while stores have insurance for such things, making claims on a regular basis drives up premiums and there are still deductibles to be paid every year, which along with daily shrinkage can drive a small company out of business. “It is not that the money isn’t there for services and solutions. It’s that the spending is out of control,” she said. “As a business owner, I understand it is my responsibility to question my employees regarding the best use of our revenue. If a service or a program is not creating value, why are we still using it? Any good business owner will not continue to say she doesn’t know where the money went and, instead, just continue to horse trade to get from one thing to the next. Buying a hotel in another county does not make the problem disappear.”
EMPLOYER ISSUES
According to Chaudhari, there are plenty of jobs to be had but Travis
County needs to assess how workers will be trained, where they will live, and how they will get to work. She said, “We are working against a high cost of living,
RUPAL CHAUDHARI HOLDS A BACHELOR’S DEGREE IN ACCOUNTING, A BACHELOR’S IN ECONOMICS, AND A MASTER’S DEGREE FROM ST. MARY’S LAW SCHOOL. SHE IS A LICENSED ATTORNEY AND HER BUSINESS HOLDINGS INCLUDE HOTELS AND AN ELECTRONICS COMPONENT DISTRIBUTION BUSINESS. SHE SPEAKS FOUR LANGUAGES AND IS A MOTHER OF TWO.
The Chaudharis (center), with Dawn Buckingham (candidate for Texas Land Commissioner), Congressman Michael McCaul, and Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell (right).
but also changes in generational workers. As well, many people left the workforce during COVID and are not coming back. This is particularly concerning in industries with specialized skill sets, first responders in particular, in which you can not hire someone without training.” She explained that many companies pay what the market demands but there remain many factors beyond the control of the county so the solution is to look at how to bring in more people.
While growth is inevitable and continuing, she believes current leadership is looking the other way. “We could see the growth coming in 2012 and planning should have been done then, particularly in support of small businesses. I encourage large corporate development but it is locally-owned businesses that make every municipality unique, and the small business owners do not need to be driven crazy with lengthy permit processing and taxes. My hotel should have taken 18 months to build but it took three years. Those extra months or interest payments and taxes could easily have driven us into bankruptcy. For every business that survives, there is still the need to raise consumer prices to manage debt.”
Chaudhari believes everyone has a pinch point. “Business owners have the jobs but how do they incentivize people who can’t live near their job, or can’t or won’t drive from Lakeway to Austin? Or how do we assure them that first responders will show up because they are not understaffed and overworked? The county may have no control over the cost of food and gas, but our local officials need to stop blaming state and national politics for local problems and command solutions where the rubber meets the road—in the housing we can make available in our county and rebuilding the morale of our police, fire, and EMS. The problem is not that we aren’t taxing enough to pay for those services, it is knowing that Austin city council gave themselves a 40 percent raise and everyone else in the city got 4 percent.”
CAMPAIGN ISSUES
Acknowledging the judge is the CEO of the county, Chaudhari believes experience as a business owner and skills as an attorney and accountant lend credibility to her ability to get answers to taxpayer questions. “The job requires accounting and compliance. Right now, everyone is looking at the problem but people are not acknowledging that when we hedge on our problems they will overflow to other places, including Williamson County. The current homelessness crisis began in downtown Austin and has already moved to Pflugerville and as far as northern Williamson County and will eventually become a problem for everyone else. When a problem gets too big, it will overflow.”
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