The petition-backed charter amendment would require regular independent audits, as city leaders pursue a separate review plan.<\/p>\n
AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Austin leaders are one step closer to hiring a company to conduct an independent audit of all city departments, as a separate citizen-led effort pushes to make those audits a permanent requirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In February, the Austin City Council passed an ordinance establishing recurring audits to evaluate city spending. On Thursday, Mayor Kirk Watson announced the city is proposing to partner with Public Works LLC to carry out that work.<\/p>\n
At the same time, a petition effort led by Save Austin Now is advancing toward the November ballot, where voters could decide whether independent audits should be mandated long term.<\/p>\n
Save Austin Now co-founder Matt Mackowiak said the group began collecting signatures in November and submitted more than 21,000 signatures, with the city certifying the petition in late June.<\/p>\n
Mackowiak said the proposal is designed to increase transparency, improve efficiency and rebuild trust between taxpayers and City Hall, particularly after last year\u2019s failed Proposition Q.<\/p>\n
He said voters rejected that measure, which would have permanently increased property taxes, in part because of concerns about how efficiently the city is managing its budget.<\/p>\n
Mackowiak argues the city should demonstrate fiscal responsibility before asking taxpayers for more money and said an outside audit is the only way to provide that accountability.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re just not a city that’s run efficiently. Our budget is bloated,” Mackowiak said. \u201cWe’ve got to get back to efficiently delivering city services, and we think an external audit is the only way to rebuild trust between taxpayers and city hall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the proposed charter amendment, the city would be required to conduct a comprehensive audit within the first year of passage. After that, audits would take place at least once every five years and at least one year before any future tax rate election.<\/p>\n
While the city has already taken steps to launch its own audit process, Mackowiak said the current ordinance does not go far enough. He said the charter amendment is intended to create a long-term structural requirement that outlasts any single mayor or council.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn ordinance can be changed at any time with just six votes on the city council dais,\u201d he said. \u201cEven if this mayor and council have a newfound commitment to this, the next mayor and council may not. In fact, they probably won’t. So, you’re just simply not going to rebuild trust, through an ordinance that the city has the ability to change or get rid of at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement to KVUE, Watson said the city is already taking steps aligned with what Save Austin Now is proposing, emphasizing a focus on financial stewardship and best audit practices.<\/p>\n
Watson also said the proposed charter amendment could create operational challenges for city government, calling it a political move and a repetitive, haphazard proposal.<\/p>\n
Mackowiak said the measure is not intended to be partisan, but focused on transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n
He said the charter amendment is expected to appear on the November ballot, but hopes city leaders will adopt the proposal without having to go to voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The petition-backed charter amendment would require regular independent audits, as city leaders pursue a separate review plan. AUSTIN,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-359971","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\/359971","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=359971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}