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
The Audit and Finance Committee approved minutes from its October 15 and October 16, 2025 meetings, adopted a draft 2026 finance work plan with two calendar amendments (moving the January 21 meeting up one week and the July 15 meeting back one week to sync with 2026 bond discussions), and held an in-depth discussion of a draft officeholder/council office expense policy following a November 20 Council resolution, including peer-city comparisons and member feedback. Staff delivered the annual update on the city's three pension systems and other post-employment benefits (OPEB), noting reforms that restored the city's AAA bond rating. The City Auditor's office presented an audit of aviation contract and vendor management with three recommendations, and the city attorney's office gave its annual report on lobbyist regulation enforcement. The committee then went into closed session to discuss security audit and information security matters before adjourning. One member of the public, Julie Oliver, spoke during citizen communication about ongoing failures at the municipal animal shelter.
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.