Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 9:30 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall, 301 W 2nd St, Austin, TX 78701
Committee: Audit and Finance Committee
0:01 Good morning, everybody. It's nine 30 in the morning on December 3rd, 2025, and I will call to order the
0:07 meeting of the audit and finance committee of the Austin City Council.
0:11 Uh, we have a quorum of the, uh, committee present, and we are meeting in City Council chambers,
0:17 which is located at Austin City Hall at 3 0 1 west second street in Austin, texas.
0:22 Uh, we have a full agenda, so we'll move right into it.
0:26 Uh, our first item on the agenda is public communication, and we have julie oliver.
0:42 Good morning, Mayor and council members.
0:44 Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
0:46 Two years ago, the city auditor released a comprehensive audit of our municipal animal shelter.
0:52 That report did not describe binder issues.
0:54 It documented serious systemic failures, including dogs being kept in three by four foot crates 24 hours a
1:00 day in a conference room.
1:02 The audit explicitly called this inhumane.
1:05 It also found deeply strained and dysfunctional relationships between the shelter, volunteer groups and rescue partners, the very
1:11 groups that make lifesaving possible.
1:13 It also called out technology and data failures.
1:16 Today, two years later, I'm here to tell you that nothing has changed.
1:20 If that audit were being released today, it would read the same.
1:24 The shelter has closed to intake.
1:26 It's failing to meet the city's own 95% live release goal.
1:29 Animals are still experiencing inhumane conditions.
1:33 Volunteers are retaliated against by management, and rescues remain alienated.
1:39 And the interim director, who is now applying to become the permanent director, pushed through a major shelter
1:44 software conversion. Despite being advised not to do so, that decision proved disastrous.
1:50 The public facing adoption website was effectively crippled for six months.
1:55 Animal bios were erased.
1:57 Critical behavior information disappeared.
1:59 During a time when we desperately needed to move animals out of the shelter and into homes, the
2:04 public could no longer even make informed adoption decisions.
2:07 This was six months.
2:09 Let me be very clear about something.
2:11 This crisis is not kill, uh, caused by our no kill commitment.
2:14 No kill is not the problem in cities across the country.
2:18 Shelters prove every day that you can uphold no kill values and maintain open intake and provide humane
2:24 care. The problem here is management failure.
2:27 We have now seen back to back shelter directors fail upward without consequence.
2:33 There's been no real accountability, no meaningful course correction, and no measurable improvement despite a damning audit by
2:39 this city that laid the problems out clearly.
2:42 And now, the interim director who has overseen this continued deterioration as applying to become the permanent director.
2:49 I wanna speak plainly, someone who presided over sustained failure, closed intake, missed lifesaving goals, and ongoing inhumane
2:59 condi conditions is deeply unqualified to lead this shelter forward.
3:04 The shelter does not need conti continuity of failure.
3:07 It needs new leadership, real expertise, and the courage to rebuild trust with staff, volunteers, rescues, and the
3:13 public and your voters.
3:16 Animals are suffering. Staff are burning out the city's own shelter employee survey that was done a couple
3:22 months ago. 29% Said morale is high.
3:25 That means 30. Uh, 71% said morale is not high.
3:29 Volunteers are being pushed out.
3:31 Taxpayers are funding a system that is demonstrably not working.
3:35 So I am asking y'all to treat the auditor's report as a warning sign that it was demand
3:41 real oversight and change, and reject the idea that same leadership can push the shelter forward.
3:47 Thank you, mr. Oliver. Uh, members that'll take us to item number one, which is the approval of the
3:52 minutes of the audit finance committee for two meetings October 15th, 2025, and the special called meeting of October 16th, 2025.
4:01 Motion is made by Council Member Alter, uh, it is seconded by the Mayor pro tim.
4:05 Is there discussion without objection, the minutes of the two meetings are approved.
4:11 That will now take us to item number two, which is related to the 2026 finance agenda, uh,
4:17 audit finance agenda items, focusing on finance and possible calendar amendments.
4:23 And I see mr.
4:24 Ed van eno there.
4:26 Good morning, chair and committee members.
4:27 My name is ed van eno, chief financial officer for the city of Austin.
4:31 Item number two is to present a draft work plan for the finance related matters for your 2026
4:37 audit and finance. Um, meeting calendar agenda.
4:41 Um, this is a plan I would anticipate as it did last year.
4:45 It'll evolve somewhat. Um, some of these dates May get need to get pushed or changed.
4:49 There May be some items that come up that we want to add.
4:52 Um, but this is a work plan that we, uh, worked through with the chair of the committee.
4:56 Uh, wanted to present it to the full group so you get a sense of, uh, the direction,
5:01 um, that we would have in mind for the audit finance committee, uh, finance related items this year.
5:06 I won't read through every one of these, but broadly you'll see items on here, I believe three
5:10 different, three or four different items related to the development of 2026 bond and providing you updates on
5:15 our, uh, financial bonding capacity and other financial matters pertaining to the bond program.
5:21 Um, there's, uh, been discussion about trying to create a decision making framework around, uh, not just for
5:28 a 2026 bond, but just in general for bond programs, the decision making framework, similar to what the
5:32 committee, uh, developed and adopted for a tre proposal to help guide decisions, uh, not only for the,
5:39 for the bond election in front of us, but on into future bond elections.
5:43 You'll see it on here related to our cost optimization efforts, both around, uh, uh, city's technology, but
5:50 also all of the shared services.
5:51 You've seen the memorandums from, uh, the city manager about that.
5:55 And that's an effort that's well underway, um, right now.
5:59 And we'd be bringing those forward to the committee for updates, um, and feedback.
6:03 We have our typical audit and finance reports.
6:06 Our mandatorily, uh, required presentation of the and the single audit.
6:10 We have financial reports and treasury reports sprinkled, uh, throughout the calendar.
6:15 Um, last year, uh, 2025, or I guess this year, uh, for the first time, we really focused
6:21 on providing the committee with updates on our large projects being run through our public facilities corporation, like
6:27 the northeast service center.
6:29 Um, also redevelopment projects such as colony park, uh, mueller.
6:33 Um, and, um, we do wanna also bring forward to you updates on some of our, uh, major
6:40 projects and the financing plans associated with those projects.
6:43 So think things like the airport and the convention center that our large financial commitments we're making over
6:48 the course of the coming decade to provide you an update on those projects and the financing plans.
6:53 And, uh, and then again, we would continue to have our annual updates on city pensions and information
6:59 security. So those are the broad areas that we're, um, proposing, uh, to the, to the committee.
7:05 Again, this is a plan.
7:07 Um, I anticipate it will evolve throughout the year, but I think it gives you a good indication
7:11 of what we would intend to bring forward to the committee.
7:14 You'll notice two dates on here listed in red.
7:16 That would be a variance from your current calendar that you've already adopted, that we would propose the
7:22 cal the committee take action to move those dates by a week.
7:25 Um, both of these dates changes would better sync up the committee dates with the timing of the
7:31 2026 bond discussions, the timing of when those discussions are gonna be hitting council, this syncs up the
7:37 committee calendar a little bit better.
7:39 And so that would be to take the January 21st meeting and move it up by a week, um,
7:44 and to take the, uh, July 15th meeting and move it back by one week.
7:49 Great. Thank you. Uh, members, uh, yes, Mayor Pro Tem.
7:53 Thank you. And I appreciate the update.
7:56 You mentioned having, uh, having finance provide an update to our committee regarding the, the major, uh, city
8:03 projects like the airport and the convention center.
8:05 Is that, would that fall under this?
8:08 It's at the bottom of the first page.
8:10 August 19th, updates on major project financing plans.
8:14 Okay. And would the I 35 captain stitch program also be categorized within that, or is that update
8:21 coming sooner? It, it, um, no, it'd be categorized in there.
8:26 Is there any timelines that we should be aware of with txdot?
8:30 Because it seems August seems far off now.
8:32 Yeah. Far away for that.
8:34 Um, I, I don't have a mobility committee meeting tomorrow.
8:39 Yeah. Uh, kim was just telling me that there is a discussion at the mobility committee tomorrow on
8:44 it, which could provide some additional information.
8:46 But, um, if there's a need or a desire for us to do something with the audit finance
8:50 committee before August, we'll make sure that happens.
8:54 Just if there's an associated timeline or timeframe that we should be aware of.
8:58 Okay. I can't remember what the commitment was, uh, on us having an update on the private sector,
9:04 the philanthropy coming in, um, to fund a portion of it.
9:08 Anyone, what we'll do, that's a good point.
9:11 So what we, what we can do is on items like that, if anybody has items like that,
9:17 let me know. And what I'll do is I'll make sure we get something, even if we don't
9:21 meet as a full committee, but we May have a full meeting, make sure that y'all are up
9:26 to date on all the calendar items, so that if you want to have it brought up on
9:30 an agenda, we can do it in advance.
9:33 Okay. And I, and I should say too, there will be, uh, memorandums, financial related memorandums, some of
9:38 the financial reports. I anticipate it'll be carrie lang coming to the committee directly with presentations.
9:43 And other cases it May be a memorandum update.
9:46 And of course, like we've been doing, we will post those memos as backup to the agenda.
9:51 So if there's questions or discussion about the memos count staff has put out, so this might be
9:56 an area too that could just fit into that.
9:57 If we have an update on the timeline, we send you a memo on that, post it as
10:01 a backup for a future meeting, and, and then we can discuss it.
10:04 Thank you. Um, just make, make it a, a routine.
10:06 Just make it part of the routine, I think is what she's asking, huh?
10:09 Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Yes. And, uh, last question on my end.
10:11 The social service reset that the manager is leading in, in the effort is underway.
10:17 Would that be also be under the shared services optimization effort?
10:22 Um, I would view that as a little bit different.
10:25 Uh, the way the manager laid that out was, uh, kind of four areas.
10:30 The, uh, it cost optimization, the shared services optimization, which was really, uh, um, human resources, capital delivery
10:38 services, budget and finance human resources.
10:40 That's what I was thinking about in terms of the shared services.
10:43 The, uh, the work that's being done, um, on the, on the social service contracts and performance metrics
10:50 and all that is also being done by the office of budget and, and organizational excellence.
10:54 But that wasn't what I had in mind necessarily for this item.
10:58 Um, I do anticipate that will be hitting the committees.
11:01 Maybe this is the right committee for it, but it May be that some of the other committees,
11:06 uh, that council has might be the better venue for that one.
11:08 Okay. Happy to continue that conversation offline.
11:11 And we can also consider it in the public health committee, but just wanna make sure that that's
11:14 factored in here. Thank you.
11:16 Thank you, Mayor. Councilman walter.
11:18 I was wondering, excuse me, the, the decision tree item that you touched on a little bit, is
11:27 it around the, the subject of the bond?
11:31 I know that their cds has, you know, their matrix and how they're filtering, or is it more
11:39 of a yes, no, we should have a bond re at large?
11:44 I think that's all to be determined.
11:45 Um, we, I, I think I'm in conversations with the Mayor that I, I really felt that the
11:50 tre framework, um, was a helpful way to organize, uh, council's thinking around a tre and the timing
11:57 of one and the, the size of one, and what the criteria should be for when we call
12:01 one. So that's what I kind of was, was thinking.
12:03 But I think that's still to be determined with feedback from the committee.