91. Judge Steve Snell | Williamson County’s Explosive Growth

I appreciate it.

Well, one of the things that, you know, my understanding of a county judge is you're more of a CEO and emergency manager than judge.

Right, right.

So think of it as the CEO of the county or the manager of a county or like, you know, I was superintendent of schools, kind of the superintendent of the county.

Yeah.

So there's things that the county judge has responsibility over.

So one of the main ones is emergency response.

And thankfully, or for better or for worse, I had a lot of experience as a school superintendent, as a high school principal, managing various crisis, whether it was a death in our community or a hurricane or a tornado or an ice storm, had a lot of those experiences.

So when I took over as county judge, And a couple months later, we had the historic floods in July.

You know, I had some experience to lean on, but even more important, the team, the emergency team of Williamson County is phenomenal.

They are qualified, they're experienced.

They have many facets, whether they used to work for FEMA, or Texas Department of Emergency Management.

So, you know, very capable, you know, swift, decisive actions to save life, save property.

And in Williamson County, I thought the team did a great job with that.

And then we had a chance to go down to Kerr County and learn from what the state was doing there and, you know, the tragedy and all the things going on.

Lots of moving parts, obviously, and lots of government efforts agencies all working together.

So it was remarkable to watch.

I wish we didn't have to do it because it was a tragedy.

But unfortunately,

tragedies will continue to happen.

It's just

definitely learned a lot.

And like I tell people, it doesn't matter because, you know, the next year was an ice storm.

It doesn't matter what the emergency is.

Williamson County is going to be prepared and we have experts in place to make sure we do it the right way.

I appreciate it.

Well, one of the things that, you know, my understanding of a county judge is you're more of a CEO and emergency manager than judge.

Right, right.

So think of it as the CEO of the county or the manager of a county or like, you know, I was superintendent of schools, kind of the superintendent of the county.

Yeah.

So there's things that the county judge has responsibility over.

So one of the main ones is emergency response.

And thankfully, or for better or for worse, I had a lot of experience as a school superintendent, as a high school principal, managing various crisis, whether it was a death in our community or a hurricane or a tornado or an ice storm, had a lot of those experiences.

So when I took over as county judge, And a couple months later, we had the historic floods in July.

You know, I had some experience to lean on, but even more important, the team, the emergency team of Williamson County is phenomenal.

They are qualified, they're experienced.

They have many facets, whether they used to work for FEMA, or Texas Department of Emergency Management.

So, you know, very capable, you know, swift, decisive actions to save life, save property.

And in Williamson County, I thought the team did a great job with that.

And then we had a chance to go down to Kerr County and learn from what the state was doing there and, you know, the tragedy and all the things going on.

Lots of moving parts, obviously, and lots of government efforts agencies all working together.

So it was remarkable to watch.

I wish we didn't have to do it because it was a tragedy.

But unfortunately,

tragedies will continue to happen.

It's just

definitely learned a lot.

And like I tell people, it doesn't matter because, you know, the next year was an ice storm.

It doesn't matter what the emergency is.

Williamson County is going to be prepared and we have experts in place to make sure we do it the right way.