HOUSTON – Remember earlier this month when City of Houston Controller Chris Hollins told Houstonians the following, “This is a huge nothing burger.”
It came after Mayor John Whitmire called Hollins out for offering himself up for private dinners in exchange for a high-priced donation. In fact, the ask for a private meal was clearly detailed in literature provided by the controller’s office for the investor conference that Controller Hollins was hosting.
City records show a donation of $50,000 dollars or $100,000 dollars to the conference would not only earn a marquee sponsorship slot, but also a private dinner with Hollins.
In fact, the Chicago-based firm of Loop Capital secured a platinum package for $50,000 according to city records. However, Hollins response at the time to the Mayor comments surrounding these questionable dinners, “the mayor’s wasting all your time today,” said Hollins.
Loop Capital knows the Office of Controller Hollins well according to emails KPRC 2 Investigates obtained through a public information request. The focus of our request were those emails tied to the nearly $2 billion dollar United Airlines project at Bush Intercontinental Airport’s Terminal B.
One email dated August 1 clearly show United making it clear to city officials, including the mayor’s office, that they planned on having Bank of America and Raymond James be the lead underwriters with the municipal bond financing of the project as there was an established prior relationship on projects at IAH. JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley were suggested by United for additional support.
The next day, Controller Hollins’ right-hand man - Vernon Lewis - the city’s Deputy Controller told United he was slated to meet with city members to go over their “recommendation for the financial support for this project,” according to city emails.
Five days later, United again requested “Bank of America” be the lead in order to get started with the project.
Then on August 16, United informed city officials that Loop Capital is suddenly a senior writer. Lewis, in a separate email, personally informed Loop Capital they are a lead underwriting team. The email signature at the bottom of the email by Lewis is dwarfed by a large advertisement for the Controller’s 9th Annual Investor Conference. This the same conference that Loop Capital paid $50,000 dollars to be a platinum sponsor, according to city records.
We took our findings to City Hall Wednesday morning, however, Controller Hollins was unavailable for an interview. Nevertheless, KPRC 2 Investigates was able to track down Hollins at a news conference in the afternoon. We wanted to ask Hollins for the specific date of Loop Capital’s $50,000 donation to his office for the conference, considering their sudden emergence as bond underwriters on the United deal.
“Several months ago,” said Hollins without providing a specific date.
When asked if he had concerns about it, “I don’t,” he quickly responded.
What is Mayor John Whitmire saying about what KPRC 2 Investigates uncovered?
“I did my job. I was very concerned about the appearance of conflicts of interest as it related to that conference, $100,000 sponsorship, private dinner with individuals that do choose the underwriters and I did my job and I will leave it to you and other agencies now to report,” said Whitmire.
On Wednesday, City Council tagged Agenda Item #18, which involved the bond financing on the United deal. However, it was not tagged for the reasons uncovered by KPRC 2 Investigates. It should come back before council next week with a new round of questions.
We did reach out to Loop Capital for comment, we have yet to hear back.
