{"id":341994,"date":"2026-06-18T22:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T22:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/341994\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T22:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T22:59:07","slug":"audit-finds-seven-austin-energy-employees-cost-the-city-37k-through-vehicle-misuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/341994\/","title":{"rendered":"Audit finds seven Austin Energy employees cost the city $37k through vehicle misuse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTIN, Texas  \u2014 Seven Austin Energy employees violated city policy by using city-owned vehicles to commute between their homes and worksites for more than a year, costing the city an estimated $37,300, according to an investigative report released this month by the Austin City Auditor&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n<p>The employees drove their assigned vehicles home without a legitimate city purpose from July 2023 through July 2024, logging approximately 56,200 miles during those unauthorized commutes. GPS records confirmed the trips, and all seven admitted to the practice when interviewed by auditors.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/state-investigators-issue-final-camp-mystic-report-detailing-failures-during-july-4-flood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ALSO | State investigators issue final Camp Mystic report detailing failures during July 4 flood<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Some employees said they were directed to take the vehicles home by a former supervisor, who denied giving that instruction. Auditors found no written evidence to support the employees&#8217; claims.<\/p>\n<p>All seven were found to have violated city code prohibiting employees from using city equipment for private purposes.<\/p>\n<p>In response, Austin Energy General Manager Stuart Reilly said the utility implemented a moratorium on take-home vehicle use in August 2024 and has since overhauled its approval and oversight process. He said management is working with Human Resources to determine appropriate personnel action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Seven Austin Energy employees violated city policy by using city-owned vehicles to commute between their&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-341994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}