Austin\u2019s first citywide efficiency audit is poised to move forward July 30, when City Council is expected to approve the selection of an independent firm to evaluate operations across all city departments.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania-based public policy consulting firm Public Works LLC<\/a> submitted the winning proposal, one of 25 bids received to perform a comprehensive assessment of all city departments.<\/p>\n The proposed contract comes as Council also prepares to consider an initiative petition brought by conservative watchdog Save Austin Now PAC, which would require regular performance audits of city operations, potentially putting the issue of government accountability before voters this November.\u00a0<\/p>\n The group collected more than the required 20,000 signatures to qualify the proposed charter amendment for the November ballot. Council must either place the measure on the November ballot or adopt it outright.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear how the city will proceed should voters approve the charter amendment while a separate assessment by Public Works gets underway.\u00a0<\/p>\n Council Member Marc Duchen, who unsuccessfully proposed an efficiency audit last year in response to a looming budget deficit, said the ordinance<\/a> Council passed in February to create the Comprehensive Efficiency Assessment Program is not that far apart from what Save Austin Now\u2019s initiative seeks to accomplish with a charter amendment. Mayor Kirk Watson brought forward the February ordinance to restore public trust in Council and the city as a whole.<\/p>\n The PAC launched its petition drive after voters last year soundly rejected the city\u2019s Proposition Q<\/a>, which would have increased the property tax rate by more than 20%, resulting in the average Austin property owner paying an additional $200 a year.<\/p>\n Duchen, widely regarded as Council\u2019s budget hawk, doesn\u2019t view the ordinance and the proposed charter amendment as competing measures.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re really following the same playbook, so one potential outcome of this if the [charter amendment] passes in November, is we just try to harmonize it,\u201d Duchen said. \u201cWe try and figure out how to make sure that we\u2019ve got an audit process that meets the needs and requirements of both the third-party audit and the ordinance that we passed in February. Based on my read of it, that shouldn\u2019t be that hard to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That may be a harder sell for Save Austin Now, which argues that a voter-approved charter amendment carries more staying power than a Council ordinance that could be altered or repealed by future Councils.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA charter amendment is better because it\u2019s the people\u2019s mandate, not something that a future City Council can ignore,\u201d said attorney Bill Aleshire, who wrote the charter amendment for Save Austin Now.\u00a0<\/p>\n The group\u2019s co-founder Matt Mackowiak was quick to post unsubstantiated claims on X<\/a>, alleging that Public Works\u2019 Texas business registration had been revoked in 2024 for nonpayment of taxes.<\/p>\n \u201cPublic Works LLC has never failed to pay taxes in Texas,\u201d said Eric Schnurer, president of Public Works, in response to Mackowiak\u2019s remarks. \u201cOur Texas business registration was never forfeited or revoked for failure to pay taxes. Any statement to the contrary is totally false and defamatory.\u201d<\/p>\n The company allowed its registration with the state to lapse because it wasn\u2019t doing business in Texas, Schnurer said. That changed after Public Works was selected for the contract. The company\u2019s business registration is now active, according to the Texas Comptroller website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the city has not yet released Public Works\u2019 proposal or related documents, the company said it plans to use the same methodology it has employed for other government clients. The approach is modeled after the Texas Performance Review launched by former State Comptroller John Sharp in 1991. The review became a national model for improving government efficiency, with other state and local governments adopting similar programs.<\/p>\n Schnurer outlined the firm\u2019s three-phase approach to evaluating city operations. The review would begin with public-facing departments, including Public Health, Police, Fire, and EMS. The second phase would examine back-office departments such as Finance and Fleet and Economic Development. In the third year, the firm would evaluate the city\u2019s largest operations, including the Austin Convention Center, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, and Austin Energy. There will be at least three years between assessment cycles, with the city auditor providing twice-yearly updates to the Audit and Finance Committee, and a report to the full Council once a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Schnurer said the review is designed to identify ways the city can operate more efficiently as opposed to simply recommending budget cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s important to think about how you save money in government by thinking about it in terms of how you can do better at what you\u2019re doing,\u201d Schnurer said, \u201crather than what you can cut.\u201d<\/p>\n