{"id":421149,"date":"2026-08-30T17:18:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T17:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/421149\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T17:18:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T17:18:06","slug":"dueling-audits-create-confusion-ahead-of-november-election-the-austin-chronicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/421149\/","title":{"rendered":"Dueling Audits Create Confusion Ahead of November Election \u2022 The Austin Chronicle"},"content":{"rendered":"

If it\u2019s a midterm election year with a ballot packed with federal and state races, rest assured Austin voters will find an equally crowded local ballot, with City Council races<\/a>, two bond propositions<\/a>, and several proposed charter amendments<\/a> \u2013 including a citizens initiative calling for an independent citywide audit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The audit measure, Proposition I, hearkens back to a similar effort in 2018<\/a>, when petitioners put an audit proposal on the ballot. Voters ultimately rejected it 58% to 42%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back then, opponents of the proposition argued the city already had a quasi-independent auditor \u2013 one that reports to the City Council rather than the city manager \u2013 whose office regularly conducts rigorous audits of city departments and investigates allegations of workplace wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

This time, Prop I opponents point to an efficiency ordinance<\/a> Council adopted in February \u2013 a move regarded at the time as a bid to outflank a petition drive by PAC Save Austin Now to put a city audit on the ballot and make regular audits a permanent part of the city charter.<\/p>\n

More significantly, the Council ordinance was a direct response to last year\u2019s defeat of Prop Q<\/a>, the city\u2019s controversial tax rate election that brought to light voters\u2019 distrust of city spending \u2013 distrust compounded by public outcry over a $1.1 million logo rollout<\/a> just one month before the election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u201clogogate\u201d saga lan<\/a>d<\/a>ed in court<\/a> late last year over the PAC\u2019s use of the logo, replacing \u201cAustin\u201d with \u201cAudit\u201d as part of its petition effort. After the city sent a cease-and-desist letter to the group, the PAC countered with a lawsuit<\/a> against City Manager T.C. Broadnax in his official capacity, arguing, among other things, that its use of the logo is protected parody free speech. The case is ongoing.<\/p>\n

In June, the city clerk certified Save Austin Now\u2019s petition<\/a> for the November ballot. The following month, Council approved the selection of an outside firm, Pennsylvania-based Public Works LLC, to conduct an audit of city operations<\/a> with at least three years between each review, fulfilling the terms of Council\u2019s February ordinance.<\/p>\n

With one audit underway and another audit proposal on the ballot, what happens if voters approve the proposition? Much depends on who\u2019s answering the question.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have started the process of determining how we would proceed if the charter amendment passes and how that could work with, or in consideration of, the efficiency assessment that we\u2019ve already started,\u201d City Auditor Jason Hadavi told the Chronicle.<\/p>\n

\"\"City Hall Credit: John Anderson<\/p>\n

And according to a city spokesperson, city officials are working with legal staff \u201cto determine how the ordinance and charter amendment assessments could be harmonized.\u201d In the meantime, \u201cPublic Works is continuing to perform the work they were contracted for.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Attorney Bill Aleshire, who authored the proposed charter amendment for Save Austin Now, disputed reported statements from city officials suggesting that the city could end up with two audits<\/a> \u2013 one approved by voters and the other approved by Council ordinance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charter trumps the city ordinance,\u201d Aleshire said. \u201cThe Council will have to conform their ordinance to the charter.\u201d Aleshire also argued that the two audits are not all that similar, as city officials maintain, citing the proposition\u2019s top requirement of indexing the cost of city government to income levels of households and small businesses. Additionally, the proposed initiative requires an audit one year before a tax rate election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason there would be two audits after the people approve the charter audit is if we had a mayor and Council who were that stupid that they couldn\u2019t figure out how to do one audit,\u201d Aleshire said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prop I opponents liken the measure to something of a MAGA-style takeover of local government, pointing to Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s recent vow to end Austin Energy\u2019s \u201cmonopoly\u201d<\/a> on electric power by deregulating municipally owned utilities in Texas.<\/p>\n

Local labor organizations, led by AFSCME Local 1624, are gearing up to fight the audit proposition, as they did in the 2018 election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAFSCME and our labor and progressive coalition partners will actively oppose the wasteful, redundant, and harmful Proposition I,\u201d Brydan Summers, president of AFSCME Local 1624, said in a statement. \u201cProp I is just the latest attempt from Save Austin Now to force its right-wing agenda on our city. Prop I is a giveaway to corporate consultants that will handcuff the city and hurt the delivery of core services that Austinites rely on, including social programs, parks, libraries, and public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from labor\u2019s opposition, there are not yet signs of another organized resistance. Political consultant David Butts, who led a PAC attack on the 2018 proposal, is not currently involved in an organized effort to defeat Prop I, but he expects one to emerge soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis petition-driven audit is pushed by people who have a hostile view of Austin and many of its city policies,\u201d Butts said. \u201cBetween Abbott and this restrictive audit, our city could be forced to cut back many forward-looking policies on the environment, homelessness, and other areas where Austin walks in advance of public consciousness. The City Council needs to get serious about this because, left unattended, the voters will be inclined to vote for this without knowing what they\u2019re doing to their city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the outcome of Prop I, Council Member Marc Duchen said the Council needs to be more cognizant of residents\u2019 ability to pay for basic essentials when weighing future spending. Both Duchen and Mayor Kirk Watson voted against Council\u2019s recent budget<\/a> over cost concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCity Hall has got to figure out how we can be more creative about saving money or finding new sources of revenue if we want to continue to provide residents with all of the programs and services they\u2019re relying on,\u201d Duchen said. \u201cTo be clear, I want to keep providing those services, but this is now the second year of what will be an ongoing structural deficit, and we\u2019re going to continue to face this problem if we\u2019re not more mindful about our spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article appears in August 28 \u2022 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A note to readers:\u00a0Bold and uncensored,\u00a0The Austin Chronicle\u00a0has been Austin\u2019s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community\u2019s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If it\u2019s a midterm election year with a ballot packed with federal and state races, rest assured Austin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[53772,132,134,133,30032,112050,146627,1551,11180],"class_list":["post-421149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-afscme-local-1624","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-bill-aleshire","tag-city-auditor","tag-david-butts","tag-feature","tag-save-austin-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421149","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=421149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}