HOUSTON — Houston Mayor John Whitmire is leveling accusations of "pay to play" against City Controller Chris Hollins. It involves the city's upcoming investor conference, presented by Hollins' office. Both men held dueling press conferences Thursday, lobbing allegations at each other.
Whitmire asked the inspector general to investigate Hollins' office and Houston's Investor Conference, which starts in just days, on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
Financial businesses, including banks and bond companies, attend the conference hoping to get city business. Houston has a $6 billion investment portfolio and a $14 billion debt portfolio. Hollins' office organizes the conference and helps choose which companies win contracts.
Whitmire said bond companies contacted him "alarmed" that sponsorships solicited for the conference are pay-to-play. Those sponsorships range from $10,000 to $100,000.
"So we've gone from zero sponsorships to $100,000 sponsorships if you want to have a private time and a dinner with a controller," Whitmire said. "This mess was brought to me by institutions. And they also are very, very concerned that it violates SEC rules, which is under review."
Hollins fired back, claiming Whitmire does the same thing and there is nothing wrong with it. As an example, Hollins brought up an annual luncheon thrown by the mayor's office.
"State of the City (luncheon), right, had 70 plus, sponsors that were a who's who of Houston vendors," Hollins said. "It's great that we have sponsors for Thanksgiving, right? But we also know that the mayor makes decisions about major contracts in this city and so it's highly hypocritical for him to waste your time with this sort of baseless accusation today."
The investor conference sponsorship money goes to a nonprofit called Houston Forward. Hollins said the board decides who benefits and he is not on the board.
The mayor and controller, while both Democrats, have had longstanding bad political blood and this is the latest chapter in their feud.
Whitmire urged all city employees to boycott next week's conference and said he won't attend while the investigation is underway. He also sent out a letter to all conference participants outlining his concerns.
Hollins said he is unaware of any cancellations and the 9th annual investor conference will go on as scheduled.