Be Aware, There’s Rats!!

The Texas
Department of Insurance is infested with rats.

On Jan. 16, an employee at the Texas Department of Insurance noticed an unwelcome pest in her fifth-floor office in one of the towers of downtown Austin’s William P. Hobby Jr. State Office Building.

Her maintenance work order described the encounter: “Rat was in the ceiling and just poked his head out to look at an employee.”

KERA
news details the rodent infestation that is causing the State to consider
selling the property.

The building’s rat problem is just one of many deficiencies that lawmakers have pointed to as they seek to rid the state of the property this legislative session. Bills moving through both the House and Senate would allow the state to auction off the building. Lawmakers have consistently referred to the building as an “underperforming asset” that is too expensive to maintain.

“To use well chosen words, it’s an embarrassment,” said Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, at a Senate Committee on Business and Commerce hearing earlier this month.

Watson authored one of those bills, Senate Bill 1349, which was voted out of the Senate earlier this month and now heads to the House for consideration.

Even if Watson’s legislation passes, it could take several years to sell the building, Watson said. He said some of the employees may be relocated to new buildings on the Capitol grounds that will be created by the Capitol Complex construction project and are expected to begin occupancy in 2021, according to the project’s website.

The rat
infestation does not affect TDI’s related agency, the Division of Workers’
Compensation, whose central office is located in southeast Austin, near the
airport.