AUSTIN, Texas — As budget shortfalls mount in some of Texas’ biggest cities, so does the scrutiny on how officials are tracking city finances. The City of Austin has been criticized over how it spends city dollars, especially after proposing a tax increase last year.
A political action committee (PAC) called Save Austin Now started calling for an outside audit of the city’s finances this past November. Since then, the group has garnered over 20,000 petition signatures for a charter amendment that would require regular outside performance audits for the city.
There is another effort to audit the city that is coming from the Austin City Council, which was approved in February. After reviewing proposals from 25 audit firms, the city is recommending a Pennsylvania-based company, Public Works LLC, to perform its citywide audit.
City leaders said the group scored the highest of the firms evaluated and has a successful track record. In a statement, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said, “The professionals at Public Works understand that this assessment is more than an audit and performance review — it will be transformative and comprehensive, importantly, it will also be an ongoing independent examination on how Austin’s government can operate better.”
After a business registration search on the secretary of state’s website showed that the company forfeited its registration to do business in Texas in 2024, some residents aren’t confident in the selection. Save Austin Now co-founder Matt Mackowiak says, “The city has some really serious questions to answer.” He asks, “How can this vendor do business in Texas when their ability to do so has been revoked?”
Spectrum News reached out to the city about this, and a spokesperson — Deputy Chief Communications Director Jenny LaCoste-Caputo — said in a statement: “Public Works has previously been registered in the State of Texas but intentionally let their most recent registration lapse as they currently are not working on any Texas-based projects and owed no Texas taxes.”
The statement goes on to say, “Public Works has already taken steps to reinstate its Texas license prior to the item coming to City Council for approval. As with any contract, the City would ensure the vendor is in compliance with all applicable Texas laws.”
Save Austin Now’s attorney Bill Aleshire says this is another example of why the group called for more transparency to begin with.
“It’s a symbol of the waste that needs to be found from a comprehensive external audit,” he says.
If passed in November, the Save Austin Now PAC’s charter amendment would require all the information discovered by the audit to be available to the public.
“That is not a feature of the ordinance that was adopted by the city,” Aleshire said.
Later this summer, the council will finalize the proposition language for the proposed charter on the November ballot. The City Council is expected to approve which company will audit the city for its ordinance later this month.