Chris Brown, the senior advisor for financial integrity to Mayor John Whitmire, told Houston City Council on Wednesday that he works about 15 hours a week for a salary of just over $127,000 a year, and defended his work in his first public remarks since City Controller Chris Hollins opened an investigation into his employment records. Houston Public Media, Chron and KHOU all reported the appearance, and KHOU reported that the council session abruptly broke after he spoke.
Brown served as Houston city controller from 2016 until Hollins took the office, and moved into the advisor role in the mayor’s office in January 2024. ABC13 reported in June, when Hollins announced the investigation, that Brown had badged into city facilities on 13 days since joining the mayor’s office and sent roughly a dozen emails in the first three months of 2026, and that Hollins had called on Whitmire to suspend Brown while the review ran. The mayor’s office said at the time that Brown had helped pass the city’s most recent budget.
Kingwood sits inside Houston city limits, so this is a city payroll question that Lake Houston area residents pay for through city taxes and fees, and the controller’s office that opened the review is the city’s elected financial watchdog. Lake Houston Today has not independently reviewed the badge or email records described in the reporting, and no findings from the controller’s investigation have been released.
