An audit of operations at the Austin Animal Shelter has found that the no-kill facility is often beyond its capacity and lacks the data, staff and processes to meet the city’s 95 percent live-release goal. A draft copy of the audit, which was called for last summer by City Council, produced four broad findings, including […]
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 Hall
Pilot program to give small, local businesses preferences for city contracts
In October, the city will begin a two-year pilot program that will attempt to give preference for some contracting opportunities for small and locally owned businesses. At Wednesday’s meeting of City Council’s Audit and Finance Committee, staff from the city’s Central Procurement office presented plans for the program, which was called for when Council adopted […]
Posted inCity Hall
Audit finds police department backlog of 20,000 public information requests
The Austin Police Department recently had a backlog of more than 20,000 public information requests, causing some requests to wait for more than a year to receive a response, according to a recent city audit. That audit also found APD has far less public information staff to handle requests than the rest of the city […]
Posted inCity Hall
Audit finds inaccurate data on city portal
Unreliable data is a widespread problem for the city of Austin, according to an audit performed by the Office of the City Auditor. Francis Reilly, the auditor in charge, explained some of the city’s data problems to the City Council Audit & Finance Committee on Tuesday. Most recent audits “have found issues involving the city’s […]
Posted inBonds & Propositions
City officials say no to bond elections before 2026
The city of Austin has promised voters it would build a wide variety of projects, ranging from roads to affordable housing to parks, libraries and health centers. City financial advisers told the City Council Audit and Finance Committee on Wednesday that the total authorization for public improvement bonds is currently at $3.5 billion. But because […]
Posted inFire
Audit shows growth of firefighters’ overtime spending
Firefighters continue to rack up overtime while the Austin Fire Department continues to recruit and train more firefighters as others retire. According to a report presented to the city’s Audit and Finance Committee on Wednesday, the department was on track to spend more than $20 million on overtime for the fiscal year that ended Sept. […]
Posted inWater
Austin Water says it’s doing better in the face of crises
At Wednesday’s joint meeting of City Council’s Audit and Finance Committee and the Austin Water Oversight Committee, Austin Water Director Shay Ralls Roalson answered questions about a variety of topics, but one of the most difficult involved vacancies within the department, particularly at water treatment plants. The focus of the meeting was the utility’s actions […]
Posted inWater
Austin Water making progress but needs more employees
Members of City Council’s Audit and Finance Committee have reviewed the findings of a report detailing problems during four significant events at Austin Water’s Ullrich Water Treatment Plant between 2018 and February 2022, including three boil-water notices and a zebra mussel infestation. The utility has addressed many of those problems and is in the process […]
Posted inCity Hall
Commission wants to add disabled business owners to minority contracting pool
Advocates for the city’s disabled community are pushing for people with disabilities to be added to the preferred class of vendors considered for contracting opportunities as part of the Minority-Owned Business Enterprise and Woman-Owned Business Enterprise Program. At last week’s meeting of the Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities, members discussed the ongoing difficulties they’ve […]
Posted inPublic Health
Audit shows flaws in city’s plans for cold weather shelters
An audit presented to the City Council Audit & Finance committee last week says the city is not keeping up with planning for cold weather shelters and that city staff have not received sufficient training in dealing with people seeking shelter during extreme cold. In addition, the city does not appear to be consistently following […]
Posted inEMS
EMS chief reports improvement in collections
Although Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services continues to deal with a backlog of unpaid bills for emergency transport, Chief Robert Luckritz says the department has made significant improvements in its billing and collections process. As a result, Luckritz told the City Council Audit & Finance Committee Tuesday he expects to clear the backlog by mid-2023. According […]
Posted inTransportation
City auditors find airport leases may not reflect fair market value
An analysis of the leasing activities and other operations at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport has found the city is potentially undercharging for dozens of lease agreements that haven’t been evaluated in years to determine if they’re in line with fair market value. Those practices, if left unchanged, could negatively impact the airport’s ability to be self-sustaining […]