SAVE AUSTIN NOW: Massive Day 1 Response to Required External External Audit Charter Amendment // Press Coverage // City Responds // Request a Petition by Mail // Volunteers Needed // Support Us

Good Friday morning --

We have ONE MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT this morning.

Good Saturday morning -

We hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead of you.

Just a few things this weekend:

• DAY ONE LAUNCH: The day 1 response to the launch of our petition effort to require regular outside performance audits of the entire city budget for affordability and efficiency has been MASSIVE.

  • Media coverage

    • Austin American-Statesman

    • KXAN

    • KVUE

    • CBS Austin

• CITY RESPONSE

  • We can find no on the record statement from any city council member or the Mayor yesterday. But in the KXAN story, the city’s CFO did have a comment:

    City of Austin Chief Financial Officer Ed Van Eennoo said the city has “numerous efforts underway” to strengthen accountability and transparency.

    “The City shares the community’s interest in strengthening accountability, transparency, and efficiency of government operations. A Nov. 5 memo from the City Manager details numerous efforts currently underway across the organization to accomplish these goals. As written, the petition appears to require duplicative work by staff and consultants that would result in an unnecessary additional expense,” Van Eennoo said in a statement to KXAN.

  • It’s important to understand the city is proposing an audit THEY OVERSEE which will not restore trust, and they are proposing it happen once.

  • What we are proposing is an ENTIRELY EXTERNAL audit of the entire city budget, and all utilities (including the Austin Transit Partnership), with the outside contractor selected within 120 days, it completed within one year, and occurring AT LEAST every five years or AT LEAST one year before ANY FUTURE TAX RATE ELECTION.

  • It is also important to note that the charter amendment MUST BE ‘net zero’ cost to taxpayers, as the contractor is REQUIRED to find savings of AT LEAST the cost of the audit.

  • In Houston, the external audit they did this year cost $500,000 and the contractor proposed $120M in savings.

• REQUEST A PETITION BY MAIL

  • 32,000 petitions are being mailed Monday. We can add you to the list here.

• VOLUNTEER TO HELP US

  • Here’s the volunteer form, with options to help collect, help pick up, and help validate — on your own schedule.

• SUPPORT US

  • Given that we have VERY limited time to do this (ten weeks), we are relying on mail as our primary collection method.

  • We are mailing a cover letter, the petition (2 pages, 11x17, and an envelope with