Austin City Council District 9 candidate Katie Kam says the city fired her in retaliation after she flagged a possible discrepancy in consultant billing. Records from her 2025 probationary employment, however, show supervisors cited concerns about her work performance and interactions with other departments before recommending her termination. The records include 34 pages of disciplinary and performance-review documents obtained through a Texas Public Information Act request, including a December 2025 pre-termination notice. Supervisors wrote that Kam had not completed assigned tasks, had not met established standards and had exceeded her role in communications with other departments. The notice also raised concerns about her project-management and supervisory work and her relationships with internal and external partners. Kam, who worked as a project manager with the city’s Capital Delivery Services, told KXAN she discovered that hourly rates in a consultant contract did not match rates on an invoice. Emails she provided document her inquiry; one consultant wrote that the rates reflected how the firm had billed for a couple of years and on more than one project. Kam said she brought the issue to supervisors because she was concerned it could be systemic and also alerted the Austin Auditor’s Office. She said the response to her changed after she raised it and described the firing as retaliatory. The city did not address her individual personnel case, saying it does not comment on matters involving former employees. The city said Capital Delivery Services has procedures to help ensure financial practices are accurate and properly managed, and that identified issues are corrected promptly. It also explained that new employees in non-sworn positions are at-will during an initial six-month probationary period. Before terminating a probationary employee, a department must submit documentation of performance or behavioral concerns to the city’s Human Resources Employee Relations division for review, the city said. The notice also criticized what it described as Kam’s frequent, detailed inquiries to other departments, saying they were perceived as overly critical and that she needed to respect other teams’ boundaries. Kam said she had pushed for greater community input on some projects and that her suggestions were not well received. Kam said she is “glad this came to light,” describing her experience inside city government as a reason she is running for office. She has made transparency and accountability central to her campaign and supports Proposition I, a proposed charter change that would require regular external audits of the city. District 9 includes much of downtown Austin and the University of Texas at Austin. Incumbent Zohaib “Zo” Qadri is seeking reelection, and five candidates, including Kam, are running for the seat in the November election.