Audit and Finance Committee (AFC) Meeting Transcript - 4/16/2025 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 4/16/2025 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 4/16/2025 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [9:30:23 AM] Good morning everybody. It's 9:30 A.M. It's Wednesday, April 16th, 2025, and I will now call to order the audit and finance committee of the Austin city council. We are meeting in city council chambers at located I city hall at 301 west second street in Austin, and we have a quorum present. Members. We're going the way I thought we would do it is just go straight through the agenda. And so I'm going to first go ahead and have the have speakers come up. We have two speakers. Both have signed up to speak on item number three. But for their convenience purposes we will call those speakers up. You want me to do it? Melissa Ortega and Myriam Dorantes. I'm sorry. That's why you gave me this list, right? Okay, I now understand. Okay. First mistake was made by 931. So. Welcome. >> Thank you. First, I want to [9:31:27 AM] >> Thank you. First, I want to sincerely thank this committee not only for continuing its important work. >> Can you state your name for the record? >> Yes. This is Melissa Ortega. >> Great. Thank you, ma'am. >> For working through challenging times, but also for your ongoing support on the for the commission and immigrant affairs. I appreciate your consideration for item three. As stated, my name is Melissa Ortega and I currently serve as the chair of the commission on immigrant affairs. But I want to be clear that I'm speaking today in my personal capacity as someone who has had the privilege of serving the commission and the commission and is a member of the immigrant community. I'm here to express my strong support for amending the bylaws of the commission on immigrant affairs, and respectfully urge this committee to approve it. The this amendment will allow the addition of three community stakeholder seats to the commission. This may seem like a small structural change, but in practice it will make a significant difference. It will provide critical flexibility to meet quorum and allow the [9:32:28 AM] meet quorum and allow the commission to bring in valuable perspectives that are currently missing. For instance, we've had several community members with lived experience or that are active in the community expressed interest in joining the commission on immigrant affairs. But due to the constraints of our current structure, we couldn't offer them a seat. Meanwhile, we were struggling to meet quorum because several appointed commissioners had gone inactive, were not responsive. Others informally stepped away without formally resigning, creating procedural hurdles and delaying replacements. Amending the bylaws will allow the commission to bring in and engage accountable stakeholders. At the same time, it will grant autonomy and authority to remove or replace stakeholders who are not fulfilling their roles. It will ensure both flexibility and accountability. In short, approving the proposed bylaws will help the commission on immigrant affairs break through the existing gridlock and it will strengthen its ability to serve the community more [9:33:29 AM] serve the community more effectively, especially during this critical times. Thank you for your time, and I respectfully ask this committee to strengthen the commission's ability to serve our immigrant community. >> Thank you very much. >> Buenos dias y'all. Mayor and council, my name is Miriam Dorantes, and I proudly serve as vice chair on the commission of immigrant affairs. I am here as a resident of district one to speak in strong support of the proposed bylaws. Amendments on item three for the commission on immigrant affairs. In a city of roughly 987,000 residents. These updates are necessary to strengthen our outreach and build deeper trust and ensure our work reflects the realities and needs of Austin's immigrant communities. Expanding representation is not just filling seats, it's about centering the lived experiences of those directly impacted by city decisions. These changes will allow the commission to more effectively connect with immigrant voices that are too [9:34:31 AM] immigrant voices that are too often left out, and their perspective into policy conversations that shape our daily lives. I urge you to support these amendments as a step toward equity, transparency, and true community engagement. Thank you. >> Thank you. Appreciate you both being here. Members. Those are all the people that have signed up to speak and on any of the topics. So the next thing we will do is we will go to item number one, which is the approval of the minutes. This would be the approval of the minutes of the audit and finance committee for March 26th, the March 26th, 2025 meeting, and I'll entertain a motion motions made by the mayor pro tem, seconded by council member alter. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Without objection, the minutes are approved. The next item is discussion and appointment of members to the municipal civil service commission members. We've also been posted for an executive session on this item and what I would like to do, unless somebody objects, is I would like to wait till the end of the meeting, go into an executive session. I don't believe it's going to be a long executive session, but I want to offer [9:35:32 AM] session, but I want to offer that opportunity and make sure we have that opportunity before we do this. What I would anticipate will happen is we'll do that. We'll come right back out after a very brief meeting, and then we'll be able to vote on item number two. That takes us to item number three, which of course, we've just heard the public comment on. And I'll look for a report on the proposed bylaws. Amendments. >> Good morning. Committee Stephanie hall, assistant city clerk I'm here to present to you today three commission proposed bylaw amendments that the commissions have approved at their level. The first one is for the commission on aging, and the main change here is to add additional committee to their bylaws. And this committee would be a friend, an age friendly advisory committee consisting of five members, which will monitor the progress of age friendly Austin action plan champion older adult involvement in the plan development, implementation, review and recommend plan provisions and ensure community alignment through collaboration with city departments and older adult community. Just to update the department that staffing them. [9:36:33 AM] department that staffing them. The office of the city clerk has actually taken over the staff liaison roles, so they're just making those changes from Austin public health to the city clerk's office. The justification provided by the commission is that the bylaw amendments will enable the commission on aging to establish a dedicated committee focused on offering advisement on the age friendly Austin action plan. Staff supports these recommendations, but we did just want to note creating a committee does create some additional need for staff support, as they are required to meet and follow tovo restrictions. This is something that we can coordinate wihe Austin public health department. The second commission proposed bylaw amendments is the commission on immigrant affairs. As you've heard, they are wanting to edit the membership to include three additional commission approved stakeholder positions, and then this would also increase their quorum from currently 7 to 8. The commission justification for this is these approved bylaw changes will help with the challenges they've had. Adding community stakeholder seats will give us more flexibility to meet quorum, and also bring in value perspective and expertise that they might be missing. This is something that staff does not [9:37:34 AM] something that staff does not recommend. Stakeholder positions do impose some additional responsibilities on commissions to have to review and select those memberships. And historically, for the commission that do have stakeholder seats, which are only two other bodies, it is a little challenging for them to fill. These amendments also would increase their quorum, which is something they have been struggling with. We certainly understand the intent here and the hope to fix it, but do you believe that right now they're currently filled? They only have one vacancy, which, due to just a recent resignation and with the continued dedication to fill the seats, we don't see this as a necessary amendment. Although if this does move forward with approval, it will require an ordinance to amend the section of code to increase their membership. The final commission is the zero waste advisory commission. They are editing their committee section to remove the organic management committee that's in their bylaws. This amendment is needed because this committee's function is already covered by another committee, and that this committee also hasn't met in several years. Staff doesn't have any issue with removing this committee, and all of these are in the red line versions. And this summary is in the [9:38:35 AM] And this summary is in the backup. >> Thank you very much. Members. You have questions? Councilmember alter. >> When you mentioned that for the commission on aging, the committee will require staff time. Is that clerk staff time or is that Austin public health staff time? >> It is something that we were coordinating with Austin public health to determine who will be staffing that committee. >> Okay, I, I have no substantive problem with the creating a new subcommittee. We heard at public health committee that public health department is already facing potential staff reductions, giving them another duty. I just I would like to see where that shakes out. I is there an urgency likf does this commission or does this committee, is there some kind of deadline? Like they're going to analyze this plan and provide recommendations. And so they want to get this up going. Or if we waited a few months, would that be fine? >> From my understanding it would be okay. This is something that they're continually doing. [9:39:35 AM] that they're continually doing. And that is why they wanted to create a committee. They've been using working groups, but working groups aren't really structured that way. So that's why they wanted to create a committee. But I think this is something that they're already working on, and there's no rush to formalize the committee >> Got it. Well, I might recommend postponing just this particular one for, you know, maybe until after the budget to see what happens. I just I hate to add more to staff's plate that already seems to be overflowing, but defer to third. >> Fair enough. Other questions? Comments? Yes. Councilmember vela. >> The stakeholders on the immigrant committee. What does that mean? Because, I mean, I thought that's who we appointed to the commission on immigrant affairs. >> Yes. So they want to add three positions that the commission as a body would review and nominate two council. So they would solicit, I guess, with the community, those people would submit applications. We would send the applications to the commission, they would review those and nominate three additional stakeholders. They didn't define any other [9:40:35 AM] didn't define any other specifics about what the stakeholders would be. >> And is that is our is there any other commission that operates in that way? >> There are two. There is the Asian American quality of life, and they have four members that nominate by the stakeholder. It is something that when those vacated is a bit challenging for them to fill, but they do the similar process. They collect the applications and review and also the lgbtq quality of life commission has them. They have specific requirements about who they want to fill, but it's the same process. Thank you. >> And is the difference that instead of having individual members of the council make appointments, they would make three recommendations that the whole council would then vote on. >> That's correct. >> Have we ever tried a process where they do that and they make recommendations to the council and they have three. They come up with three recommendations and they make recommendations. And if there's openings by the council, then those those can be made that way. >> There isn't a formalized [9:41:37 AM] >> There isn't a formalized process for that. I do know that a lot of commissions just send recommendations to a specific council offices. That's the current kind of recommendation process. >> I mean, part of my concern on this is making quorum and adding to the quorum and adding more people. That is, I think probably one of the if it's not the number one, it's in the top three. Always of concerns expressed to us about boards and commissions is getting people to be able to serve on that. And if there are people that are stakeholders that they know are going to be able to serve, can't we just work that through the process without increasing the number of people? And maybe I'm missing something there, but that's that. Okay. Yes. Council member. >> And what's the current situation with the quorum problems? Like how long has the commission been unable to meet or what do we know about the quorum problems. >> So they had some issues last year meeting quorum, some real struggles. There were some [9:42:37 AM] struggles. There were some vacancies. They also had some attendance issues that we needed to sort out with staff. So they didn't meet for six months and had to be brought before audit and finance committee at the end of last year. So they we discussed that quite a bit. We talked about it. There was a renewed dedication to fill those vacancies. Right now they're full. They just have one recent resignation. So right now they're in a really good spot. >> And the so they've been able to meet and make quorum over the last few months. >> Yes that's correct. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. >> You're shaking your head very I wouldn't say violently but but significantly what are you disagreeing with. Please come forward. Okay, councilmember. I'll get there. >> Go ahead. >> Thank you. >> So the roster, the member roster reflects that we have one vacancy that's not actually accurate. Out of some of the members. Some are not able to participate because they have not completed their training. Leaving us right now with eight active commissioners. I know I'm not Einstein and forbid me. I do [9:43:38 AM] not Einstein and forbid me. I do not respectfully going from 12 to 15 and only increasing one member. To me it's probably manageable given like I mentioned during my speech, there were multiple times where we had community members that were ready to serve, but we had those appointed members that did not have an attendance violation yet, but had gone Mia. I could not reach out to them. There was no responses, and I was waiting on staff to reach out to them first and see if they actually wanted to resign. We it took months at times to hear back om them. So with if the commission was grantedhis the amendment we can go out to community the community members and just the commission can appoint and remove if they're not fulfilling their roles. >> Okay. Great. Thank you, councilmember duchen. >> Thank you. I wound up speaking with my commissioner to [9:44:40 AM] speaking with my commissioner to try and get her input on this. And one of the things that she raised, I was really curious around maybe a question for Stephanie. >> Why don't we have staff? And thank you very much. We appreciate your input. >> Which is my understanding is right now, if you miss three meetings, you can be removed from that commission and we can replace somebody that isn't obviously that interested in attending or has other commitments or work life issues or whatever they are. Is there a reason that isn't happening, or is that not a particular issue with the attendance for this particular commission last year? >> Thank you for that question. That's certainly has been an issue. Part of the problem is we do rely on those reports coming from the staff liaison. And I believe there was some nderstandings about that. So the clerk's office wasn't being notified of these attendance violations. Once we do get a violation notice, we reach out to the appointing council member. Theress an opportunity for that council member to connect with the members, see if they would like to continue and offer a waiver. So there were a couple of those issues as as well. If the attendance problem [9:45:41 AM] well. If the attendance problem continues, we reach out again. But so I understand that it can it feels like it can take several months. Certainly it can. And it does have large impacts on the ability for the commission to meet. But that is the standard process outlined in the in the code. >> And is that something we need to look at independently of this as a way to review whether there's a way to expedite getting that process for replacing people, if it's causing an attendance issue on the commission. >> Certainly we could. I think in theory it works rather well. Those violations are reported. We notify and then there's action taken that. But that often could mean that those three meetings might have been canceled due to lack of quorum, but hopefully it shouldn't because there's, you know, 11 members and typically there's only six required for quorum. And this one, there is seven. They have an additional member from Travis county. So hopefully there are other members. But I think that they just had some compounding problems last year that they were experiencing with vacancies and attendance issues. >> Okay. O last question, which is the chair just mentioned a moment ago that there were some other issues [9:46:41 AM] there were some other issues with training and other things going on with those same requirements apply to the three new positions that aeing proposed. >> Yes they would. They would have to attend training and sign and until they're certified and eligible to serve. And they would also fit the same attendance requirements. >> So all of the same barriers that currently exist would be extended to those positions. >> Correct? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thanks, members. Unless we have further questions and I don't want to cut off questions, but what I would suggest is that on aging and on immigrant affairs, I think people are going to want to do a little bit more work on. My sense is people are going to want to ask some additional questions with regard to immigrant affairs, and I tend to agree with council member alter that we've got some issues we need to discuss. What I would suggest that we do is that. We I accept a motion that postpones the decision of the or and recommendation of the audit and [9:47:42 AM] recommendation of the audit and finance committee with regard to the committee on aging and committees on aging and immigrant affairs, until what I'm going to say, just so that we have a time certain and we'll bring it back, but at the next, at the next meeting of the audit and finance committee, which is really a joint meeting, and we can quickly take this up, I want to get I want to get additional information about the best timing to bring back aging. And that's what the motion would be at the next meeting, is just to postpone that to a more specific date, but for now, so that we have a specific date, I would say the next meeting of the audit and finance committee. And then as part of that motion to that motion, it would be to postpone the decision and recommendation on those two committees, but make a recommendation to the full council with regard to the zero waste advisory committee. Is there such a motion? >> So move. >> That we would we would go forward. Hang on. Sorry. We would go forward. On the [9:48:43 AM] would go forward. On the recommendation with regard to the zero waste advisory committee. Okay. The motion has been made by councilmember duchen, seconded by councilmember alter mayor pro tem. >> Thank you. Colleagues, I certainly understand the need to ask more questions and respect that and will and will support the postponement for an additional two weeks. I trust the recommendation that is coming forward from the community on adding additional stakeholders. I know that there were issues with meeting requirements and vacancies, but it seems when by the time that made its way to audit and finance the vacancy issue or the lack of quorum issue was from earlier part of the year, and it seemed to be getting addressed, and so they were actively meeting. I also just want to recognize the state that we're in in regards to our immigrant community. With everything that's happening at the federal level. So perhaps having additional stakeholder and voices at the immigrant commission is needed, given the rhetoric at the federal level. And I certainly welcome additional feedback on what more [9:49:43 AM] additional feedback on what more we can be doing for our immigrant community. So I am supportive of that addition change to the bylaws. But with that, I just wanted to add that. >> Thank you for that. If any further discussion. Without objection, the motion is approved. Thank you all and thanks for being here. We appreciate the energy and the effort to be a part of that. That'll take us to item number four, which is the fiscal year 2024 annual comprehensive financial report and single audit report. >> Good morning, mayor. >> Good morning. >> All right. Mayor pro tem and council members, I'm Maria Norton, city controller. And I'm here with Tracy Cooley and Madeline Morris to present the results of the fiscal year 2024 [9:50:45 AM] results of the fiscal year 2024 annual comprehensive financial report, or acfr, along audit, along with the results of the fiscal year 2024 single audit report. The annual comprehensive financial report was issued on March 11th, 2025, and can be found in the link on the on the slide. This slide outlines the financial audit requirements, and the city ofustin is in compliance with each of these requirements. The single audit report was issued on March 28th, 2025 and also can be found on the link on this slide. Both the single audit report, as well as the acfr will be will be providing the bound copies to each of you. Once we receive those from the printer. This slide outlines the single audit requirements both for the federal and the state requirements. They were required [9:51:45 AM] requirements. They were required to have an audit. If we expend more than $1 million of federal grants or state grants annually. And before I hand it off to the deloitte team, I want to thank each of the parties on this slide for your excellence in financial management.nd also, want to thank deloitte for their professional manner in which they handled the audit. So now I'm going to hand it off to Tracy and Madeline. >> Good morning. I'm Tracy Cooley and I'm a managing director at deloitte here in the Austin office and have been involved with the city's audit probably since 2011, on and off. And I've been with deloitte over 30 years. Presenting with me today is Madeline Morris. She's an audit manager, and Madeline has been involved with the city audit for the last seven years. So we're going to present today the results of the 2024 audits. There are several, as Maria [9:52:46 AM] There are several, as Maria indicated. I. >> Moved. There should be a better presentation. >> Okay. >> That was the end. >> Of it. >> There's another. >> One there. So I'll just start talking. So there's a couple of highlights that we wanted to make as far as the audit. We have an executive summary that we can talk through. All right. At the beginning of the audit, we always identify if there are Y significant risks as it relates to the audit process. And in our fiscal 24 audit, we did identify that the ability for management to potentially override controls as it relates to financial reporting was a significant risk. The risk we have in every audit that we do throughout the audit process, we didn't identify anything else that would rise to the level of significant risk. The testing that we performed related to [9:53:46 AM] that we performed related to management override did not reveal any control deficiencies from an audit status standpoint. As Maria indicated, there are several audit that that we do. There's the act for the single audits as well as the passenger facility charges, compliance audit. All of those have been issued as of this week. So we're officially done with all 20 2024 audits. We did not identify any significant, significant deficiencies in the audit process. We did have one material weakness related to controls that we'll talk through in the slide. And it relates to the accounting for other post-employment benefits, which is the retiree health plan. From a key highlight standpoint, this is where we like to highlight changes to the accounting literature that was in effect this year. The one area that we had was was fairly inconsequential. It related to capitalization of fixed assets or should they be capitalized individually as a group? It was a minor a couple of million dollars impact to the financial statements this year. Required communication. So we are [9:54:48 AM] communication. So we are required to report to the audit committee. This is sort of the laundry list of things that we could potentially report. The blue dots at the top will cover the green dots. These are things we don't have to cover in certain circumstances. That's a really good thing. Meaning that we did not have disagreements with management. We did not have difficulties in performing our audit. In fact, quite the opposite. We get full cooperation from Maria, all the finance team. We're all over the city, we're at the airport, we're at housing, we're at Austin energy. So definitely full cooperation from everyone in support of the audit. This slide just confirms we are independent of the city. We do not perform any non attest work at the city of austin this slide actually talks a little bit about accounting estimates. So there are when you pick up the financial statements there are some accounting estimates that are included. These are the kind of the top four that we look at from a materiality standpoint. It would be other post-employment benefits. So opeb pension liabilities. There [9:55:49 AM] opeb pension liabilities. There are some asset retirement obligations related to environmental liabilities as well as the deferred amounts related to regulated operations at Austin energy. The summary of these estimates, as well as our audit approach O these estimates, are outlined in appendix B. Happy to cover those if there are questions, but there is a detail attached to the presentation. The one area that we'll we'll talk about a little bit would be opeb. As I mentioned, there was a control deficiency related to opeb. This slide covers identified misstatements. So as we're going through our audit process, there are some misstatements that we'll identify. Management can either correct those and include them in the afr. Or they will remain uncorrected. If they remain uncorrected, it's really because they're just not material. They're not material to the financial statements. So we do have a few of the uncorrected misstatements that are in appendix C. Again, happy to go over those if we need to. Happy to take questions. And then the corrected [9:56:50 AM] then the corrected misstatements. We'll cover two of those in the presentation. The first relates to the bottom part of the slide here. And if we go back to the 2023 financial statements, there was a discretely presented component unit, the creekside senior housing limited partnership, that was included in the 2023 financial statements. The impact to net position is 4 million. So not a material amount. It should not have been included in the 2023 financial statements. The ownership pcentage changed and was this was not. Management in the finance area was not made aware of this, so it should not have been included. So there was correction in the 2024 financial statements to remove creekside from the from the act. For the next item we'll cover would be the O issue that I alluded to. So from an opeb standpoint, the plan year for the city. There was an addition of a medicare advantage plan option to the opeb plan. And in effect, what this does, this is a timing issue. The plan was [9:57:51 AM] a timing issue. The plan was announced, people were able to sign up for the plan, and this happened within the measurement year. So within fiscal year 24, the effective date of this wasn't until January 1st of 2024, which is the next measurement cycle. However, the accounting guidance would say if it was announced, if people were able to sign up for it, it should be included in the calculation of the opeb obligation. And that really does make sense, because if that is where the city is headed and this plan is an option, and your opeb liability is a projection of future benefits, it makes sense to include that this was not included in the original calculation provided to the city by their actuaries. The end result is the city actuaries reran the calculation and it resulted in quite a significant reduction to the opeb liability. So in the city's favor, about 600 and $766 million of reduction in the liability. The overall opeb liability is roughly 3 billion. So large, large dollars for the city of Austin. So we brought this to [9:58:52 AM] Austin. So we brought this to management. Management did correct it within the aquifer. But really our recommendation from a control perspective is just to ensure that the reviews of the opeb plan, as well as any plan changes, are factored into the calculation of the liability. It's done bi annually. So every other year management did agree with the recommendation and will certainly, you know, take that into account as they have the next valuation, which will be in two years. So happy to answer any questions about this particular item. If there are any. >> Members any questions. Thank you. I think you covered it. >> Thank you.pcoming pronouncements gas stays very active. Next year it will be gas 101 which is compensated absences. So we'll be talking to you next year about the impact to that liability. So and next Madeleine will cover the compliance audits. Thanks, Tracy. So this. [9:59:53 AM] Tracy. So this. >> Slide is really relating to our compliance audits of both federal and state programs. So we perform single audits over both federal and state dollar spent. We issued these reports on March 28th of this year. And they were unmodified or clean opinions over compliance on those programs. So this slide demonstrates the scope of the federal programs of the city. So in fy 24, the city expended 245 million of federal program dollars. And our audit is really focused on the expenditure of those dollars rather than what is awarded. So if we think back to pandemic funding, a lot of that was advanced funded. And so our audit is more concerned on when that funds is expended for the city's perspective. And you can see the list. Here are the major programs that were elected for testing in fy 24, with arpa dollars being the largest. And then this slide demonstrates the scope of our [10:00:55 AM] demonstrates the scope of our state programs so far. Less state expenditures here, about 6.7 million expended in fy 24. And this shows the list of major programs selected for testing as part of our audit. And then, as Tracy mentioned in the beginning, we have two other reports that we issue as part of our fy 24 procedures. So the first is an agreed upon procedures report that goes to tcsec. This was issued timely and with no modifications. And then lastly we have a passenger facility charge report that goes to the FAA over the airport's use of PFC funding. This was issued Monday of this week and there were no findings. And then lastly, this slide is just a follow up from a prior year significant deficiency identified through the PFC audit. And we consider this to be remediated. And this concludes our remarks for our [10:01:57 AM] concludes our remarks for our current presentation. So we're happy to address any questions or comments you may have. >> Thank you. And thank you for the report. Members. Are there questions? Yes. Councilmember duchen. >> Thank you so much for all the preparation you've done in preparing this. I my question is really regarding the links that you shared, the annual comprehensive financial report, which was not part of the slide deck you just shared with us, but was issued last month. Is there a point that we're going to be able to review that together with you all, or what is the review process with those documents? >> We haven't reviewed in the past, but we can certainly schedule a meeting if you want to meet after we've provided the bound copies to you all. Okay. But the links are also available online currently. >> Yeah, and we've started to go through them, me and my staff. [10:02:57 AM] through them, me and my staff. And there are a lot of there are some very fascinating things in terms of particularly the tables at the end regarding city reporting, in terms of, you know, everything from municipal pay courses and library, you know, library borrowings and citations that have dropped 87% in the last nine years. There's a lot of stuff that I want to validate is correct, and be trying to figure out who I would first engage with that data set. Would it be you all? >> Would it be yes. They can engage with me. They can. You can have someone message me. And we can definitely set up a meeting to discuss. >> Okay. I'd very much look forward to that. >> Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. >> Thanks. Council member, any further questions? Bottom line, we first of all, I really appreciate the report. But for anybody watching, I want to end the report the way you began the report. And the bottom line is I'm accurate. When I point out, I say that everything has been completed and with everything being completed, you currently don't have any outstanding matters and any findings that [10:03:58 AM] matters and any findings that you may have had have been addressed or remediated. >> Murray. That's correct. Absolutely. >> Thank you very much. We apprec you. Appreciate your work. Appreciate you being here too. Thank you. Thank you. Members that will take us to audit item number five, which is the audit of the police department recruiting and hiring. Good morning. >> Good morning. Okay, so my name is Jasmine Triplett and I was the auditor in charge over this project. I would like to first thank my team for all their work that they've done to help us get to this point. And I also want to thank APD management and staff that are here today for all their work throughout the audit and their [10:04:58 AM] throughout the audit and their work to help recruit and hire sworn staff. The objective of our audit was to determine if APD is effectively, efficiently and equitably recruiting and hiring sworn staff. To join APD, qualified applicants must pass a written examination, a background check, and a physical and mental examination to receive a conditional offer of employment. They then must attend an on site orientation prior to the police academy. They also must attend and complete the police academy to become a police officer. So why do we look at APD's recruiting and hiring efforts? APD has experienced staffing shortages and has been struggling to attract enough candidates to fill their vacancy issues. As you see on the screen here, specifically from fiscal year 21 to 24, APD's vacancy rates have increased from 3% to 18%. Throughout this audit, we looked at the various goals, strategies, efforts, and programs. APD has taken to address their vacancy issues. APD has two primary recruitment goals. The first is outlined in [10:05:59 AM] goals. The first is outlined in their 2024 2029 strategic plan, and that goal is to recruit a diverse and skilled workforce. The second was signed up when APD pledged to the 30 by 30 initiative in 2022. This pledge is a national pledge that law enforcement agencies can sign that shows their commitment to increase the percentage of women to 30% by 2030, and all sworn ranks. Our audit had two findings, and the first findingis that APD's recruitment strategy. APD does not have an effective recruitment strategy to address their hiring issues. And the next couple of slides I will go through and ideifify what that means and what we found. Bestractices recommend that objectives are measurable, tied to specific recruitment actions, and include a time frame what you see on the screen here at the top of APD's main recruitment objective to recruit a diverse and skilled workforce does not have those three things underneath. It is an example from best practices of what a more specific or measurable objective could look like. Without a measurable objective, [10:07:00 AM] Without a measurable objective, it's very difficult for the departme to determine when they've reached their goal to recruit a diverse and skilled workforce. What that looks like. Secondly, APD lacks a recruitment action plan. Best practices note that these recruitment action plans should note who is going to do what, what is going to be done and when it plans on being completed. APD's 2024, 2029 strategic plan lists three strategies that you see here on the screen. However, they're very broad. These strategies were ultimately supposed to be turned into action plans as listed in the 2024 2029 strategic plan. However, as of March 2025, these havt been turned into specific action plans. These action plans allow the department to know exactly what steps they're going to take to move towards their objective. Additionally, when you look at the first one to broaden the reach of their recruitment program through innovative outreach methods, APD is missing opportunities to spread their recruitment messages as far as possible by not coordinating their social media messages across all their social media pages in the department. While [10:08:01 AM] pages in the department. While APD doesn't have measurable objectives or a recruitment strategy, they are taking steps to move towards recruiting a diverse and skilled workforce. Some of the things that they're doing are hosting events at military institutions, historically black colleges and universities and local high schools. Recruiters mentioned. While they're at these events, they are proactive and they reach out to women about careers in law enforcement. Lastly, for finding one, we found that APD lacks a process to overall evaluate the success of their efforts. We don't have any specific metrics tied to those three strategies that I mentioned before. Additionally, we noticed some data reliability issues with their applicant tracking system. This is the system that captures all the data for every applicant that applies to APD. We found that some of the information is automatically captured into the system, but some information is manually inputted by staff and that manually inputted information is inconsistently entered. Sometimes what that leads to is APD having [10:09:01 AM] leads to is APD having difficulties answering specific questions about the hiring process, such as who isn't showing up to the written test? What test date may or may not be the most successful, or how long it's taking them? Applicants on average to move from each phase of the hiring process. With this type of insight, APD could identify specific issues and target their efforts a bit more to add more success. This thing is acting funky. Next okay. Next slide. Okay, that brings us to our second finding. So our second finding is tied more to APD's recruitment programs. We found that APD does not have a recruitment pipeline. A recruitment pipeline is a series of programs that are more a long term strategy that allows interested applicants to engage with the department, build their skills and reliability, and their familiarity with the department. By the time they apply to the academy, they already know exactly what they [10:10:02 AM] already know exactly what they want to do. Next slide. APD has some recruitment like programs, but overall lacks a coordinated recruitment program that moves interested applicants from one program to the next to academy. Ultimately, what you see here on the screen is three of APD's recruitment programs recruitment like programs. The first is their police activity leagues program. It deals with. It engages with people from ages 8 to 15 years old at one boys and girls club in Austin. However, it only has two staff members over the entire project, so that limits their ability to really engage with the community. Additionally, you have the criminal justice pathway program and that engages with high school and college students, but it's a one time program also that goes out and engages with these students in individual talks. But it isn't a consistent long term strategy that's building interested applicants engagement with the department. And then for adults, we have the reserve officers unit, where a retired APD officersan come back on a temporary basis for special [10:11:03 AM] temporary basis for special events to help out. None of these programs are part of a longer term, consistent engagement that allows people to engage with the department to ultimately see and build the skills to join. Additionally, APD doesn't have an internship program. Best practices note that, well, we know that agent. We know that people cannot join APD until they're 20.5 years old. Best practices note that if you do not engage with applicants up until the age that they can join, you're liable to lose them. APD youth programs engage with youth up until the college age, but again, it's not on a consistent long term basis. APD used to have an internship program in the past, but due to staffing issues, had to cut that. We issued four recommendations based on the issues we saw in this audit. The first is to craft a recruitment strategy with measurable goals. The second is to update our standard operating procedures and train our staff to address our data reliability issues. The third is to coordinate recruitment posts on social [10:12:03 AM] recruitment posts on social media to maximize the reach of our recruitment messages. And the fourth is to create a recruitment pipeline that captures and retains interest in the department. Management has agreed with our recommendations and that concludes our presentation. I'm available for any questions you may have. >> I appreciate that. What I want to say is I want to, before I ask a question, is that the council, I think will have council members, will all agree with me that in the past two years, there has been a maybe one of the highest priorities of this council, as it applies to the Austin police department, is to get us in a situation where we're able to recruit and retain police officers. It's not lost on anybody that we are continue to be. But when we two years ago, let's just use the date of January of 2023, when we started to look at this, one of the things that was very clear was [10:13:04 AM] things that was very clear was the fact that we were behind in terms of the numbers, this council spent a lot of time and energy doing a couple of things that were priorities of the council. I don't think I'm misstating it at all. If I say the priority of the council was to make sure that we had a contract in place, that took a while, but we now have a contract in place. It's a five year contract and that makes a difference. The second part of that is, is that we ask for this audit in November of 2023, because we wanted to make sure we were doing the basics, the blocking and tackling that we would need to be be done. We're seeing some progress, I think, from some of the decisions that were made to get us, you know, a contract and things beyond that. But we now need to figure out how we're going to make the additional progress that we need to make. And I just want to say that before I call up APD to [10:14:05 AM] that before I call up APD to make its presentation, is that that this this is an ongoing process. I'm pleased that we have the audit. I think everybody is pleased that we have the audit, because it will help us as we move forward and then and then hearing from APD about how it wants to go on. This, I think, is the appropriate next step. So thank you ry much. Unless somebody else has something they want to say. All right APD. Hey, chief. [10:15:09 AM] Hey, chief. >> Good morning. >> Apologies if you can give us just a moment to see if we can get our presentation up. And if not, then we'll just continue. >> To. City hall. Leave one. Okay. Perfect, I. [10:16:11 AM] Perfect, I. >> Mikel me through. >> Can you. >> Okay. Alrighty. So we'll go ahead and get get started and apologize for the technical difficulties. So thank you for having us here today. We greatly appreciate it. My name is robin Henderson. I'm the chief of staff for the Austin police department, and I have with me Corey Wroblewski. He's the commander over our training division. First of all, just want to thank the audit auditor's office for their review of our recruiting process and overall our organizational structure that we have currently he Austin police department. So going through, just wanted to [10:17:12 AM] So going through, just wanted to highlight some things that we believe are relevant. And one thing that we wanted to talk about was our current staffing and our current attrition rate. And so, mayor, you already spoke to it. We were in a time of tremendous attrition throughout the years, starting essentially in 2017, the first time that we fell out of contract and then again when we fell out of contract in 2022. Over that time, we had a tremendous loss of officers. Our average attrition for the years was just about to 150 range each year for four four years, most recently due to the fact that we do have a contract in place now, our retention and our attrition rate has slowed tremendously. And so right now, right in this year, we only have about 40 separations that we've had, either through a retirement or a separation, which is about a third of what we would see typically for the past 3 to 4 years in the same time time frame. So wanted to highlight [10:18:12 AM] frame. So wanted to highlight that, okay, just our current structure of the recruiting. Just so you'll have a sense of awareness. It has one commander, one lieutenant, two sergeants, 16 officers. And then we have some civilian support personnel, 11 background investigators, which are all retired APD officers who understand how to do backgrounds, what to look for, what a qualified applicant should, should be. We have two administrative staff and then we have one recruitment coordinator. Our current recruiting strategies for the Austin police department is prioritizing the candidate experience we want to provide. Of course, exceptional customer service from the very first touch point with the Austin police department. We want them to know that we care and value them. And so we've set up processes in place to have a more customer centric approach with our recruiting processes. We also have a data driven approach. We are collecting and analyzing, utilizing data to better inform our outreach and our marketing strategy efforts, and then also tracking our performances. Meaning are the [10:19:12 AM] performances. Meaning are the touchpoints that we're currently utilizing actually yielding qualified applicants. Also, resource optimization by increasing efficiency, efficiency through continuous evaluation and improvement processes. And so making sure that we are because we constantly have cyclical cycles, each 3 to 4 months, we are opening up a new hiring cycle. Now that we're back under ntract and having that constant evaluation to make sure that our recruiting efforts are actualeeting our intended goals. And speaking to being out of contract, I just want to highlight the fact that when we are out of contract, part of the evaluation process or the audit that was done was done under the time that we were out of contract. So therefore we were hindered by our recruiting efforts. First of all, there was a pause in having cadet classes. That was with the 1/44 cadet class. You might remember that as the pilot cadet class, cadet classes were put on hold for just about a year in that timeframe. We are also not [10:20:12 AM] timeframe. We are also not allowed to do any recruiting because we couldn't start start a class. So our recruiting efforts were essentially non-existent during that one year time frame, compounded by the fact that we then were out of out of contract. And so some of the limitations when we're out of contract is that we cannot travel out of state to do testing. All the testing for recruiting cycle has to be done within the state of Texas, and there can only be one hiring cycle for a cadet class. And then on that list, it is only a written exam. And that written exam has to be exhausted. Meaning every single person who passed the exam has to go through the standard hiring vetting process. But then only after we have completed that process can we then offer them a letter of hire based on the order in which they ranked on the exam, so somebody could potentially be waiting longer than they have to because we haven't completed their packet or somebody's packet is completed, but we have to go in order as they ranked on the exam. Therefore slowing that [10:21:13 AM] exam. Therefore slowing that touch point when we can let them know, hey, you've made it, you've made it through and you're you can be expected to receive a offer letter for starting the next cadet class. >> Can I say this back to you and see if I say it right? For anybody that might be listening? And that is when we're under when we have a contract like we're currently under. Yes, sir. That contract allows for APD to recruit and do things in different ways. >> Absolutely. >> If we're not under contract, then it defaults back to the statutory provisions, which are express in how you have to go about it. And there are limitations so that under contract, it allows for greater recruiting opportunities. And that's what you were pointing out. Some of the limitations that we default back to when we're not under contract. >> Yes, sir. And those limitations are outlined in chapter 143 of the Texas local government code. >> Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to emphasize for somebody watching and or will watch this and tries to get an explanation [10:22:14 AM] and tries to get an explanation about why certain things happened. It's because there are limitations if, unless, unless we actually have a contract with Apa that says, here's how you can go about doing recruiting. You just have the local government code and it it limits us. >> Absolutely correct. Yes, sir. And so now that we're back under contract, we are able to expand our recruiting efforts outside the state. We can do as many testing events as as we'd like to host outside the state. We are not limited by having one single touch point or test to vet applicants, so we can continue that vetting process throughout the hiring period that we have for the current cadet class. And not only that, we can also open up a new cycle. We don't have to necessarily completely close out the first cycle that we have. We can open up a new cycle in preparation for starting a new cadet class. >> Are we doing that? >> Yes, sir. >> We are. >> Cool. >> Thank you. >> Yes, mayor pro. >> Tem, thank you. So because there's two things that you mentioned here. One was that the [10:23:14 AM] mentioned here. One was that the recruitment stopped completely in 2021 when the cadet academy classes were canceled. Right. >> Correct. >> And then for the period that we were out of contract, can you remind us for how long? Because I know there was a provision that we went out of contract, but we extended certain pay and benefits that allowed us to extend recruitment efforts just for a little bit longer. But how long were we in this kind of scaled down in-state recruitment version? >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Council member. We were in that state for about 16 to 17. I'm sorry. Yes, 16 to 17, 18 months. We fell out of contract in February of 2023. And then we got the contract in October of 2024. >> Thank you. >> So I guess that's about maybe 15 months. Okay. Thank you ma'am. And so just want to focus on some of our retention efforts. Like I said the contract was a huge, huge thing. So thank you for getting that [10:24:16 AM] So thank you for getting that passed. In addition we've streamlined the process and we're on slide number six. Thank you. If you can bring that back up on there for me please. We're on slide number six. Thank you. And then opportunities to reform our process for our tx standards and fitness standards. And so we now have a process in place to where a potential applicant as soon as we have that touch point they can come in and participate in pt sessions with the recruiters. That way they can better understand what the expectations are once they become a cadet. Next slide. This is what I just talked about. This is the time frame when were out of contract, limiting our ability to recruit out of state, and then the exam list that we had to have. And then now that we're back under contract and mayor pro tem, you can see the dates that we were we got back under contract was October of 2nd we were out in March of 23. Thank you. Next slide. You did have some questions that you would like us [10:25:17 AM] questions that you would like us to answer. And the time frame on when cadet classes were paused. That happened in August of 2020. I understand we had already had a candidate pool. Some of them had received offer letters, and then we essentially had to put that cadet class on pause, and we did not reengage or start that cadet class until June of 2021. And during that time frame, of course, the applicant pool changed. We'd lost interest. That was a long time for candidates to wait to understand when the next class, when they can expect to start a cadet class. There was also a question about filming and using film crews to kind of highlight what the what the job is like following officer around. Please know we don't have that capability. There is a statute that prevents a reality TV show from utilizing a law enforcement entity to create a show, and so that was instituted. So we do not have that that capability. So wanted to make sure we answer [10:26:18 AM] So wanted to make sure we answer that question. In addition we are also utilizing our current officers to boost our applications. There was a question related to that. And so right now our third most effective recruiting tool is actual officers that currently work at the Austin police department. And I think that highlights the morale, the interest that our own officers have to say, hey this is a great department to work at and saying, hey, you should come work, come work here. And next, just want to give you some highlights for our upcoming classes. We just had a class graduate last month which had 29 graduates. We are currently in the 1/54 cadet class. We have 51 cadets that are slated to graduate in August. Then the 1/55 cadet class will begin on April 21st, and we currently have 63 cadets slated to start that cadet class. And then we have opened up the application process for the 156 cadet class. And I believe they are scheduled to start in in August, right [10:27:18 AM] to start in in August, right after the 1/54 graduates. And that is apdecruiting APD recruiting.org. >> And sorry, what did you say. >> APD recruiting.org. APD recruiting.org. Next slide. Cool. And so just wanted to now go over some of the things that were brought forth in the audit. And so next slide please. So I've already covered what the recommendations were. And so just wanted to give a highlight of what we are doing to address those items that were brought forth in the audit. But please also know we were actively working on quite a few items that the auditor's office discovered when they did their audit. Of course, we want to always engage with our diverse communities. Austin is a very unique and diverse community, and we want to have a police workforce that's reflective of the police department, that are reflective of the community that we serve. Of course, we need to recruit well qualified candidates, maintain those relationships. So even though a cadet or an applicant might not be qualified or ready to start [10:28:19 AM] be qualified or ready to start one cycle, we are making sure we are staying in constant contact with them to make sure when they are ready or whether next class comes up, making sure they stay ged with the process to make sure we move. We move them along and they don't lose interest or possibly start exploring going to another police department. We want them to come to come to Austin. Further streamlining the hiring process. It's my understanding we're down to a just about a 3 to 4 month process from a touch point of when they actually submit an application to the time that they are given, notice whether or not they're making it through or possibly being disqualified. We're working on maximizing cadet retention, having we have a wellness coordinator that is now housed at the training academy. That way a cadet is struggling with the process or there's an unforeseen family event there. We have one of our wellness division counselors that is on site that the cadet can utilize to help process through whatever event they might be experiencing. Of course, we provide various strategies and objectives to [10:29:19 AM] strategies and objectives to make. Sure we have activities for them to participate in during the hiring process. Like I said, the pt sessions, we also provide them with materials for them to read to give them an understanding of what the cou curriculum will be so they can better prepare for that. In addition, we're exploring cost fefective options to allow for adjustments to meeting our recruitment needs. Of course, additional financial support would always be be appreciated to come up with an effective strategy, which we'll touch on later. But part of our constraints when it comes to recruiting is that we have a lot of applications coming into the door. We have a robust staff. However, with the increase in the applications, the number of people that we need to hire, once we get those applications in, their focus is then just on the recruiting or the processing of the applications, not in those recruiting efforts. And so it tapers off just a little bit when it comes to recruiting, because those same recruiters are responsible for then processing the applications that [10:30:20 AM] processing the applications that come in the door. Next slide please. Recommendation two of course they talked about our data and that we're not doing a very good job when it comes to tracking all of our data metrics when it comes to our recruiting efforts. And yes, there are some points where we can do some improvement, but we pretty much have a very robust take in process of tracking an applicant to the point to where they're given an offer letter. One thing that we found through the audit is that where once they don't make it through the process, we're not capturing the data, kind of explaining why they didn't make it through to either the pt testing, why they didn't make it through to the psych evaluation evaluation. So there are some gaps in that information to making sure if we look at, hey, there were 75 that were signed up to do the psych evaluation, however only 53. Why is it that person didn't make it through to another stage? So just making that there's a [10:31:21 AM] just making that there's a holistic tracking of all the data metrics across each phase of each phase of testing. In addition to updating our sops, our standard operating procedures, making sure that we do that on a continual basis. We do do them annually, but then making sure we're looking at our standard operating procedures from the lens of incorporating practices that we've learned we need to improve on throughout those stages of the recruitment cycles. So not waiting till once a year to update those sops as we have those learning touchpoints, making sure that those sops get updated immediately. Next slide. We also hired a data analyst to help us with with tracking that data and making sure is accurately entered into our system to. So one thing that we did notice with the auditor's report was that we were not sharing our social media content across all platforms that APD currently has. And so our primary APD platform for sharing, of course, [10:32:23 AM] platform for sharing, of course, information to the public about events that are going on, crime information. One thing that we did notice that brought forth through the audit was that we weren't sharing recruiting information. We do have other social media platforms that our department uses that we also weren't highlighting some of our recruiting efforts. And so now we have cross-collaboration between all of those units that have robust social media platforms to make sure that we're sharing all of our recruiting efforts across all platforms of social media that the Austin police department currently utilizes, and next one. Wanted to create a pipeline of. The auditor's office spoke to that and making sure that what we're doing has transparency. We are constantly collaborating with the community and our stakeholders to make sure that our recruiting efforts are targeting those candidates that we want to have as Austin police office and so we did actually just get a grant to close that that gap in that high [10:33:23 AM] close that that gap in that high school phase. And we will be it will be a program where we're engaging with 60 high school students to not only create a pipeline for them to be interested in joininghe Austin police department once they become age eligible, but also helping us develop a strategy for, hey, how do we put a recruiting campaign together that's going to draw interest in your age, age range? And so using them to help us develop the strategies, because we need to stay fresh and hip with what's what's going on there and what's what gets these young, young folks, younger folks attention. And so they're going to help us with developing that recruiting strategy. In addition, we're looking to hiring a marketing professional. Like I said, we are limited with with our staff that we have once we open an application process, the focus becomes on processing those applications and our recruiting efforts taper off just a bit. So if we had a marketing firm that could help us develop content, push out content, follow trends, when it comes to social media, that [10:34:26 AM] comes to social media, that would help us out tremendously. And then having supportive services for our recruits. I mentioned that we have services for our cadets that are currently hired, but when they're going through the process, if there's any supportive resources that we can provide them through that application phase, through the hiring phase, looking to looking D do that. Next slide please. And then wanted to highlight that we are following best practices. We wanted to make sure, of course that we are always looking to the industry standards professionals to make sure that what we're doing is appropriate Wright legitimate. And so we've engaged with per, which is police executive research forum. They're the ones who did our sexual assault evaluation evaluation iacp, the international association of chiefs of police, mcca that's the major city chiefs association and the doj. And when you review some of those documents, the doj recruiting blueprint and an MCC, a white [10:35:26 AM] blueprint and an MCC, a white paper, both cite that the Austin police department recruiting is an example of modernizing the recruitment applicant standards and innovative advertising aimed at the current applicant audience. Next slide. Just wanted to highlight that in addition to that, per highlighted that APD is utilizing five of the best practices. And so reexamining the hiring process. Also engaging in the 30 by 30 initiative, having a faster recruiting timeline like I spoke to, it's about a four month average from touchpoint to the time they submitted application to the time that they either make it through through the full hiring process is only about four months. Adopting innovative recruiting strategies with social media, where we're humanizing the cadet experience and targeting customer service industries, also updating our hiring standards to better reflect our Austin community. I spoke to we wanted to have applicants and police officers that represent what the Austin community expects and how they [10:36:27 AM] community expects and how they would like their policing services delivered. In addition to our recruiting incentives. And so we have partnered with Texas A&M commerce. And essentially, once a cadet graduates and gets off probation, they are able to earn a bachelor's degree essentially for free through the city tuition reimbursement program. In addition, building community support like I spoke to, it's our grant funded program that will be engaging with 60 youth this summer to increase that or close the gap with that pipeline that we were missing with that younger age group starting at the high school high school level. And essentially, I believe next slide. That is all. And with that, I'll open it up for council members to have any questions. >> Great. Thank you chief. Anybody have any questions? Mayor pro tem and council member duchen. >> Thank you. Just since we have chief Davis in the audience wanted to welcome her and also just hear from her on kind of her thoughts and ideas of how we improve our recent efforts, [10:37:29 AM] improve our recent efforts, especially considering the audit findings that we just heard from the lack of recruitment plan, lack of coordination for a recruitment pipeline. Would you like to share your thoughts on it? >> Yes, absolutely. I appreciate the auditor's findings. And certainly, you know, as chief of police, it is a priority. And I think I was hired and brought here. Mayor partly, you know, that was that was a big thing is that recruitment and retention, the recruit retention is quite obvious that that is occurring. We are keeping people here. And then the recruitment effort, it's happening. It is a slow process, but it is happening. The grant that we just received for $125,000 to bring 60 youth into the police department, and again to robin's point, to chief Henderson's point, to not only teach this group about law enforcement and careers in law enforcement, but to again take this group and take an opportunity to see how we can do better in that recruitment effort, how we move forward. I would like mayor and mayor pro tem as to look at when you look at these. The slide robin talked about is not being able to put a [10:38:29 AM] about is not being able to put a commercial together that has our our officers doing their work. I think that we need to revisit that and maybe just wording change to that. There's a real big difference between having someone coming in to film arrests and so forth, versus being able to do a commercial and move that forward. So I think those are areas we can look at, but we can certainly do better. And I think our team, Cory and his group over at recruiting are very proactive. We can see the numbers in recruiting have jumped dramatically from just just those interested. But again, it's about how do we get those interested where they're ready to go into the academy. And that's the piece that we're, you know, so we're not seeing high attrition rates in the academy. They have to be ready to go. There are standards to get into the academy, but there are certainly standards to stay in the academy. And so how do we bridge that gap. And that's what I'm looking for. But I do feel confident as we move forward that we're going to see these recruiting efforts pay off. >> Thank you. And as part of that effort, will you be creating an actual action plan for recruitment efforts? And what does that look like tangibly? >> Yes. So chief Henderson has just been put in charge of [10:39:31 AM] just been put in charge of recruitment and the academy, and I'm very confident in her ability to move these units forward, not just her alone, but with some experts help looking at researchers, looking at people to come in and help. So we will absolutely have an action plan together for you, mayor pro tem and council to look at. So that is absolutely in the works. >> Yeah, I think that would be helpful because I know this has been top of mind for us for a number of years. And each year, you know, we are told that we're doing these new strategies and programs. And certainly it sounds like we have the personnel in place. I mean, having 16 officers dedicated on a recruitment unit to me sounds robust, but I don't know how that compares to other police departments or other safety divisions. So certainly, you know, what I hope comes out of this is actual, you know, pen to paper, some type of plan strategy that you all can walk us through just because even even though recruitment is up, I still see I mean, just looking at the numbers, we're going to graduate. Best case scenario, if [10:40:31 AM] graduate. Best case scenario, if everyone graduates from the cadets that will, you know, start their academies this year, 133 and with having over 300 vacancies. This is not even counting the retirements and attrition, you know, how are we going to significantly close that gap? >> Wright totally understand. And I think that's yeah, chief Henderson and I will be back here and we'll present something to you. I think at this point it's about putting that plan together again, looking at those best practices, what's happening across the country where they're being successful. And so we will absolutely bring something back to you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, mayor pro tem. Thank you. Chief councilmember duchen. >> Thank you so much for the report. And also chasing down different thoughts and ideas in this, however creative they were. I do want to ask you a couple of things. One is one of the audit recommendations was for some kind of internship or apprentice program. Is the grant program you mentionedended to satisfy that recommendation, or is that something that could be done to supplement that [10:41:32 AM] be done to supplement that further? >> Yeah, I think it's an addition, right. I mean, we applied for this grant kind of last minute, looked at it and said, you know, here's an opportunity. And we received the grant. And so I feel, you know, I'm very happy about that. But this could be in addition, you know, to have an opportunity when you think about bringing young people into work within the police department, work within the city itself, and truly start building something where they can go. If you can imagine they're here working when it's time to take that test, maybe there's points added. So you think about a military, you think about those things. They get points for being military. Could they get five points for being a cadet within civil, you know, being doing city service, that type of thing. So we have to truly think big about this. And I think that's the that is absolutely the direction we're going. >> And just in general, do apprenticeships and internships exist in this space? Is that something that peer cities do? >> Yes. Council member they do. We do have an internship program and it just varies as to whether or not we have the funding to support a paid internship or just an internship for college [10:42:34 AM] just an internship for college credit. >> Got it. The other question I had was to build on comments from council member or Ramberg haam Fuentes. You know, one of the things that I noticed was that we graduated 31 people. I think in the most recent cadet class, we're expected to have 51, 63 people on the subsequent classes. So it looks like we lost upwards of 20 plus people through attrition. Just in the cadet program from the last class, and that seems like it would make a big difference over time. If you're talking about as as council member fes mentioned, graduating the maximum amount versus half of that amount, or 60% of that amount, you're talking about upwards of 70, 90 new police officers every year. That could be helping to add back to our add back to our force and overcome the attrition and other challenges we've had over the last few years. We also mentioned that we don't seem to have good data, maybe about why [10:43:36 AM] have good data, maybe about why we are losing some of those officers between the steps that you mentioned, or is that a separate part of the application that you are referring to? >> Yes, sir. Thank you for that question. That's correct. That's a that's a separate component of it. When we're talking about tracking them across all stages of the vetting process, once they maybe step out at this step in the process, it's then not tracked over into all the other steps. So it makes it difficult to then go back and say, well, how come this person didn't participate or didn't participate in the pt assessment? How come this person didn't make it through to the drug screening? How come you have to go back to see, oh, they didn't fully submit all the number of references that they that they needed and never provided them. So therefore they never moved, they never moved on. So making sure that every single phase of testing we're tracking, why somebody does not does not move, but we do track what somebody steps out for or why they don't move along in the [10:44:38 AM] why they don't move along in the process, or why they just don't, why they get disqualified. It just isn't carried on across all fields of the testing process. >> Got it. Okay, so we're just missing it in that one space and the and the vetting process. >> Correct. >> And then one thing I know that I've visited with ems about is I think it sounds like one reason they're able to graduate a much higher percentage of their CLA that they get from applicants is, I think it sounds like they work very closely with them to make sure they can find like an alternate position, like a desk position or clerk position, and then train them over the next six months if they fail a test to work with them to, to get through the program. You mentioned that it sounds like we'll be taking other steps to help make sure that our applicants will be ready. Is that the same sort of thing that that that they've already implemented, or is it a different kind of way to make sure that our cadets are getting across the finish line? >> Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. So please note that right now, depending on when a cadet exits a class and for what reason, it then allows them to [10:45:39 AM] reason, it then allows them to move into a space of, we offer them a position to work at our emergency communications center. So if they are eligible for rehire and they step out for an injury or there's a life event, meaning they didn't have an issue with meeting the standard, just something happened to where they can't continue in the program and they're eligible to start the next cadet class. Then they are offered a position at our emergency communications center that gives them an excellent opportunity to learn essentially everything about what we what we do. And so it's an excellent opportunity to them enhance their skills, their communication skills, how to vet calls, where does it need to go. And so if they get moved into that program, then they're essentially rolled right into the next class, depending on why they might be disqualified or ha to step out for the standards. Depending on what it is, they could have a three month break, a six month break, or it could be a permanent disqualifier. It just depends on [10:46:41 AM] disqualifier. It just depends on the reason why they had to step out for not meeting the standard. >> And is there data on how many people are taking advantage of those sort of alternate steps that you all are providing for as well as I'm just curious, what are the top say? Two reasons that people aren't able to make it all the way through the cadet program. >> Yes, sir. We do track the data on whether or not they're taking advantage of that program, and I apologize. I don't have it, but I can definitely follow up with you on on that. Primary reason is physical fitness. And then also academics are the two two primary. >> Got it. Okay. It just seems to me that there was a way to somehow increase the because it sounds like we're already doing a fairly thorough vetting between getting the applications and before the cadet class starts. If there was a way to help boost the odds of somebody actually going through THA program would go a long way to helping accelerate the amount of cops that we've got that are graduating and thus addressing [10:47:42 AM] graduating and thus addressing our staff shortages. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> And one of the things that we do provide, I talked about how we host sessions, pt sessions that they can participate in voluntarily. We also provide them with training videos, and all of them are body weight videos. Just a just a W there's a whole plethora on there just in case you're ever interested. All body weight. So they won't be a hindrance of I can't afford or I don't have access to a gym, or I don't have time because I'm so busy with, you know, their college classes or working so they can go home, find a nice level, level spot either in the living room or outside. That way they can acclimate to the Texas heat and just do body weight exercises. And so finding those ways to physically prepare them prior to them coming in the door, because we don't want them to struggle once they get here, because there are so many just other elements and components that we're trying to train them on and prepare them for, it would be super beneficial for them to be prepared once they come [10:48:43 AM] be prepared once they come through the door, but we do have programs in place. They can stay late, work with our our staff, our pt instructors. We also have a nutritionist at the department. We pair them up. She does a presentation at the very beginning of cadet class, and she is available to work with them through the through the process. Also, we have the public safety wellness center that offers pe physical therapy for injuries and things. And so we do have those options for them to take advantage of. One thing we are learning is that there just seems to be just a little bit more sedentary life lifestyle that just seems to be the trend. And so finding that opportunity to start with them early, to put those things in place to help them succeed and make it through across the finish line. >> Got it. It sounds like you understand those issues and have taken a lot of steps to try and address them. And so my hope is that we're going to start seeing that reflected in who we graduate going forward. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you so much for your work on this. [10:49:43 AM] work on this. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember vela. >> Thank you. Mayor. I just wanted to ask a little bit about an honestly kind of put some context on the 2020 class that was canceled. This was before I was on council, but I served with a lot of the members that that were on council, and we discussed thssue at the time. Again, my understanding was that the council was really trying to change the curriculum and the process of the training academy, and there was substantial resistance to changing the training that cadets were receiving. And at some point that just a lack of cooperation from the police department and the training academy led to the cancellation of the class as kind of the council trying to say, hey, we're serious about you changing this curriculum and updating this curriculum. Then we kind of had a long, multiyear process of the citizens. I don't remember the name of the group, but there was a review panel that was [10:50:43 AM] was a review panel that was working with the folks there, and then ultimately, the Kroll folks came in and they issued their, I think, 2023 report. And again, some of the feedback was that there were finally kind of, you know, some of the changes and some of the kind of the new curriculum and the new kind of changes and approaches were that said, where are we in that process of updating the curriculum and the approach of the police academy? Because my understanding was also that it was that the curriculum and kind of training tactics were also a problem in terms of recruiting and retention. And we were losing a lot of cadets, and folks were kind of dropping out because they didn't like kind of the approach. Where are we in that whole kind of conversation today? >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. >> For the. >> Thank you for the question. There were there were three iterations of the Kroll evaluation that was done specifically on the training academy. There were two others completed related to use of force and internal affairs, but [10:51:45 AM] force and internal affairs, but those three that were focused on the training academy. From those recommendations, we have implemented all of the recommendations except for two. One was related to paid lunch breaks, which we were just not in the space space to do. And then another recommendation was related to our facility facilities and the constraints that we had in expanding those facilities. And while we are working to get our facilities improved, because we do share that campus with fire department and our ems partners, there are constraints to what we can do because of the facility and the number of entities that are that are currently housed there. We essentially out out outgrown it. But all of the other recommendations they have implemented, some have implemented and ended because they have been implemented, others are implemented and with the expectation and it's ongoing and we are doing we are doing that. >> Great. And it's good to hear. And I believe actually, I'll be at the training academy tomorrow [10:52:46 AM] at the training academy tomorrow to do a tour and say hello. Myelf and council member Jose Velasquez, I believe. >> Absolutely. >> We sure looking forward to it and. >> That that you can take video of. >> Eid. Yeah. >> If he if he's exercising or doing that get video of that. That's not prohibited. >> Absolutely. >> We'll properly document. >> The experience. >> We can all use that in one way or another. >> Give me give me a give me a wall to climb. The another. And again I there was, there were a series of commanders, you know that the leadership had changed. You know, I'd say frequently over the last 3 or 4 years of the training academy. My understanding, and please correct me if I'm wrong, is that commander Lee Davis is over the training academy. Okay. And. Well, that's I guess it's just kind of a just wanted to clarify that I. It's hard to implement changes to any division [10:53:47 AM] changes to any division department organization when, you know, you kind of constantly have leadership changes at the top. So I'm glad to see commander Davis there and looking forward to see what he can do with the with the training academy. Finally, I'm a little confused about how that bill with regard to that Williamson county reality TV show that went horribly wrong in multiple ways, would prohibit us doing marketing videos for the Austin police department. You know, I. >> Know I am too. I would like to hear more about that. >> Yeah. >> I'll just leave that as a comment. I would just it's I would be totally, two totally different things. And I would I would definitely that was a horrible situation that was going on in, in Williamson county. And it was really problematic. I was practicing law in Williamson county during that time, and that was quite a topic of courtroom conversation. [10:54:48 AM] topic of courtroom conversation. But but yeah, no. So interested in that. I guess we'll, we'll we'll talk about it off the dais. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Council member. With that, unless there's something more and from anybody that has made a presentation here, I think we can move on. But I'll wrap it up by saying this. I believe that that TRE has been and I and I believe you also, everybody that's in front of me now also believes that we've made great progress over the past couple of years in the overall aspect of this. I mean, we've talked, we've asked a lot of questions and council members asked a lot of questions about recruitment and what we're doing with recruitment. The audit focuses has a great focus on recruitment, but retention, which you've mentioned, those numbers are very important because the person you don't need is the person that you're retaining. Right. And so that makes a big [10:55:49 AM] And so that makes a big difference in all of this. And I'm very pleased to see in the chief the other day in T public safety committee also pointed out those kinds of numbers. So that's a very important. We're seeing great progress there. It appears that we're seeing progress in terms of even the recruitment. When you look at the 154th cadet class as compared to those cadet classes, when were out of contract, as compared to even the 1/53 and offers that are being made. Those are really important numbers. The chief's numbers at the public safety committee, where we talked about where we would be by the end of 2027. In other words, it's going to take a little while to get out of where we were, but we're doing all of those things to do that. And that includes what you're doing in response organically to what we need, but also in response to an audit like this that helps. So what I want us to take away from this is that we are doing the things we need to do to get where we [10:56:50 AM] we need to do to get where we know we need to get and thank you and encourage you to continue to do that. So thanks very much. >> Thank you. And I do want to just thank chief Davis for giving us the opportunity and giving me the opportunity by putting me over the training academy and, and recruiting, and then just want to give a shout out to our recruiting team. They're doing a phenomenal, phenomenal job. >> I appreciate. >> You doing thahat's great. Thank you, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for having us. >> And thanks to the audit team we really appreciate that. That's good information and important for us to have that okay. Members that will take us to a summary of investigations conducted by the city auditor integrity unit in fiscal year 2025. >> Good morning, council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm Brian Malloy, I'm the chief of investigations at the office of the city auditor. And I'll be going over the integrity unit, the work we've done so far in fiscal year 2024 2025. The topics of this presentation are going to include the allegation trends that we've seen so far, as far as what's come into the [10:57:51 AM] as far as what's come into the integrity unit, the investigations we've completed, and then what investigations are ongoing. So looking at the first half of this year so far, we've had 209 allegations come in. If you look at the previous years, our three year rolling average for a complete year is 332 allegations. So this 209 puts us on pace for 400. That would be about a 20% increase over that average. So we have seen an uptick in allegations. They are coming across the board as far as city departments and allegation types. So there doesn't appear to be one specific cause for why we're having more allegations come in. But it is something we're tracking. We are looking for any trends and anything we can pull away from this increase as as it continues through the fiscal year. Now, looking at the jurisdiction my office takes in allegations of any type of any ethical concern that might be happening in the city, we don't tell city staff or city officials or residents that they can only report fraud, waste and abuse to us. We say, if you've got a concern, bring it to our office. We'll figure out what to [10:58:51 AM] office. We'll figure out what to do with it. So we're happy to get any kind of concern. Roughly one third, about 37% so far having jurisdiction, so we can start doingue diligence on them. Two thirds are outside our jurisdiction. The most common ones outside our jurisdiction are going to be hr related issues and then operational issues in the city. Whenever we get one of those, we get in our system and then we triage it, get itsomeone else in the city, uly department management, who can handle those concerns. The remaining one third stays with my team and we begin an investigation. One of the best practices when you're running a fraud, waste and abuse, or an ethics program in any entity is you got to make it easy for people to report to you, and you also have to allow them to report anonymously or people just won't report. They'll be concerned about retaliation or or any other negative consequences of reporting. So one thing we've seen is those best practices make sense. We allow people to report anonymously to my team. In a majority of the people who report to us choose to be anonymous numbers, usually somewhere in the 60% of our reporters. You also want to make it as easy as possible to report. That means giving people [10:59:53 AM] report. That means giving people a lot of different ways to report those concerns. We fully embrace that of the various ways you can rorort to our team. The vast majority, about 60% of our reporters choose to report through our online reporting form. We really like that because there's a bunch of question prompts. So when they use that method, we get a lot of useful information to kick start our investigations. 11% of people report to us, go directly to one of the investigators on my team or myself. We really appreciate that because we can also have a conversation at that point. Ask follow up questions to really get all the details. We need to start investigation. So that's super useful as well. And I encourage anyone watching today to report directly to a member of my team or myself if they have a concern. And then about 8% actually like to use the phone and call our whistleblower hotline, either speak with someone or leave a recording about what their concerns are. Moving on to allegations by department. So these numbers are actually coming from a full fiscal year. So I had to pull from fiscal year 24. We're collecting this information for fiscal year 25. And when I come back before you in the fall, I'll give you the ll, full year picture for [11:00:53 AM] ll, full year picture for fiscal year 25. I used to report to this committee allegations by department by percentage. And that's the number you can see on the left where parks and rec was 12%. Austin water and Austin energyerere 8% of allegations. I've since shifted looking at the data last year, and we'll be doing this going forward to allegations per 1000 employees. It gives a better apples to apples comparison between the different departments. And so if you see those departments on the right, they're the leaders in the city actually animal services, building services, human resources, all in the 80s or 70 for allegations per 1000. And then right below that you'll see the city arage. So that's 16. So you can see those departments have a bigger number. And just for comparison, going back to just who gets the most by percentage of parks and rec, Austin water, Austin energy, they're all right at that city average or actually just a little bit below it. So they're they're not where we should be giving extra attention to because they're right around the city average. They just happen to have a lot more employees. That's why their [11:01:55 AM] employees. That's why their percentage was bigger. When you look at it by allegations per 1000, you can see departments that have a higher ratio, I guess, of allegations. Now we'll dive deeper when my team's looking into detection products or prevention products into these numbers. And so this is just another tool we can use to look at where are the red flags in the city and what can we do to reduce these numbers or find more fraud, waste and abuse. Moving on to the allegations we've completed so far in fiscal year 25, we completed five investigations. All have resulted in substantiated violations of city code. Also on this slide, you can see the other outcomes that can happen with investigations that's unsubstantiated or inconclusive. We usually have a couple of those every year. Just so far this year, we've substantiated violations for all five of our investigations. Looking at those five investigations plus a additional report we have, the top five are the investigations we've completed. A couple are with parks and rec. One was with the city manager's office. And then we also have Austin water [11:02:55 AM] then we also have Austin water and Austin energy. In all those cases, when management has seen our findings, they've agreed with the findings and then taken some accountability action. The exception right now is Austin energy. They've agreed with our finding, but that report came out earlier this month and they just haven't reported on what their accountability accountability action is yet. The top listing right there is actually following a different procedure where we have to file a report with the ethics rw commission here in the city, and we'll have our preliminary hearing on that laterhihis month. So the accountability action is pending their determination. The final item on this list is the parks and rec rental fee review. That was a detection project. So that wasn't based on an allegation that was based on us identifying a risk and then doing some work to determine if the parks department was properly assessing rental fees and then collecting them. We did find some issues. We reported that to pard. They agreed with the issues we found, and they've updated their training and some policies related to their rental fees. Moving on to the allegations that are ongoing so far this year, we currently have nine open investigations. They're across seven different city departments. And the core [11:03:56 AM] city departments. And the core topics there are the ones that my team focuses on year in, year out. So we have some fraud cases, some abuse cases, misuse, conflict of interest and theft. Those those topics don't seem to change from year to year. We always have a couple of each pop up and we investigate those when they come in. That takes me to the end of the presentation. I'm happy to have any questions. And then I'll also sharing with anyone watching today how they can report to our office if they have any concerns or have seen some red flags in the city. >> Great. Thank you. Good report. Councilmember. Councilmember duchen. >> Thank you so much for your work on this. Two hopefully, very quick questions. One is I just want to confirm the easiest way to understand the specific investigations you're performing is to look at your emails that include, like the Austin energy and Austin water investigations done in the last month or so. Is that pretty much the investigations we're kind of talking about right now? >> So could you repeat that? I'm sorry. >> Sure. So the best way to understand the specific details of your investigations are to look at the emails that you share with us. Oh, I got like [11:04:58 AM] share with us. Oh, I got like the specific energy and water investigation you've done in the last month or so on personnel. >> Absolutely. When we're about to publish a report, I send that email out to all of your offices. And so that report should be an attachment in those emails. And there's some. And then there's a summary. I would also say you could go to our website. That's where you can see not just the most recent ones, but all of our published investigations going back I think to 2017 might be up there. >> Okay. So I can find them there too. Yep. And the other question is just any other thoughts since we spoke about why we're getting seeing the bump that we are and the amount of investigations in the last year or so. >> It's been a consistent increase since about the middle of fiscal year 24. That does somewhat pair with the new city manager coming in. And so there's new leaders across the city. And that could inspire some people to report to us. Because when one thing that at least makes sense with that is that all the allegations we get aren't something that just happened yesterday, it's not [11:05:58 AM] happened yesterday, it's not like we get people sharing something they just discovered right away. We get people sharing concerns that are like two years ago this happened. And so that could be connected to them saying, hey, there's new people in charge. Maybe this will get investigated differently. Maybe we'll get a different result. I didn't quite trust previous management, but that is just a theory on our online reporting form. We just don't get people explaining their motivations for why they're reporting like right now. So we can't quite tie it to new city management. But the increase does somewhat overlap with the new city manager coming in and hiring all, all sorts of other roles in city management. >> Got it. Okay. Thanks for your work on this. >> No thanks. Councilmember. Thank you very much. Appreciate the report. Thank you. Members. We have item two and item number seven, which both are related to the municipal civil service commission. Before we do that, without objection, what I would like to do is move to item number eight. And the reason I'm doing that is for efficiency purposes. If we come back in and [11:07:00 AM] purposes. If we come back in and don't have additional work to do, we can just adjourn. Item er eight is to identify items to be discussed at future meetings. And I want to ask first if there's any member of the committee that has something that you want to bring up now. Okay. Then what I would do with regard to item number eight is I just for the public purposes and transparency, I want to point out that this committee will meet again on April 28th, which is in two weeks. It will be a joint committee meeting of the audit and finance committee. This committee and mayor pro tem Fuentes chairs the public health committee, and it will be a joint meeting on that so that we can discuss, have a discussion of homelessness needs and funding. We will also have a may 6th meeting, which is a special called meeting of the audit and finance committee. And that will be for an analysis and committee discussion and possible recommendations regarding a possibility for tax ratification, elections or trees. The recommendation, if we [11:08:00 AM] trees. The recommendation, if we do something like that, would be sent to the full city council for the may 22nd council meeting, of course, may 22nd, then we would have council meeting and that's where that recommendation might come forward. May 19th would be a regular meeting of the audit and finance committee meeting, and I won't go into all the detail on that. But the message board has a post about this. I just want to get it out there for the public because we are marching toward budget and other items that are important to this committee, and I just want to make sure that we have those clear members. With that, we will now, without objection, go into an executive session to discuss appointments of members of the municipal civil service commission. This will be an executive session related to personnel matters purt to section074 of the Texas government code. If for those that are watching, if we come, if at the conclusion of that [11:09:03 AM] if at the conclusion of that executive session, we believe that we can take action on item number two, we will come in as a committee and we will take action on item number two. If it is determined that we are not going to take action on item number two, it may be that I just come in as chair of the committee and adjourn the committee, because that will be all of the business we have. But I want tt that clarity. I and also say I don't anticipate this executive session is going to be more than ten minutes either way on on whatever that issue is. That being said, without objection, we will go into an executive session pursuant to section 551074 of the Texas government code. It is 1109. It's 11:15 A.M. On Wednesday, [11:16:03 AM] It's 11:15 A.M. On Wednesday, April 16th, and we are back in open session, having been in an executive session pursuant to section 551074 of the Texas government code related to personnel matters, I'll now call up item number two, which is to discuss and the potential appointment discussion of the appointment of members and potential appointment to the municipal civil service commission. And the chair will entertain a motion with regard to item number two. >> Chair, I would move to reappoint kavita Gupta and John Humphreys to the municipal civil service commission. >> There has been a motion and a second by the mayor pro tem. Is there any discussion with regard to this motion? Hearing? None. Without objection, the motion is approved with council member alter off the dais members. That concludes all of the business to come before the Austin city council's audit and finance committee at this regularly [11:17:03 AM] committee at this regularly scheduled meeting of the committee. So, without objection, we will be adjourned at 11:16 A.M. Thanks, everybody.