BREAKING: KXAN Reports: $980k in Fraudulent Spending Found at Austin Energy // 15 Locations Where You Can Sign the Audit Petition // Request a Petition by Mail
At least 20,000 Valid, Signed Petitions Must Be Collected by Jan. 15, 2026 to Make the May 2026 Ballot.
Good Tuesday afternoon --
KXAN’s Cora Neas has a blockbuster story today detailing $980,000 in fraudulent spending by an employee at Austin Energy to ‘fictitious’ vendors.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHY WE NEED A REGULAR, INDEPENDENT PERFORMANCE AUDIT OF THE ENTIRE CITY OF AUSTIN BUDGET (and the utilities like Austin Energy).
This is why we are launching a charter amendment effort on the shortest timeline in the history of Austin.
Our mission: Collect ~25k valid signed petitions by Jan. 15, 2026 to qualify for the May 2026 ballot.
Read the story below…
Want to help force this audit?
Our website SaveAustinNow.com allows you to:
Read the petition
Download it, print it, fill it out, sign it and mail it in
Request a petition be mailed to you (postage paid on return!)
Find one of 15 locations across Austin where you can sign the petition IN PERSON
Donate to our efforts
Austin Energy employee allegedly paid $980K to ‘fictitious vendors,’ city auditor says
By Cora Neas
December 9, 2025
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Austin City Auditor’s Office released a report Tuesday accusing a local couple, both of whom previously worked for the city, of defrauding the city for approximately $980,000 by sending payments to allegedly fictitious businesses.
The report focuses on the alleged actions of Mark Ybarra, who worked as a facility service specialist for Austin Energy. He was issued a city credit card by his superiors for the procurement of necessary tools and materials, the audit said.
According to the report, he used the card to “pay fictitious vendors approximately $980,000 and fraudulently reported these transactions in City records.”
“The falsified invoices he submitted were ultimately discovered by his management in Austin Energy. Some of the fictitious vendors used contact information like addresses that connected them to relatives of Mark Ybarra, or Mark himself,” reads an email to KXAN from the auditor’s office.
According to the city auditor’s report, Ybarra allegedly made payments to 22 fictious businesses using the card. He resigned from his job in October 2023.
A grand jury indicted Ybarra on Aug. 23. He now faces a felony charge of theft greater than $300,000.
His wife, former Austin Watershed Protection employee Ambrosia Ybarra, “refused to answer questions” from city auditors. She was indicted on Sept. 15 and charged with felony theft between $150,000 and $300,000. She resigned from her job in November, the report states.
KXAN has reached out to the couple’s attorneys for comment on the accusations.
The report also named two Austin Energy managers who supervised the former facility service specialist. It says that the managers “wasted City resources when they approved the credit card payments based on invoices they should have identified as questionable or illegitimate.”
Neither of those managers have been criminally charged.
One of the managers provided a written statement, which was included in the report. She said in it that she flagged the potential misuse of credit cards in June 2022, around 10 days after the specialist’s previous supervisor retired.
“Between May 2022 and October 2023 I experienced rapid role changes with expanding oversight,” reads a section of her statement. “I reported potentials issues to my superiors … outlining policy violations and weak purchasing controls. I sent written instructions to staff reinforcing City policy related to contracts, credit card use, and vendor spending to stay below City Council approved thresholds.”
The auditor’s office responded in the report to her statement:
“The concerns shared with Austin Energy management about credit card spending did not include any concerns about fraud or incomplete invoices. She is named in this report because she approved $170,000 in fraudulent transactions,” it states. “Those invoices included noticeable problems, like missing vendor information including addresses and other contact information.”
Below is our update from yesterday:
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The end of last week was pretty unusual.
We have three updates for you:
CITY OF AUSTIN ISSUES WEAK LAWSUIT THREAT
For some reason, an expensive outside lawyer representing the City of Austin send a demand letter to Save Austin Now demanding we stop the use of our audit logo, claiming it is a copyright infringement against the City of Austin.
No, it isn’t.
The city never voted to approve the logo
Parody is an exception to copyright
Our logo and that logo are not confusing
So rather than sit back and wait to see if the City of Austin would sue us, we pre-emptively sued them in state court.
From the Austin American-Statesman story on Friday:
Exclusive: Save Austin Now sues city manager over parody logo dispute tied to Prop Q fallout
The lawsuit follows a letter from the city to the PAC alleging that Save Austin Now’s website used a parody of the Austin logo showing the stylized “A” with the word “audit” underneath.
by Chaya Tong
Friday, Dec. 5, 2025
Austin American-Statesman
Save Austin Now, the PAC that led the charge against Prop Q, and its treasurer, Leland Bickers, filed a lawsuit Friday against City Manager T.C. Broadnax over the parody usage of the city’s new logo.
The group is asking a Travis County district judge to issue a permanent injunction against Broadnax to prevent him from “interfering in Plaintiffs’ exercise of their rights, including their right to criticize the Broadnax Logo and use it as parody free speech” and to declare that the logo cannot be trademarked. The lawsuit also alleges that the new logo is not legal because the City Council did not adopt it.
The lawsuit comes after the city, through attorney Dwayne Goetzel with the intellectual property law firm KHMR&G, sent a letter to Save Austin Now alleging unauthorized use of the city logo on the PAC’s website. The image of the city logo was a parody of the Austin logo with a picture of the stylized “A” and the word “audit” underneath.
“This is an example of the abuse of power by the city administration. It is an outrageous threat,” said Bill Aleshire, the attorney filing the lawsuit against the city.
The city has come under fire in recent months for the $1.1 million rebranding effort, including the new logo, which drew sharp criticism for its design that some residents found lacking. After voters defeated Prop Q, which would have raised city property taxes, Save Austin Now launched a petition to put a charter amendment on the May 2026 ballot to require an external performance audit of the city budget.
“That logo is a perfect encapsulation of so much of the problem at City Hall right now – outrageous wastes of money, embarrassingly poor judgments, a complete and total disregard for taxpayers, and a lack of transparency and accountability,” said Matt Mackowiak, co-chair of Save Austin Now PAC.
Goetzel wrote in his letter to Mackowiak that the parody logo will confuse consumers who may believe it is sponsored or approved by the city. Goetzel did not respond to requests for comment.
“Save Austin Now’s use of the city’s logo is inappropriate, confusing to the public, and a violation of our established trademark for an identity we established to make it easier for the public to connect with City services,” Jessica King, the city’s chief communications director, said in a statement, adding that creating a logo and brand guidelines for city services is an operational function and therefore does not require City Council approval.
The city’s communication and engagement budget includes legal services for the registration and protection of the brand mark, she added.
“Save Austin Now will not allow weak legal threats from city leadership through their expensive outside attorneys to prevent us from holding city leadership accountable when necessary. If they want a fight over this ridiculous logo, bring it on,” Mackowiak said.
RELATED:
» KXAN (NBC) did a story over the weekend as well which you can read or watch here.
» KEYE (CBS) is doing a story to air tonight at 5pm and 6pm.
We cannot wait to get to discovery on how the logo vendor was selected, how much they were paid, who approved their hiring and contract, and whether the city ever voted to approve the logo.
If City Hall wants a fight on this, BRING IT ON.
SIGN THE PETITION IN PERSON: THERE ARE 15 AUSTIN LOCATIONS WHERE YOU CAN SIGN THE PETITION TODAY
We have 15 (!) locations all over Austin where you can go in person and sign the audit petition every single day at a time that’s convenient for you.
Here is a graph of all 15 locations:
WANT TO HELP? Offer your business as a location for audit petition signatures, please fill out this form here.
REQUEST AN AUDIT PETITION BE MAILED TO YOU
As of late last week, we have now mailed more than 30,000 Austin households a copy of the audit petition. These are Austinites who have donated to us or signed a past petition, and as we raise more money, we will mail more petitions.
If you would like an audit petition mailed to your home (with return postage pre-paid) go here. We will mail you a petition ASAP and it will have return envelope with postage paid.
PREVIOUS MESSAGE: Six Ways to Help Us Require Regular, External Performance Audits of the Entire City of Austin Budget
As December begins, we now have JUST EIGHT WEEKS left to collect 25,000 signed petitions, validate them, and turn place a required external audit of the ENTIRE city of Austin budget on the May 2026 ballot.
It’s going to take a monumental effort to get there.
If you want to see an audit of the entire city budget, to reduce waste and duplication, uncover fraud and corruption, and most importantly, improve affordability and efficiency, we really do need your help.
Here are SIX easy ways to help RIGHT NOW:
1. EMAIL ME AND PRINT IT AT HOME: Email Matt (matt@saveaustinnow.com) and you have have the petition emailed to you. You can then download the petition, print it, fill it out legibly and sign it (11x17 or 8.5x11), and mail it in. There are five sections for signers so we can take up to five signatures from City of Austin residents.
2. REQUEST BY MAIL: Request a mailed petition (with return postage pre-paid) here. We will mail you a petition ASAP and it will have return envelope with postage paid.
3. REQUEST BY MAIL: -32,000 petitions are being mailed TODAY. We can add you to the list here.
4. LET US OFFER OUR PETITION AT YOUR BUSINESS: We have seven businesses that are letting us place clipboards with petitions to sign in person on the premise. We will collect each week. Please offer your business as an in person signing location here.
5. SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER: Here’s the volunteer form, with options to help collect, help pick up, and help validate — on your own schedule.
6. DONATE TO OUR EFFORT: We need your financial support.
Given that we have VERY limited time to do this (ten weeks), we are relying on mail as our primary collection method.
We are mailing a cover letter, the petition (2 pages, 11x17, and an envelope with return postage paid). This costs roughly $1.50/each. The more we mail, the faster we hit the 25,000 we need. We then must self-validate, which we do by recruiting volunteers and paying workers to do this.
WAYS TO SUPPORT US
You can securely contribute here.
You can make a check to “Save Austin Now PAC” and mail it to:
807 Brazos Street
Suite 306
Austin, TX 78701
If you wish to send a wire, please email Matt.
** IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: OUR ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT IS BELOW
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, November 21, 2025
Save Austin Now Organizes Coalition to Require an External Affordability and Efficiency Initiative Charter Amendment
Aims to Collect 25,000 Signed Petitions by Feb. 1 to Require First External Performance Audit of Entire City Budget in Austin History
AUSTIN, TX — With a broad coalition of city leaders with them, nonpartisan Save Austin Now PAC today announced it is launching a petition effort to put a Charter amendment on the May 2026 ballot that will require an external and performance-based affordability and efficiency initiative, which must be completed within one year of the contract engagement (with the independent contractor selected within 120 days) and which must be conducted every five years or no less than one year before any future tax rate election. The Charter amendment explicitly requires that the Independent Contractor commit to identify annual or multi-year cost savings that exceed the cost of the initiative.
This effort is modeled after a successful external audit conducted by the City of Houston this year which identified more than $120M in suggested savings and helped Houston avoid a tax rate election, unlike Austin.
We can find no example of an external performance audit of the entire city budget ever being conducted in city history. Internal audits, overseen by city officials, have been conducted for individual city departments at times in recent years. However, they have not adequately measured performance or outcomes, tracked spending and contract performance by contractors and subcontractors, or included our utilities.
This Charter amendment is being launched 17 days after Prop Q, supported by Mayor Kirk Watson and nine of ten council members (Council Member Marc Duchen was the only exception), for a 20.2% city property tax hike to produce $110M in revenue annually to close a $33M budget deficit for the 2025-2026 budget year. Prop Q failed 63%-37%, with more than 109,000 Austin voters opposing the tax increase.
“It is not enough that the Mayor and Council just try to restore trust they’ve lost from voters; the City government must be affordable, effective, and efficient,” said Bill Aleshire, a local attorney and former Travis County Judge who drafted the Charter amendment language. “This Charter amendment will help achieve that.”
“Prop Q was the people’s referendum—a clear, common-sense call from Austinites who are tired of rising costs and unclear spending,” said Save Austin Now co-chair Steven Brown, a lifelong East Austin resident and local Democrat. “This isn’t about politics; it’s about accountability. We simply want the City of Austin and our City Council to embrace an independent audit so we can finally see where we can be more efficient and make our city more affordable for the hard-working taxpayers who keep it running.”
“The lesson of the Prop Q defeat is that taxpayers do not currently trust our city leaders when it comes to the city budget and city spending,” said Save Austin Now co-chair Matt Mackowiak. “For trust to be restored, now and in the future, we need an external performance audit to improve affordability and efficiency, before the next budget year and then regularly afterwards. We are confident a majority of Austinites will support this common-sense approach and we hope the City Council chooses to enact this Charter amendment, but if they do not, we will pass it in May 2026.”
“It is long past time the citizens of Austin are allowed to look under the hood at City Hall and see where all this money is going,” said local attorney and prominent Prop Q opponent Adam Leowy. It is the only way to make sure our taxpayers dollars are being stewarded correctly.”
“This external and performance-based affordability and efficiency initiative is an opportunity to analyze performance standards, legal compliance, systems, internal controls, and transparency that can result in taxpayers getting improved services at the least possible costs,” said former Travis County Auditor Susan Spataro. “This initiative not only can provide assurances to Austin taxpayers, but also can be an asset for City Council and City Management to get new and improved insight and guidance in the performance of their duties in serving the people of Austin.”
“I support Save Austin Now’s plan to require an independent, external audit of the City’s spending, with the results available to the public,” said local Democrat, East Austin resident and former two-term City Council Member Ora Houston. “I am keenly aware of the need to have periodic external audits to ensure that the taxes citizens pay to the City are used efficiently and effectively. My council experience and my family history – my father had a degree in Business Administration – convince me that periodic, independent, public audits will also assure basic City services are the highest priority, the City’s other priorities are clear, and the public can see that expenses match those priorities.”
“Surely the Austin City Councilmember’s realize that with Prop Q going down 63% to 37% that it truly was a vote of NO confidence from the City of Austin taxpayers in how the City Council understands its ability to produce a budget that the citizens are willing to accept,” said former Travis County Commissioner (Precinct 3) Gerald Daugherty. “Therefore, this City Council must support an outside audit to simply show that they are serious about trying to gain back any confidence of legitimate fiscal management for this city and if they are really serious, they’ll adopt a 5 year “Sunset Provision” from this point forward!”
“This is a common-sense Charter Amendment,” said former Austin City Council Member Brewster McCracken. “It will ensure that city leaders have the best information to be good stewards of taxpayer funds. It will also ensure that the people of Austin have access to independent information on how their money is being spent. I was pretty surprised when the Council put Proposition Q on the ballot. I was even more surprised by the revelations that a majority of the council was extensively using one-time funds to pay for ongoing expenses and masking that from the public. These all represented big departures from how Austin city government had handled funding gaps in the past. That’s why I voted no on Proposition Q. I want the Austin City Council to be successful. This Charter amendment is a necessary corrective to restore fiscal best practices and accountability. That’s why I’m supporting it.”
The petition can be found here. Only City of Austin residents can sign the petition and be counted.
More information, opportunities to donate, and a volunteer sign up page are available at ATXaudit.com.
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We are watching the City Council VERY closely. Our city needs a REGULAR outside affordability and efficiency review of the city budget to rebuild trust. We need an annual budget within the limits of state law, that’s balanced, that fully funds public safety, and that efficiently delivers essential services.
We will accept nothing less.
As we have said before, WE HAVE ONLY BEGUN TO FIGHT!
THANK YOU.
-Matt & Steven
Pol. ad. paid for by Save Austin Now PAC. Leland Bickers, Treasurer. SaveAustinNowPAC.com
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