It’s crazy that Austin’s city workers’ union helped write the rules for City Hall’s own audit, asked for a guarantee it couldn’t lead to job cuts, and is now bankrolling the campaign to stop voters from asking for a tougher audit. The people being audited are trying to pick their own auditor, regardless of what taxpayers want! Just a ridiculous conflict of interest. All the more reason why Austinites should vote yes on Proposition I. It would require the city to hire an outside firm to regularly review how the city spends money, looking for waste and ways to save. Before that got to the ballot, the City Council created its own version of an efficiency audit back in February. While Council was writing it, the city workers' union, an AFSCME chapter, sent a letter asking to help decide what the auditor would look at. It also had the audacity to ask to see the findings before the public did. And it asked for a guarantee that the audit couldn't recommend cutting jobs or hiring outside companies to do city work. Suddenly, an updated version of the audit draft mentioned protecting city worker and added a line saying the city should prefer recommendations that "minimize or avoid" layoffs and outsourcing. That same day, council also gave the union a standing seat at the table -- monthly meetings with city management about layoffs, department shakeups and using AI to replace workers. Now the union is fighting the voter version. In August, it gave $50,000 to the main campaign against Proposition I. That was 82% of all the money the campaign reported raising. A second anti-Prop I group started in September. Both groups have the same treasurer, which is the the union's business manager who signed the Feb letter. Put simply, the people whose jobs would be reviewed helped shape the audit Austin already has, and now they're paying to stop the one voters would get to impose! So who should decide how City Hall gets checked? The taxpayers paying for it, or the employees working there?