Profiles in Government: Texas Water Development Board

The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) is a small but mighty force among state agencies, according to Chair Brooke Paup, who spoke recently at an Industry Insider — Texas event.

“Since our inception in the ’50s, we have committed over $32 billion to water supply projects throughout the state,” Paup told the audience. “It’s an enormous amount of data, the security risks are real. And that is why cyber is so important to me, and that’s why I have promised our executive director any resources he needs to shore up our cybersecurity. He has full faith in me to provide [our IT leaders] the resources … to secure us.”

Cybersecurity is the agency’s top IT priority, she said in November. Paup was appointed to the TWDB by Gov. Greg Abbott on Feb. 22, 2018.

The agency recently implemented a new project management system, which “will really help us get dollars out the door to projects — water infrastructure projects.”

TWDB is tasked with ensuring a “secure water system for the citizens of Texas,” according to Chief Information Officer Darrell Tompkins. It disperses funds to agencies across the state. Find a brief June interview with him here.

It has a “heavy cloud footprint” and manages large amounts of data that require zero trust, among other approaches. It is focused on data governance and cybersecurity and has a data governance officer and a cybersecurity officer. The board has fewer than 40 full-time employees.

The estimated general budget is $260 million overall, with a $9.7 million IT budget, according to Industry Navigator.* The IT department had the most procurement activity in January 2022.

Its largest IT spends this year were interagency spends with the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) valued at $5.2 million.

Regarding cyber, Paup said: “Those legacy systems are all over the state and it’s a huge issue. … I know that we’ve put a lot of time and money into trying to modernize state government, and I’m very proud of our efforts.”

*Industry Navigator is a product of e.Republic, which also produces Industry Insider — Texas.