Wednesday, May 20, 2026, 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 met on May 20, 2026, with a quorum and Council Member Fuentes absent. The committee heard public comment on the Barton Springs bridge project, parks bond funding, and financial policy suggestions; approved minutes; went into executive session for Municipal Civil Service Commission interviews and an Austin Public Library wireless assessment; and recommended three appointments to the commission (Kevin Mullen as chair, Courtney Caruthers, and Ron Bennett). It received the FY 2025 single audit report from Deloitte, which noted four grant compliance findings but no questioned costs, discussed proposed FY 2027 financial policy changes for Austin Energy, Austin Water, and general obligation debt (with a split on the GO debt timing alternative, so all items were sent to the full Council), discussed a possible November 2026 charter election, and received a pedestrian safety audit briefing. The committee agreed to post the charter election discussion for its next meeting.
0:02 Everybody, it's nine 30 in the morning on May 20th, 2026.
0:05 And I'll call to order the meeting of the audit and finance committee of the Austin City Council.
0:10 We are meeting at 3 0 1 west second street in Austin, texas at City Hall, in the City Council
0:15 chambers, and we have a quorum of the committee present, uh, members.
0:21 What I'm gonna do, I'll run you through how I think this morning.
0:24 We'll go, uh, we are going to first hear from people that have signed up to speak on
0:29 items, uh, as part of the public comment.
0:32 Then what we will do is, uh, go to an approval of the minutes and then we will
0:37 go into an executive session, and I'll announce that in just a second.
0:40 Um, and when we come out of the executive, and we have two items to take up in
0:44 the executive session, and I'll announce both of those at the same time so that we're ready to
0:48 go in there. And then when we come back out, we will take up the, the next item
0:52 we'll take up will be item number eight, which is a briefing on the fiscal year 2025, single
0:57 auto report by deloitte and touch.
1:00 Um, are there any questions in that case?
1:03 Um, I'll call up item number one, which no, I'll go to the public comment.
1:08 We have two people signed up to speak, is my understanding.
1:10 Yes, sir. So first speaker, mark May second speaker on item number six, alyssa vargas.
1:32 Uh, okay. Hi, uh, uh, this is mark May.
1:35 I live in, uh, d five.
1:37 Um, so I wanted to talk about, uh, today the barton springs, uh, bridge in the, uh, financial,
1:42 uh, context. So know that prop, prop q failed.
1:46 We also know that the city has a pretty big budget problem, and we also know our parks
1:52 need need a bond.
1:53 There's a, a proposed bridge with the cost of $54.5 million.
1:59 Now, if you look at this project, there is, there's actually an unneeded, eastbound and westbound lane.
2:06 There's actually 50 plus feet of pet and bike paths for a total of 109 feet wide versus
2:13 like the present 59.
2:15 If you look at the report, they did a comparison with a, a rehab version, but it makes
2:22 no sense 'cause I assume the same final 109 feet wide.
2:26 Anyway, I think this project should be scaled back and revised to save dollars and better fit the
2:33 look and feel of the park.
2:37 If you stand on the bridge and you look east, I have a picture here.
2:40 You see there's a bike lane one straight through lane and one left turn turn lane.
2:45 If you look at the document that they actually actually, uh, provided it's factually in, uh, correct, and
2:52 then it shows two straight, uh, travel lanes and they should only be one.
2:57 So what we're really proposing is a one lane road, uh, connecting to a two lane bridge.
3:04 That is silly. The barton springs road diet is working, so two lanes will never be needed.
3:13 If you look at the eastbound lane, you can see that traffic merges down to one one lane.
3:18 If you look at the documentation, uh, provided, we're building a two lane bridge to neck down to
3:23 one lane. This is not what the city's budget needs.
3:28 A smaller bridge is a cheaper bridge.
3:33 There are 50 plus feet of bike ped pass.
3:36 Uh, think about a couple of comparisons.
3:38 The butler trail is gonna expand to 14 feet wide.
3:41 The mopac p ped bridge is 14 feet wide.
3:44 The granddaddy of them mall, the pfluger bridge is 23 feet wide.
3:49 Why would we pay for 50 feet on this bridge?
3:54 I asked for the data for why the ped and bike path are so wide.
3:58 I was pouring to two different documents I listed here.
4:01 Neither one, uh, supports the choice of the width.
4:05 Please take action. Uh, demonstrate to the citizens you heard prop q and you value our tax money.
4:12 Revisit the project and ask that it, uh, consider a smaller bridge, fewer lanes, bike pwis.
4:19 That makes sense. We can spend our dollars in other ways.
4:23 It's a good look for future bond voters and it's a good look for those of you facing
4:27 voters this fall. Thank you.
4:30 Thank you. Yes, ma'am.
4:32 Good morning. Good morning Mayor and coun City Council members.
4:37 My name is alyssa vargas and I'm the advocacy manager for Austin parks foundation.
4:41 I'm here to speak on the proposed financial policies before the council and their impact on Austin parks funding.
4:47 I urge you to reject both of the proposed financial policies because they unnecessarily constrained the city's ability
4:52 to invest in parks at a time when investment is urgently needed.
4:57 Instead, I ask you to support a bond's package of at least 250 million for parks.
5:02 The proposed policies delay future bond elections until approximately 90% of the prior bond expenditures have been incurred.
5:09 Austin parks and recreation has not only met that threshold, but it is well exceeded it.
5:14 The parks department has fully allocated the 149 million provided under the 2018 bond operating under the expectation of
5:21 a six year bonding cycle.
5:23 The 2018 parks bond produced more than 140 projects citywide, including new pools, improved playgrounds, and expanded trail
5:30 connectivity such as the mcbe recreation center playground replacement in district five, the william creek east green belt
5:37 in district two, the highland neighborhood park improvements in district four and the walsh boat landing improvements in
5:43 district 10. It is now been eight years, and our park system faces 1.8 billion in unmet needs.
5:51 While the alternative policy recommendation is an improvement, it still falls short under the staff recommendations.
5:57 Only certain categories would qualify for this year's bond consideration.
6:01 And for parks, those categories include aquatics, infrastructure, and land acquisition.
6:06 While these investments are important, critical categories such as building renovations and parkland improvements are excluded.
6:11 Despite that, those funds will be projected to be nearly full expended above 90% within the next year.
6:19 These categories from the various spaces, residents interact most directly with our recreation centers, playgrounds, sports fields, picnic
6:27 areas, accessibility improvements, shade structures, and neighborhood park upgrades.
6:31 Excluding these categories ignores the reality that park systems require comprehensive reinvestment across all facility types, not selective
6:39 investment that leave core community assets behind any policy that places additional restrictions on bond funding creates unnecessary
6:46 bar unnecessary barriers to critical community investment.
6:50 These changes disproportionately impact departments like parks and recreation that strategically allocate funding for future projects and long-term
6:58 resilience. Delaying reinvestment will only increase costs in the future.
7:02 Every year we wait means higher construction costs, greater infrastructure deterioration, and fewer resources reaching the communities that
7:09 need them the most.
7:11 Austin parks, pools, and recreation centers have exhausted all of their available funding.
7:16 Without this bond, many essential facilities risk, permanent closure, or continued decline, such as west Austin pools, garrison
7:23 pools, and late little stacy, I urge you to reject both of the proposed financial policies and instead
7:29 support a new bonds package.
7:31 Ford parks. Thank you.
7:39 We have one more speaker.
7:40 Chris flores. We have a problem with the sign up kiosk, sir.
7:44 That's okay. Please begin.
7:47 Um, good morning. My name is chris flores.
7:51 I reside in district 10.
7:52 I'm speaking, uh, today to share citizen ideas for city financial policy changes for 2027 and beyond.
8:01 I'm a parks advocate, and as such, I follow parks department dollars, parks, contracts and parks, nonprofit dollars
8:09 and contracts. I see the troubling financial actions brought to the audit department by citizens, and I have
8:17 suggestions. One, that every department director should bring their financial payouts beyond $5,000 to their guiding board or
8:26 commission to explain to the public why and be questioned about their decisions.
8:32 Two, every department director should be a fiduciary and explain how a spend is in the best interest
8:39 of the taxpayers. Three, remove director sole discretion authority.
8:45 No one in the democracy of city government should have a sole authority over spending and contracts to
8:52 illustrate how hazy city finances are presented to the public.
8:56 Last night at the parks board meeting, the trail conservancy nonprofit spokesperson in her speech contradicted her own
9:04 organization's website and the parks department on a simple fishing pier project.
9:10 We, in the audience can add, and we found the private organization's misrepresentation of the dollars to be
9:17 frankly disrespectful. Uh, ttcs website said the spend of the pier was $917,000.
9:26 City park staff said, council approved spending 899,000 public dollars on the pier.
9:33 So that leaves 18,000 a balance, and we assume that came from ttc, but the speaker for tt
9:40 c said her organization spent 770,000.
9:44 So it doesn't add up.
9:46 And so as the public, we, we are listening.
9:49 We're trying to follow every dollar we are.
9:52 We are in an austere budget environment, and so we don't like the hazy arrangements.
9:58 We think that there should be auditable sunlight and truth in all of the spends.
10:04 Thank you. Thank you.
10:08 Does that get everybody?
10:09 Yes, sir. Good. Thank you.
10:10 Thank y'all for being here.
10:11 Alright, the next item we'll take up is item number one, which is approval of the minutes of
10:17 the April 15th, 2026 meeting of the audit and finance committee.
10:20 The motion's made by Council Member uchin to approve those minutes seconded by Council Member Alter, uh, without,
10:26 uh, objection. The minutes are approved with, um, Council Member Fuentes, uh, absent and because of the birth
10:35 of her child members.
10:36 What we will now do is we will go into an executive session.
10:40 Uh, we will go into an executive session to take up two items.
10:44 One is pursuant to 5 5 1 0 7 4 of the texas government code.
10:49 We will conduct interviews in order to appoint members of the the municipal civil service commission.
10:55 In addition, we will also, pursuant to section 5 5 1 0 7 6, 1 of the texas government code take up Austin lot
11:03 public library wireless assessment.
11:05 This is a deliberation regarding critical infrastructure, uh, a critical infrastructure facility.
11:12 Uh, if there's any objection to going in, please let me know.
11:15 There being no objection.
11:17 We will now go into a closed executive session at 9:41 am uh, for those in the public, I
11:23 anticipate this will take a little bit of time because we are going to be interviewing people, but
11:28 we will be back out.
11:29 And at that point, we will take up item number eight, which is the fiscal year 2025 single
11:34 audit report by deloitte and toosh.
11:36 And then I anticipate we will go in the order of the agenda.
11:39 Thanks. It's 9 41.
11:46 We're on May 20th, 2026. And, uh, we are now out, the committee is now out of the closed executive
11:53 session. While we were in the closed executive session, we, uh, took up items nine and 10.
11:59 Number item nine is, uh, related to the appointment of members to the municipal civil service commission pursuant
12:05 to section 5 5 1 0 7 4 of the texas government code.
12:08 And we covered, uh, issues related to the Austin public library wireless assessment, which was a deliberation regarding
12:15 critical infrastructure facility pursuant to section 5 5 1 0 7 6, 1 of the texas government code.
12:22 I told everybody that what we would do is we'd come back and pick up item number eight,
12:25 but before we do item number eight, I think we ought to go back up to item number
12:30 two, which is discussion and possible action to appoint members to and to designate the chair of the
12:38 the municipal civil service commission.
12:40 Um, with that being said, uh, I would entertain a motion to recommend to the entire City Council
12:47 that we fill three positions on the municipal civil service commission, uh, by appointing kevin mullen, which is a
12:56 reappointment appointing courtney caruthers and appointing ron bennett.
13:02 And as part of this recommendation that kevin mullen be recommended to be reappointed as the chair motion has
13:10 been made by, uh, Council Member uchin, seconded by the Mayor pro tim, is there discussion without objection,
13:17 the item is approved and that recommendation will be made.
13:20 And, and for the record, uh, coun Council Member Fuentes will not be present today and not be
13:26 counted in the votes that we take today.
13:29 Now we will go to item number eight, which is the fiscal year 2025 single audit report by
13:34 deloitte and touch llp.