As director of Austin’s Transportation and Public Works Department (TPW), Richard Mendoza is responsible for providing safe, reliable and accessible mobility services for all Austinites – no matter how they choose to get around. Under Mendoza’s leadership, TPW builds and maintains our city’s roadways, bridges, sidewalks, and urban trails; designs and delivers our capital and neighborhood partnering improvement projects; and provides safe routes to school for our children.

Mendoza joined the City in January 2017 as the director of Public Works and served in that role until he was asked to lead Austin Transportation in 2022 as the interim director. Following the merger of Austin Transportation and Public Works in spring 2023, Mendoza has overseen the new, combined department of more than 1,000 employees.

As director of TPW, Mendoza oversees an annual operating budget of $140 million and a portfolio of $1.4 billion in capital improvement projects.

Mendoza is a member of the American Public Works Association, served on the board of the National Association of City Transportation Officials from 2012 to 2015, and a 2012 graduate of the Atlanta Regional Commission Executive Leadership Institute. Richard and his wife Martha have 5 children, 8 grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter, all in Texas, with whom they enjoy family barbecues and recreational road trips.