Austin Resource Recovery staff briefed commissioners on an Office of the City Auditor review of the department’s compost and recycling education programs and described next steps the department will take to address the auditor’s findings.

Gina McKinley, assistant director at Austin Resource Recovery, told commissioners the auditor’s work identified findings and recommendations and that the department’s backup includes the auditor’s report and ARR’s formal responses listing actions and timelines. McKinley said staff welcomed the audit and the opportunity to partner with the auditor’s office on improvements.

McKinley added context about measuring progress toward the city’s zero-waste goals, explaining that diversion-rate metrics present challenges: “The diversion rate is a really challenging metric in a city like Austin to really truly measure our progress towards 0 waste,” she said, noting industry changes such as lightweighting of materials and the fact that many circular-economy actions (reuse, repair, reduced consumption) are not fully captured in a pure diversion percentage.

Commissioners pressed staff on whether the department disagreed with the audit; McKinley said ARR did not dispute the findings but sought to provide context and additional metrics, such as per-capita disposal, that may better reflect progress. She noted the department controls an estimated 15% of total waste generation in the city and emphasized the need to work with private-sector haulers and regional partners to move diversion rates.

Commissioner Jan and others asked whether the city’s 90% diversion goal should be revisited; McKinley said staff will continue to use it as a long-range vision but will evaluate supplemental metrics and improve public communication to ensure the public understands progress and limitations of a single diversion number.

Commissioners also discussed enforcement and budget trade-offs that could influence diversion outcomes; some commissioners said stronger enforcement could move the needle but that political and budgetary constraints factor into realistic targets.

McKinley and staff said they will coordinate further with council audit and finance committees, continue internal process improvements (including marketing and communications coordination) and return with follow-up items to show progress on auditor recommendations. The commission requested an additional agenda item in coming months to review steps and timelines.

No formal action was taken; the discussion concluded with staff commitments to provide additional context, pursue data improvements and report back to the commission and council committees.