“You don’t have to step very far away from City Hall to find some facilities that are badly in need of maintenance,” Deputy Chief Financial Officer Ed Van Eenoo told the Council Audit & Finance Committee on Wednesday. But funding maintenance needs represents a significant challenge to budget writers, especially under the newly enacted 3.5 […]
Austin City Council Audit and Finance Committee
A sub-group of the Austin City Council whose members are charged with oversight of city fiscal operations and anything that falls under the purview of the Office of the City Auditor. Reports and documents for the committee can be found here.
Posted inTransportation
Austin can afford to build only 3% of the 2,580 miles of sidewalk it wants, audit finds
The city of Austin has the resources to build out only 3 percent of its missing sidewalks, according to a new city audit. The mobility bond Austin voters approved in 2016 set aside $37.5 million to build and maintain city sidewalks over an eight-year period, but the audit released today suggests the Public Works Department […]
Posted inAustin
Austin’s homeless population still growing
Despite the expenditure of millions of city and federal dollars, and the fact that Austin’s efforts are frequently cited as best practices in other cities, homelessness is still on the rise here. Ann Howard, executive director of the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, told the Austin Monitor on Wednesday that she does not yet have the […]
Posted inAustin
City audit says Austin doesn’t effectively help people get out of homelessness – or measure progress
A new audit of the homelessness service providers in Austin says the city doesn’t always hold providers accountable. The report from the City Auditor found nine of the city’s largest contracts in 2017 met city benchmarks for service only about half the time. The audit is the final part of a four-part review of the […]
Posted inCity Hall
Transportation Dept. faulted in right-of-way audit
When Austinites are asked for their top complaints about the city, one of the most frequent responses relates to traffic. The central city is particularly congested and contractors working in the right-of-way exacerbate the problem. According to a report released by the Office of the City Auditor this week, efforts by Austin’s Transportation Department to […]
Posted inCity Hall
Homeowners share stories of home repair anguish
Austin city auditors found the Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Department home rehabilitation loan program left a significant number of homeowners unhappy with the work contractors did and frequently missed its own goals over a three-year period, fiscal years 2015-2017. Andrew Keegan was the audit manager and Henry Katumwa was the auditor-in-charge of the audit. […]
Posted inPolice
APD to make changes in mental health cases
As a result of Austin Police Department policies, “people experiencing a mental health crisis in Austin may be at higher risk of having a negative police interaction than people in a city that more closely aligns with best practices,” according to an audit report from the Office of the City Auditor, which was discussed at […]
Posted inCity Hall
Should Board of Adjustment have outside counsel?
Two members of the city’s Board of Adjustment argued strenuously in favor of providing outside legal counsel for the board when it is interpreting city code, but the assistant city attorney who has been advising the board for several years took the opposite stance at Tuesday’s City Council Audit and Finance Committee meeting. Board Chair […]
Posted inPolice
Traffic law enforcement still a hot topic
Even though traffic law enforcement and street safety is a top priority for the Austin Police Department, the majority of officers have little time to devote to such enforcement, given their other priorities, such as responding to citizens’ calls and engaging in community policing efforts. That is the major conclusion of an audit report produced […]
Posted inCity Hall
Visit Austin audit revised
The City Council Audit and Finance Committee accepted the results of an audit of the contract between the city and Visit Austin at last week’s meeting. The audit did not find any significant contract compliance issues with Visit Austin, which received $14.9 million from the city for the 2018 budget year. However, auditors found that […]
Posted inCity Hall
Committee wants more responses from chief
The City Council Audit and Finance Committee accepted an audit from the Office of the City Auditor Monday that faulted the city’s processes in dealing with recommendations from the Citizen Review Panel to the chief of police. All the members of the committee present agreed that the public needs more information about the results of […]
Posted inCity Hall
Health department faulted in foundation audit
Members of the city auditor’s staff have found that Austin Public Health’s monitoring process for contracts with the African-American Youth Harvest Foundation has been ineffective and that the department cannot verify that the foundation has fulfilled the intended purpose of one of its contracts with the city. The city currently has two contracts with the […]