Houston council delays vote on $2 million airport audit contract

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Houston City Council was scheduled to vote Wednesday on approving up to nearly $2 million for Ernst and Young to audit the Houston Airport System, but a council member delayed the vote.

Councilman Edward Pollard said he wants to make sure whatever comes from a potential audit is done transparently.

"We're going to be spending millions of taxpayer dollars. We need to be getting that information back in a reasonable amount of time and understanding if this is necessary or not," Pollard said.

Councilman Julian Ramirez voiced similar concerns to ABC13.

"In the interest of transparency and good government, I think it's important that council be made aware of what these reports reveal when we pay a lot of money for that," Ramirez said.

In May 2024, the city approved spending $580,000 for an Ernst and Young audit of city finances.

The city approved more than doubling that amount in subsequent months and also agreed to pay the firm nearly $4 million for support services related to its findings.

Pollard, Ramirez and City Controller Chris Hollins said on Wednesday that they are still waiting to see some of the results.

"If you're reaching out and wanting to do work on behalf of the taxpayers of the City of Houston, they deserve to get those responses quickly. And as of right now, that doesn't seem to be the case," Pollard said.

Pollard said he wanted to spend the next week getting more clarification on a potential audit of the Houston Airport System before proceeding with a vote.

Mayor John Whitmire has previously said the city will look to balance the budget by identifying redundancies, corruption and wasteful spending.

ABC13 reached out to his office about the transparency concerns raised by the officials, but had not heard back as of Wednesday.

The airport audit vote is scheduled to come before the council again next week.