About Commissioner Andy Meyers

• Commissioner Meyers, in 1999, successfully initiated and passed a Sexually Oriented Business Ordinance, keeping unsavory businesses out of the county and protecting our girls and boys from sex trafficking.
• In the 2023 Legislative Session, Andy used his long-term relationships with key legislators and officials in other counties to defeat an effort that would have eliminated a county’s ability to pass Ordinances, such as the one related to Sexually Oriented Businesses.
• Andy continues to work with various law enforcement agencies and public and private groups to prevent human trafficking from getting a foothold in the county.
• Commissioner Meyers is responsible for dramatically increasing the number of
• Law Enforcement patrols in the county.
  • He pioneered and expanded the “Contract Deputy Program,” which has put over 100 additional Deputies on our streets, who are funded directly by the subdivisions’ Homeowners Associations or the Municipal Utility Districts (MUDs)
  • In 2022, he proposed a “Compensation Study” for law enforcement personnel and first responders, which resulted in an average 16% increase in pay, which helped reduce the county’s significant vacancies in law enforcement staff.
  • He also proposed that the county waive the tuition for its Law Enforcement Academy, where Cadets get the education and training to pass the state exam to become certified Peace Officers and pay them for attending classes in exchange for them agreeing to go to work for the county. The County Sheriff embraced and implemented these proposals by hiring Cadets into his vacant positions. As a result, every six months, the county adds about 15 Academy Graduates after they pass the state exam to fill vacancies in the Sheriff’s Office.
  • His proposals have brought immediate benefits and continue to help put more Sheriff and Constable Deputies in our neighborhoods.
• In 1989, Andy, together with a fellow Baptist Deacon at Sugar Creek Baptist Church, initiated the efforts that became “Living Water International,” which helps global communities overcome debilitating poverty due to waterborne diseases and parasites or the lack of available potable water, by helping these communities obtain safe, clean drinking water. Living Water has completed 18,000 water projects over the last 30 years, helping hundreds of thousands in communities worldwide.
• In 1990, Andy and his late wife Janet worked with fellow Sugar Creek Baptist church members to form “Second Mile Mission,” which continues to feed hungry families, as well as provide clothing and medical/dental care to the needy and assist the homeless.
• Commissioner Meyers, in 1997, initiated successful efforts to improve the health and safety of the 4-Corners neighborhood, a minority community with limited resources that brought water and sewer service to the area.
  • In 1998, he secured a donation of 10 acres for a park and a commitment of 5 acres for a community center for the 4-Corners area.
• Andy is working to repair and upgrade the water, sewer, and drainage systems in the 5th Street Area, another neighborhood lacking sufficient resources, to ensure safe drinking water and minimize flooding.
• He initiated building three libraries, the North County Annex, a Safety Annex, and four county parks, including the first Cricket Fields and the first Pickleball Courts in the county.
• He is currently building the new Precinct 3 Annex in Sugar Land.
• For the last 37 years, Andy has been Board Chairman of the “Women’s Pregnancy Center,” helping women and families deal with a crisis pregnancy.

A True Leader and One of the Most Effective Commissioners in the State – Voted Best Elected Official in the County All 4 Times Contest was Held.

• Commissioner Meyers is the only Fort Bend County official and one of the few county officials in the state who has developed and consistently maintained long-term bi-partisan relationships with key state legislators and officials. These relationships have enabled him to repeatedly propose and help pass legislation beneficial to and defeat legislation harmful to Fort Bend County residents. These officials trust his judgment and listen to his advice.
• Commissioner Meyers serves as the county’s Representative to the Conference of Urban Counties (CUC), composed of 32 Texas Counties representing 80% of Texas residents. He serves on the CUC Policy Committee and is involved in all aspects of legislative action, whether supporting beneficial bills or working to defeat harmful ones.
• Andy served for 25 years as the County’s Delegate and currently serves as the Alternate Delegate to the Houston-Galveston Area Council of Governments (H-GAC), the region’s planning authority, involved in regional mobility planning, supporting regional 911 Emergency Response, regional workforce development, and administration of federal and state funds for disaster relief, economic development, etc. He created the H-GAC Water Resources & Flood Mitigation Committee and the H-GAC Legislative Committee as the organization’s Board Chair. He chaired both Committees. He led the Legislative Committee in proposing and supporting state legislation beneficial to the residents of the region’s counties and cities.
• Commissioner Meyers:
• Worked with key state legislators, Republicans, and Democrats in legislatively creating 5 of the 8 District Courts in the county.
• Secured legislation allowing counties to develop water and sewer systems.
• Secured legislation giving counties equal authority to cities in approving subdivision development in unincorporated areas. It made no sense that the city council, which residents in the unincorporated areas cannot vote for, had superior authority over elected county officials in approving development in unincorporated areas.
• Passed legislation after a 20-year effort that allows residents in the county’s unincorporated areas to free themselves from Houston’s control and undoing Houston’s “Taxation without Representation” scheme.
• Won legislative victories curtailing the shameful practice of Houston collecting millions in sales tax revenue from residents in the unincorporated areas who receive no services from Houston. His efforts now generate an additional $30 million per year in revenue for the county, which helps offset property taxes.
• Secured legislation permitting Fort Bend County to enforce its Parks Regulations.
• Helped defeat several legislative efforts to pass unfunded mandates that would have cost county residents millions more in taxes.

Leading the Effort to Control Spending and Reduce Taxes, Saving Taxpayers More Than $1 Billion.

• Commissioner Meyers, in 1997, initiated the creation of the county’s first professional Budget Office, providing greater control over county spending, which facilitated the reduction in the county’s tax rate.
• Andy has saved taxpayers over $1 billion and counting by leading efforts that reduced the County’s tax rate from 66¢, the highest in the region in 1996, to 43¢ today, one of the lowest, making Fort Bend more affordable and attractive to families and businesses.
• He saved taxpayers $35 million by convincing developers and landowners to donate land for two libraries, three parks, the North County Annex, and road right-of-way.
• He is currently working on obtaining donated land for four additional parks.
• Commissioner Meyers is leading the effort to prevent a dramatic increase in flood insurance premiums by working cooperatively with Levee Improvement Districts (LIDs), municipalities, and others.

Leading the Effort in Improving Mobility and Flood Mitigation.

• Commissioner Meyers proposed the county’s first successful Mobility Bond Program in 2000. Over the years, the County Mobility Bond programs have improved safety and accommodated our incredible growth, which helps maintain our quality of life.
• He initiated a program of cooperatively working with the Municipal Utility Districts (MUDs) to jointly repair and upgrade the county’s aging and deteriorating road and drainage infrastructure, dramatically expanding the number of good roads.
• He improved safety by installing the county’s first traffic signals in rapidly growing unincorporated areas.
• He built the county’s first round-a-bouts in the unincorporated areas, providing safer and more efficient traffic flow.
• He oversaw the design and construction of more than $400 million worth of mobility projects, allowing the county to keep pace with its explosive growth and providing a catalyst for more beneficial economic development.
• In 1997, Commissioner Meyers helped provide more significant congestion relief through the Fort Bend Toll Road Authority and The Grand Parkway Toll Road Authority in 2009.
• Andy worked for two years to convince Harris County to extend their Westpark Toll Road to the Fort Bend/Harris County line enabling the county to develop the West Park Tollway to SH 99, in 2005 and eventually to Fulshear in 2017.
• He utilized innovative financing that did not include property taxes to get the largest county mobility project, FM 1093/West Park Toll Road, $180 million, completed 20 years ahead of schedule.
• Commissioner Meyers has worked effectively with key state senators and Texas Department of Transportation officials to advance improvements to and completion of SH 99 (The Grand Parkway), FM 1093/Westpark Tollway, and other major thoroughfares years ahead of the original schedules.
• Andy conceived and proposed the SH 36A mobility project that has evolved into a major Texas Highway Corridor extending from Port Freeport on the Gulf Coast to the Dallas/Fort Worth distribution centers, providing more significant economic opportunities for the county and Texas.
• He supports a $712 million Mobility Bond Program for the November 2023 election.
• As Chair of H-GAC’s Water Resource Committee, Meyers secured $84 million in federal grants for the county for flood mitigation and Brazos River erosion control.
• Commissioner Meyers proposed Fort Bend County’s first successful Flood Mitigation Bond Program.

Making Fort Bend County a Leader in Economic Growth

• Commissioner Meyers is working to move Fort Bend County from a “Bedroom Community” to a place where residents can live, worship, play, and work. In addition to creating more local, well-paying jobs, his efforts will create more economic activity in the county, broadening the tax base to ease the tax burden on residential properties and enriching all residents.
• Commissioner Meyers currently serves on the Fort Bend Economic Development Council board.
• He proposed the creation of the Fort Bend Economic Development Department, which became the Fort Bend Economic Development and Opportunity Department.
• He funded an Economic Opportunity Study of the effects on the county of Port Freeport becoming a deep water port, confirming that Fort Bend County has an excellent opportunity to become a distribution center and finished manufacturing center for international markets. Because of the Study’s conclusions, Meyers has become a strong advocate for the continued deepening of Port Freeport and for the development of the necessary infrastructure to get cargo to and from the port.
• He proposed creating the Brazoria-Fort Bend Rail District to enable Fort Bend County to become an international trade center in Texas.
• Commissioner Meyers’ proposals to improve SH 36 and develop SH 36A have evolved into a Major Texas Transportation Corridor to move containerized cargo to and from Port Freeport to the Distribution Centers in Dallas/Ft. Worth will attract international trade to the US Gulf Coast of Texas and Fort Bend County from the US West Coast. Such a Corridor will provide a Hurricane evacuation route and move freight traffic around instead of through Houston, and it will expand our local economy, create well-paying jobs, and broaden the property tax base, reducing the financial burden on residential property owners.

In 2021, Andy proposed utilizing several million dollars of Federal “American Rescue Plan Act” (ARPA) Grants to fund an “Equity Loan Program,” administered by the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC).  The Program enables small businesses financially damaged by the government shutdown of companies in response to COVID-19 to borrow the “Equity” for a Small Business Administration or Bank Loan to reestablish or expand their business or start a new enterprise. As the Loans are repaid, the funds are re-loaned to others seeking to do the same.

• Fort Bend is the only county in Texas to fund such a program to help our small businessmen/women.

In response to Fort Bend County losing several opportunities to land significant industrial/manufacturing investments because of the lack of available and suitable sites, Meyers initiated efforts to develop “shovel-ready” industrial and manufacturing sites. He is working to introduce and pass legislation to allow counties to create “Industrial Development Districts,” which will not use residential property taxes.  Such Districts will be able to fund and develop readily available industrial and manufacturing sites, making the county and Texas more competitive in attracting significant industrial investments. Andy’s relationships with key legislators and state officials will be vital in this effort.

• In the 2023 Legislative Session, Commissioner Meyers proposed and worked in a bi-partisan effort to introduce legislation to create a Texas Advanced Research Institute and a Texas Nuclear Regulatory Agency to advance the development of the next generation of technology and nuclear power plants to help our Region and Texas become a technology powerhouse and also remain the Energy Capital of the world.
• An aspect of a Texas Advanced Research Institute will be a workforce development initiative to train workers for the new technology jobs resulting from the advanced research effort.
• Andy is a proponent of Small Module Nuclear Reactors (SMRs) and Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs), which can be designed to be safe, reliable, and affordable energy sources. They can’t meltdown, can’t explode, and are walkaway-safe. They can operate at three times the temperature of current reactors and, therefore, can be more efficient and flexible and could power multiple processes in addition to generating electricity reducing the cost of each process since they will share the cost of power. In addition, MSRs can use spent nuclear wastes from existing Pressurized Water Reactors as fuel and burn 95% of remaining nuclear wastes, significantly reducing a dangerous and hazardous material.
• In addition to providing reliable electricity more efficiently, MSRs can desalinate water and fractionate water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can then be combined with CO2 from the air or seawater to create a carbon-neutral synthetic fuel that can be used by the world’s 1.4 billion internal combustion engines.
• Since Small Modular/Molten Salt Reactors operate at much higher temperatures, they can simultaneously use “primary heat” and “waste heat” to produce electricity, synthetic fuels, and energy for other processes.
• These reactors also produce medical isotopes used to detect and treat various diseases.
• Commissioner Meyers is currently working with Nvidia, an advanced Artificial Intelligence hardware and software firm, to accelerate the development of advanced energy generation.
• A Texas Advanced Research Institute would also put Texas and our area at the forefront of developing advanced technologies, including medical devices and treatments, and providing high-paying jobs for our residents. No state has an Advanced Research Institute.
• Commissioner Meyers serves on the University of Houston Sugar Land Campus Advisory Committee. He is an Advocate for UH Sugar Land using its 167 acres on University Blvd. to create an Advance Research Center. He supports UH inviting Rice University and the Texas Medical Center to collaborate with it in all types of research. Such an institution will bring more research firms and investments to our area that provide exceptionally well-paying jobs.