![\"City](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_5448-1-1000x667.jpg\")
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Dominic Anthony Walsh \/ Houston Public Media<\/p>\n
City controller Chris Hollins speaks to reporters about a budget proposal on May 5, 2026.<\/p>\n
After the Houston Chronicle reported that a top financial advisor for Houston Mayor John Whitmire rarely showed up to work at City Hall, City Controller Chris Hollins announced a “formal investigation” into the matter \u2014 and Whitmire expressed support for the advisor. <\/p>\n
Chris Brown, Whitmire\u2019s senior adviser for financial integrity, swiped into city facilities on only 13 of nearly 600 workdays while earning a $127,000 salary, according to records reported by the Chronicle<\/a>. <\/p>\n Hollins, the city’s chief elected financial official, called for Whitmire to “immediately at least suspend Chris Brown, pending the outcome of this investigation.” Hollins said he could not provide a definite timeline for the probe. <\/p>\n Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n “Mr. Brown’s salary \u2014 $127,000 a year for the past two and a half years \u2014 is paid for by the people of the city of Houston,” Hollins told reporters on Monday. “Making sure that those dollars are well spent \u2014 that is the job of the city controller\u2019s office. Waste, fraud and abuse \u2014 making sure that those are flushed out of our system whenever possible is our responsibility.”<\/p>\n Andrew Schneider\/Houston Public Media<\/p>\n Then-Houston Controller Chris Brown during an interview with Houston Public Media in March 2019.<\/p>\n Brown served as city controller from 2016 through 2023 and repeatedly clashed with the late Mayor Sylvester Tuner over financial matters. He did not respond to requests for comment from Houston Public Media. <\/p>\n In a statement, Whitmire said Brown \u201cran a serious, competent Controller’s Office and helped define the problem of Houston’s structurally imbalanced budget.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is exactly the experience I want on my team as we navigate complex city finances, reduce costs, and lay the foundation for long-term fiscal stability,\u201d Whitmire wrote. \u201cController Brown was a part of helping pass the FY27 budget with a 15-1 vote and continues to provide valuable public service. I don\u2019t have time for politics.\u201d<\/p>\n Related: City of Houston passes Whitmire’s $7.5 billion budget for fiscal year 2027<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n It is not the only active probe by Hollins’ office into financial matters in Whitmire’s administration. <\/p>\n After Houston Public Media reported a new podcast from Whitmire costs up to $60,000 in taxpayer funds, Hollins said he would “review the concerns that have been raised” by progressive activists<\/a> who filed ethics complaints with city and state officials. <\/p>\n The pair have repeatedly clashed since they took office in 2024. Whitmire previously accused Hollins of engaging in unethical behavior around fundraising for an investor conference. The city\u2019s legal department found Whitmire’s accusation was \u201cnot sustained<\/a>” in 2025. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dominic Anthony Walsh \/ Houston Public Media City controller Chris Hollins speaks to reporters about a budget proposal…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":869505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[80630,135568,10882,353944,353945,4345,155932,17615,29488,50,358,3187,16025],"class_list":["post-869504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-chris-brown","tag-city-controller-chris-hollins","tag-city-of-houston","tag-financial-investigation","tag-fraud-and-abuse","tag-houston","tag-houston-finances","tag-houston-mayor","tag-mayor-john-whitmire","tag-news","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-waste"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116755855231774082","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"City](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Chris-Brown-2-e1553538635154-1000x750.jpg\")
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