{"id":470357,"date":"2026-10-19T08:26:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T08:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/470357\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T08:26:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T08:26:21","slug":"austin-energy-audit-supervisor-hired-neighbor-overpaid-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/470357\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Energy audit: Supervisor hired neighbor, overpaid him"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Austin<\/p>\n

Austin Energy workers Reese Blaha, left, and Matt Reinhardt restore power to a neighborhood on Wycliff Lane in northwest Austin on Monday February 6, 2023, after an ice storm last week caused a major power outage.<\/p>\n

Jay Janner \/ American-Statesman<\/p>\n

An Austin Energy supervisor paid his neighbor $27,611 for lawn care and landscaping at two utility sites, overpaying the neighbor by as much as $16,200, according to a recent investigative report by the Austin City Auditor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The report, released late last month, stemmed from a larger review by city auditors into potential misuse of city credit cards. The office launched the effort last year after a separate investigation found that a former Austin Energy employee had routed nearly $1 million<\/a> to fictitious vendors over six years.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An Austin Energy crew works on a utility line on Metlink Road in Austin on Monday, Feb. 2, 2026.<\/p>\n

Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n

The broader review<\/a>, which examined transactions on all city-issued credit cards from July 2024 to June 2025, uncovered two vendors that auditors could not verify. Further investigation found two city code violations by the Austin Energy supervisor, while the other instance proved inconclusive.<\/p>\n

Brian Molloy, chief of investigations for the Auditor\u2019s Office, said the case showed the value of the broader review. The office informally aims to conduct one integrity project each year, he said.<\/p>\n

Molloy said he hoped the report would remind city employees to act in the city\u2019s best interests and use public resources responsibly.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully this report creates a bunch of awareness across all the\u00a0ProCard holders in the city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Austin Energy case<\/p>\n

The\u00a0investigation<\/a> found that Austin Energy Operations and Maintenance Supervisor Bradley Jarrell used his position to secure special privileges for his neighbor, hiring him to provide lawn care and landscaping 11 times between August 2023 and April 2025 at the Domain and the ACC Highland District Cooling Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jarrell did not require his neighbor to document the work accurately, provide quotes for his services or sign a contract for recurring work costing more than $5,000, the report found. Jarrell also did not define the work\u2019s scope or attempt to negotiate pricing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

He told auditors he first asked his neighbor about doing work for the city while the neighbor was cutting trees at Jarrell\u2019s home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jarrell paid the neighbor $27,611 in total, according to the report. Based on quotes from a private company and Austin Energy Facilities Services staff, auditors found that Jarrell \u201csignificantly overpaid his neighbor\u201d and could have paid $9,600 to $16,200 less for all services provided if he had used another private company or a city contractor instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A manager with Austin Energy Facilities Services told auditors the request for lawn care was\u201c\u2018so small and insignificant\u201d that his team planned to buy supplies and do the work itself. City staff could have cared for the ACC District Cooling Center site for about $1,200 \u2014 89% less than the $10,642 Jarrell paid his neighbor for that work, the report found.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJarrell\u2019s use of his neighbor to provide lawn care services was grossly uneconomical, as Jarrell could have negotiated pricing with his neighbor or leveraged more affordable and easily accessible vendor or facilities options to perform work,\u201d auditors wrote in the report.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

Employee and Austin Energy response<\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/p>\n

Austin Energy linemen work to restore power during a Feb. 1, 2023, winter storm.<\/p>\n

Jay Janner \/ American-Statesman<\/p>\n

Jarrell was the second-highest-paid employee<\/a> at Austin Energy after General Manager Stuart Reilly, earning $363,881 from October 2024 to September 2025, according to an American-Statesman analysis. He has worked for the utility since 2016 and is still employed there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jarrell declined to comment on the audit, citing city Human Resources guidance on speaking to the press.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

In written testimony included in the report, Jarrell acknowledged that some invoices should have contained more detail and that he could have sought additional procurement guidance after his neighbor performed multiple jobs. But he said, \u201cthose administrative issues do not establish the much more serious ethical violations alleged.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jarrell said Winter Storm Mara made landscaping vendors difficult to find in 2023. He criticized the report for not providing evidence to support its estimate of how much it would have cost to do the work in-house, and for not accounting for factors such as wage assumptions, benefits, payroll costs, supervision, the number of visits and equipment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jarrell said all transactions went through the city\u2019s financial system and no reviewer informed him that the invoices were unacceptable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a control system later scrutinizes an employee for transactions that the same control system repeatedly reviewed without correction, that history must be evaluated fairly,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

He added that his last ProCard training was in 2020 and he had not received a refresher closer to the transactions under investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jarrell requested that the findings be withdrawn and the investigation closed. He also asked that auditors not publish the draft investigation.<\/p>\n

Auditors said they obtained comparison quotes from vendors and staff with firsthand knowledge of the sites and the work and said they \u201creviewed the subject\u2019s response and believe our findings stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

In a memo included in the report, Reilly said the utility would work with Human Resources to \u201cdetermine the appropriate action to address the violations.\u201d He said the utility has continued to reinforce ProCard expectations, and that all cardholders and approvers received training from Austin Energy staff in June 2026. He also said the utility fully cooperated with the auditor\u2019s investigation and would continue strengthening its processes.<\/p>\n

Austin Energy spokesperson Matt Mitchell said the utility could not comment on confidential personnel matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin Energy workers Reese Blaha, left, and Matt Reinhardt restore power to a neighborhood on Wycliff Lane in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-470357","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\/470357","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=470357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}