Houston City Controller Chris Hollins announced Monday that his office has launched a formal investigation into Chris Brown, Mayor John Whitmire’s senior advisor for financial integrity.
The investigation follows a Houston Chronicle report raising questions about Brown’s attendance and work output in the taxpayer-funded position. According to Hollins, badge records show Brown swiped into city facilities just 13 times across nearly 600 workdays, including only twice so far in 2026.
The Chronicle also reported Brown sent roughly a dozen outgoing emails in the first three to four months of this year, with none of them appearing to involve fiscal policy or budget strategy. Brown’s annual salary for the position is just over $127,000.
Hollins said his office will examine what work was actually performed, what deliverables were produced, who supervised Brown, and how his performance was evaluated over the roughly two-and-a-half years he has held the role. He also pointed out that the position itself did not exist before the Whitmire administration and was created specifically for Brown.
“The central issue in question is whether the work being paid for with taxpayer money was performed at all,” Hollins said at a Monday press conference. He added that the investigation is not a finding of wrongdoing and that investigators plan to interview Brown, Whitmire, and other relevant parties.
Hollins also called on Whitmire to suspend Brown while the probe is underway, saying suspension is not a finding of guilt.
Whitmire responded by defending Brown’s record, noting Brown served as city controller for eight years and played a role in identifying Houston’s long-running structural budget deficit. Whitmire said Brown was involved in passing the recently approved FY2027 budget, which cleared council on a 15-1 vote. “I don’t have time for politics,” Whitmire said in a written statement.
The investigation adds another layer to the ongoing friction between Hollins and Whitmire, who have repeatedly clashed publicly.
The two have sparred over $72 million in unbudgeted overtime spending across the police, fire, and solid waste departments, dueling accusations of improper fundraising practices tied to separate city events, a taxpayer-funded mayoral podcast that drew ethics complaints, and the recently concluded fiscal 2027 budget fight, in which Hollins opposed two new fees Whitmire pushed to close a structural deficit.
