The appearance of two witnesses – one employee and one former employee of the city of Austin – at Wednesday’s City Council Audit and Finance Committee added a sense of urgency to the findings of an outside auditor’s report on the city’s practices in investigating harassment, discrimination and retaliation in the workforce. The audit, conducted […]
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 inCity Council
Audit: City needs new flood buyout policy
The Office of the City Auditor found that the city of Austin has provided the full cost of replacement housing for people displaced by flooding in the Onion Creek and Williamson Creek flood buyout areas, just as it was directed to do by City Council policy. That policy has proved to be expensive. Members of […]
Posted inCity Hall
Audit criticizes city’s historic program management
Citing a lack of staff dedicated to the city’s historic preservation program, an outdated fee collection system and inadequate coordination between historic preservation staff and those higher up in the chain of command, the Office of the City Auditor has concluded that the Planning and Zoning Department “is not effectively administering” the historic preservation program. […]
Posted inCity Hall, Uncategorized
Audit critical of city, neighborhood contact teams
The city’s neighborhood planning processes “are inequitable, lack transparency, and may constitute a risk to fair housing choice,” according to an audit conducted by the Office of the City Auditor. Auditors presented their findings to the City Council Audit and Finance Committee on Monday. The audit also concluded that the planning process does not have […]
Posted inCity Hall
Audit finds employee abused city’s tax-free account
Using the city’s tax-free account to reduce his sales tax bill by only about $100 has led to a city employee’s being placed on administrative leave, city officials say. The Office of the City Auditor’s Integrity Unit continues to see a significant increase in the number of allegations it receives about fraud, waste and abuse […]
Posted inPolice
Chief addresses complaints, demotions
Austin Police Department Chief Art Acevedo on Wednesday strongly defended his decision to suspend and demote two supervisors for failing to appropriately investigate two high-profile use-of-force complaints. He also scoffed at Austin Police Association President Ken Casaday’s call for him to step down as chief, noting that the APA has “never seen” a discipline they […]
Posted inAustin
Audit finds bilingual services disorganized
An analysis prepared by the Office of the City Auditor shows that although the city spends $2 million per year on bilingual pay programs, the vast majority of city departments do not collect data on the residents they serve. The audit said that perhaps 85 percent of city departments are unable to identify the people […]
Posted inCity Hall
No new members for animal advisory group
The City Council Audit and Finance Committee on Monday postponed for one month a vote to recommend adding members to the city’s Animal Advisory Commission from Travis County, as requested last year by County Judge Sarah Eckhardt. In doing so, they had the support of the current chair and a past chair of the commission. […]
Posted inTransportation
Audit pinpoints Transportation Department trouble
Austin’s top local transportation official is taking in stride a newly released report from the city auditor that finds plenty of room for improvement on city transportation initiatives. Austin Transportation Director Robert Spillar said he wasn’t surprised by any of the four key findings revealed in the Transportation Effectiveness Audit, which was presented to the […]
Posted inPremium Types
TipSheet: This week’s Council committees
As the Austin Monitor does weekly, we invite you to join our ongoing effort to keep readers up to date with all that is going on at City Hall by providing a tip sheet for City Council committees. As usual, we will be offering highlights of meetings, with links to entire agendas. Audit and Finance […]
Posted inCity Charter
Too many land-use professionals?
At Monday’s City Council Audit and Finance Committee meeting, Council members rejected the idea of allowing the Environmental Commission to have five land-use professionals among its 11 members. The current rules governing membership on the Environmental Commission allow for only three land-use professionals, but because there are currently more than three members involved professionally in […]
Posted inCity Hall
No third-party audit likely for Resource Recovery
Members of the City Council Audit and Finance Committee declined Monday to endorse a recommendation from the Zero Waste Advisory Commission that the city hire an independent third party to audit Austin Resource Recovery. However, they did endorse a recommendation from ZWAC that the new Office of Performance Management prioritize a performance and budget review […]