During a Feb. 3 meeting, the Hays County Commissioners Court proclaimed Feb. 2026 as Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month, and voted on the termination of eligibility for the Hays County Central Appraisal District from the Hays County health care benefits plan.
According to the proclamation, one in three adolescents are subject to physical, sexual, emotional, or verbal abuse from a partner. The proclamation also recognized the importance of raising awareness to promote healthy, nonviolent relationships, stating that the Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center (HCWC) reached over 207,680 people through social media.
Once the proclamation was unanimously adopted, a statement was given by Melissa Rodriguez, the Chief Executive Officer of the HCWC.
“We provide a wide array of services, and dating violence is an integral part of that work,” Rodriguez said. “We recognize that domestic violence is not something that just begins after a relationship is in marriage. Often these patterns are developed early on.”
Rodriguez went over the prevention work that the HCWC does, including a downloadable prevention toolkit that was downloaded about 250 times and reached about 140,000 people. Rodriguez said that the toolkits were now available in Spanish.
“Its created worldwide reach. We have over 4 million downloads across the entire country, not just [in Hays and Caldwell County], but outside of [the counties] as well,” Rodriguez said.
The Commissioners thanked Rodriguez for the work done by the HCWC, emphasizing the importance of the center.
“I think it’s important for us to remember that these issues happen, and that we need to address them. We don’t need to stay silent about them, so thank [you all], so much,” Commissioner Debbie Gonzales Ingalsbe said.
The court also voted on terminating the eligibility of the Hays County Central Appraisal District (HCAD) from Hays County health care benefit plans.
HCAD plays a key role in assessing the value of county property for the purpose of property taxation. Appraisers within HCAD appraise upwards of 120,000 properties every year, according to the HCAD website.
Erik Granjeno, the director of Human Resources in Hays County, said that with rapid growth of Hays County, it was important to maximize the limited research that the department had. He also said that the department was self-insured, saying that he was unsure if HCAD being on the health care plan was in the interest of the county.
“Given in 2025 we did spend [just shy of] 730,000 [dollars] in claims paid for this entity,” Granjeno said. “And so I’m asking the court to consider terminating their eligibility to participate in the groups health care coverage effective [October 1] of this year to give them enough time to plan.”
Commissioner Walt Smith was in favor of the agenda item and said that HCAD was not involved with the county government and was able to attain health care benefits from the state government.
“It makes sense, you know, we have to change [since] we’re a growing county now and we [need to] reduce wherever we can find some savings, and I think this is probably a good step forward,” Commissioner Michelle Cohen said.
County Judge Rueben Becerra was against the termination of the health care funding because HCAD was a small organization, seeing it as a way to help the community.
“[This statement] is not a snub on the commissioners, but it’s a chance to show our worth in a way that is tangible, meaningful, and directly impacting our neighbors and ultimately in serving our community co-workers,” Becerra said.
Becerra followed by saying that he was a fiscal conservative with the interest of saving taxpayer dollars, but was equally interested in serving the community.
The vote ended in a 4-1 decision, passing the agenda item.
On a select amount of Tuesday’s the Hays County Commissioners Court meets at 9 a.m. Find out more on their website.
