The Houston City Council was scheduled to vote Wednesday on approving up to nearly $2 million for Ernst & Young to audit the Houston Airport System. A council member delayed the vote. Councilman Edward Pollard said he wants to make sure any results from a possible audit are shared transparently. He said the city will be spending millions of taxpayer dollars and needs the information back in a reasonable amount of time.
Council member Ramirez said that council should be made aware of what the reports reveal when the city pays a lot of money for them. Pollard, Ramirez and City Controller Chris Hollins said Wednesday that they are still waiting on some results from earlier work. In May 2024, the city approved $580,000 for an Ernst & Young audit of city finances. The city later approved more than doubling that amount and agreed to pay the firm nearly $4 million for support services tied to its findings.
Pollard said he wants another week to get more clarification on a possible airport audit before the council moves forward. Mayor John Whitmire has said the city will look to balance the budget by identifying redundancies, corruption and wasteful spending. ABC13 reached out to the mayor's office about the transparency concerns but had not heard back as of Wednesday. The airport audit vote is scheduled to return to the council next week.