What does it mean to be homeless? It depends who you ask. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development applies the term to a variety of living situations, including people living in places “not meant for human habitation,” those in emergency shelters or transitional housing, those who are about to leave jail or a […]
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 inThe Code
Committee fails to endorse lobbying rules changes
The City Council Audit and Finance Committee voted unanimously on Wednesday to forward changes to the anti-lobbying ordinance proposed by the city staff to the full Council, but did so without a recommendation. Three members of the committee, Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo and Council members Alison Alter and Leslie Pool, were in attendance, with […]
Posted inCity Hall
Audit raises questions about on-call pay
Although Austin has a citywide procedure governing on-call and call-back pay, the Office of the City Auditor has found that the procedure is not consistently applied, and the city’s Human Resources Department has apparently not evaluated call-back pay since 2012. That’s according to an audit approved by the City Council Audit and Finance Committee last […]
Posted inCity Hall
Council members blast city savings program
Members of the City Council Audit and Finance Committee on Wednesday expressed outrage over the lack of oversight exercised by the city’s Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Department in administering a program designed to help low-income residents learn how to handle money. As reported by the Austin Monitor, the audit performed by the Office of […]
Posted inCity Hall
Audit: Lax oversight in city savings program
City employees overseeing a program to help low-income residents pay for school, buy a home or start a business failed to provide the oversight necessary to prevent waste of city and federal dollars, according to a draft audit from the Office of the City Auditor. The program, called the Matched Savings Account, allows participants to […]
Posted inAustin
City’s homeless services not coordinated
Austin lacks a single coordinator to oversee all of its activities and expenditures relating to the homeless to make sure that they are operating efficiently, according to an audit released by the Office of the City Auditor on Monday. In addition, the city needs to coordinate with outside groups, such as the Ending Community Homelessness […]
Posted inCity Hall
Audit: City jobs programs disorganized
The city’s workforce development programs are neither well-planned nor well-coordinated, and the city does not have reliable data to evaluate the success of the programs, according to an audit released last week by the Office of the City Auditor. The audit, which was presented to the City Council Audit and Finance Committee by Assistant City […]
Posted inThe Code
City regulations may create more homelessness
City ordinances prohibiting panhandling in certain areas, criminalizing camping in public places, living in a car or tent, or sitting or lying on the sidewalk in parts of downtown are creating barriers that make it more difficult for people to overcome homelessness. That’s the conclusion of an audit from the Office of the City Auditor […]
Posted inCity Hall
Audit: Public Works skipped quality controls
The Public Works Department, which oversees the city’s capital projects, like the new Central Library and Water Treatment Plant 4, has failed to “consistently follow processes designed to contain costs and ensure the quality” of such projects, according to a report released by the Office of the City Auditor on Wednesday. City Council’s Audit and […]
Posted inDevelopment
Audit shows big problems with demo permitting
The Office of the City Auditor has found that the city’s demolition permitting process is not designed efficiently and contains gaps that allow unsafe practices during demolition. According to an audit approved by the City Council Audit and Finance Committee Tuesday, the two departments in charge of demolition permitting, Development Services and Planning and Zoning, […]
Posted inCity Hall
Austin’s fleet maintenance costly, audit shows
The cost of providing routine oil changes and inspections of the city’s light-duty, nonpublic safety vehicles is more than twice the cost of an oil change and inspection at a private company, according to an audit released by the Office of the City Auditor on May 31. Auditors found that an oil change and multipoint […]
Posted inRoads
Fixing street cut repair program to take time
City Council Member Ellen Troxclair said she was “really alarmed” when she read the Office of the City Auditor report showing that the city has a 3.6-year backlog in repairing potholes created by utility crews fixing water lines. That’s the number even if there were no new street cuts during that time. Members of the […]