Peter Koelling<\/a>, a public budgeting professor at the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs, said taxpayers have a right to know how their money is spent.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is the taxpayer\u2019s money. And they have a right to know how it\u2019s being spent and why it\u2019s being spent,\u201d Koelling said. \u201cTransparency, transparency, transparency. If you\u2019re going to give people flexibility in what they\u2019re spending, the other side of that coin is transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas told 2 Investigates by email, \u201cWe proudly invest in photography, videography, and communications \u2014 and will continue to do so to ensure residents can see their tax dollars at work in real time.\u201d <\/p>\n
She said many of the photos are used in her social media posts and District F\u2019s annual report.<\/p>\n
Not all council members spent as much. <\/p>\n
District A Council member Amy Peck charged just $2,699.82 for all of 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just try to be really good stewards of our tax dollars,\u201d Peck said. \u201cWe ask other departments to do the same, so it\u2019s important that we do that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peck said she does not use tax dollars for travel and uses campaign funds if she needs to fly to represent her district. <\/p>\n
Other council members who did not charge any flights in 2024 include Abbie Kamin, Sallie Alcorn, and Julian Ramirez.<\/p>\n
The most frequent flyer on the city council was District J\u2019s Edward Pollard. <\/p>\n
Half of the $32,000 he charged last year paid for travel \u2014 about $16,045.92. <\/p>\n
He took 12 flights to destinations including Washington, D.C., New York, Tampa and Guatemala, where he traveled with his chief of staff.<\/p>\n
Koelling said some travel is reasonable when it attracts business and investment, but it must be for the right reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you even go overseas to attract business and investment and all of that, I think, is a reasonable expense,\u201d Koelling said. \u201cMake sure you\u2019re doing it for the right reasons. Not just a junket.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pollard declined to comment for this story. His chief of staff said the Guatemala trip was approved in 2023 under Mayor Sylvester Turner for travel in April 2024, but there is no written record of the trip\u2019s purpose.<\/p>\n
Constituents expressed mixed feelings about the spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese flights are not benefiting our community at all,\u201d one resident said.<\/p>\n
Another said, \u201cIs it illegal? Nope. If it\u2019s not illegal, I don\u2019t see the issue. As long as it\u2019s not on her personal time to go on vacation or splurge or something like that, I wouldn\u2019t see anything wrong with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In May 2024, Thomas purchased a flight to Nassau Bay and paid a $750 deposit for a stay at the Atlantis Bahamas Resort. The trip coincided with her birthday in July, but the resort charge was credited back after she canceled.<\/p>\n
Thomas said she canceled the trip because Hurricane Beryl hit days earlier, and she did not want to leave Houston while much of her district was still without power.<\/p>\n
When asked about the city business she had in the Bahamas, Thomas said by phone it was a conference where she was asked to speak, but could not recall the organization\u2019s name. <\/p>\n
The event was the 46th annual Prairie View A&M alumni convention held at the Atlantis Bahamas Resort, where Thomas teaches graduate students in community development.<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019s chief of staff emailed: <\/p>\n
\u201cCM Thomas did not travel to the Bahamas due to a natural disaster. Although the flight was booked, it was later reimbursed. At this point, we will no longer entertain additional scrutiny of line-item expenses based on the unfounded perception that Council Member Thomas lacks integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n
New city policy to oversee spending<\/p>\n
At the end of 2024, Mayor John Whitmire created a new policy requiring prior approval before any council member pays for food or travel with city credit cards. This should ensure a record of the approval process.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON, Texas \u2013 The Houston City Council asked almost every department to trim its budget this year, trying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[24982,42053,56,4626,58,57],"class_list":["post-88600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-2-investigates","tag-city-spending","tag-houston","tag-houston-city-council","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}