Jason Hadavi to serve as Austin's next city auditor

After longtime City Auditor Corrie Stokes announced she'd be departing the role earlier this year, city officials began the search for her successor. That process led to Hadavi's selection this fall when members of council's audit committee recommended him for the role following interviews with three finalists.

The full council voted on Oct. 24 to have Hadavi's compensation and benefits negotiated by recruitment firm Ralph Andersen & Associates, and that package will be formally approved Nov. 6. Mayor Kirk Watson noted excitement around the selection after council advanced the process in October.

"I think everybody is going to be sad to see Corrie go, but I anticipate we’re going to be very pleased that we’re elevating our deputy city auditor to the position of city auditor," he said.

Hadavi was chosen over candidates Spencer Bright, an internal audit manager for the Port of Seattle, and Suresh George, Citibank's senior vice president of quality assurance in New York. In his application for the role, Hadavi highlighted his nearly two-decade career at the city including management of the auditor's office as key experience for the role.

"My passion for public service and love of Austin have made [the Office of the City Auditor] feel like home. While serving its residents, one learns about Austin's unique culture and operations. Community engagement in Austin takes on a different meaning than in other cities. Having developed the last few annual audit plans for my office, I am well versed in the challenges Austin faces, and more importantly, I understand how to help," he wrote.

Following council's October vote, Hadavi spoke with Community Impact about his upcoming appointment and plans for the job. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What are your thoughts about council's decision?

It feels great. I’m honored to be able to take over this role from Corrie. It’s really big shoes to fill. ... She’s been here a long time—she’s been city auditor for 10 years now. And just based on the work we do with our professional organizations I can see she’s absolutely one of the best in the country.

While there’s still big shoes to fill, I feel confident because she’s left the office in a great space, so there’s not a lot of work to do with refixing or changing what we do, just to keep the momentum. We’re different people so there’ll be some subtle differences here and there, but I don’t anticipate any major shifts.

What's your approach to this role?

We want to make Austin better. Austin’s a great place, it’s a unique city, it’s a city that I care deeply for. Our whole philosophy is just to try to make it a little bit better, make it work a little bit better for all of its residents, whatever the topic that we’re auditing. Whether we’re talking about parks, public safety, transportation, utilities, anything, we just want to help it be a little bit better than it already is.

What's your focus for the city's 2026 audit plan?

There’s always so many things that we can look at, and we have limited resources like any other entity. I’m proud that the plan has a mixture of some current issues. The budget deficit—so there’s definitely some more financially-oriented projects than we typically have. We’ve got some public safety in there. Affordable housing is always a huge topic, so that’s on there.

It’s a good [cross] of some major issues that Austin’s dealing with, and I think the balance of the plan as a whole is something that I feel good about. [It] gives us an opportunity to help things move along a little bit forward in the city.

Is there anything else you'd like to highlight about your past experience with the city?

I did not think I was going to be here 20 years. ... I’ve been really proud of our contributions throughout the entire time.

When I got here, I was excited by the job and the work that we were going to do. I hadn’t worked at the local government level, and I didn’t realize I was going to fall in love with local government in the way that I had already fallen in love with Austin. So those two things just accidentally became my passion. I got here and I saw how we made a difference in the community. We could see the impact of our work on a regular basis and that felt great.

We’ve worked on projects related to the water treatment plant, to transportation, lots of different public safety type of work. I’m proud of everything that we’ve done here and I look forward to continuing those contributions.