Oakland City Auditor Michael C. Houston is a career public servant who has been a government auditor and investigator for 18 years. He worked as a performance auditor for the City of San Jose’s independent City Auditor’s Office from 2008 to 2017 and then as the Director of Compliance and Internal Control at California State University East Bay (Hayward), where he directed the university’s audit and investigation functions between 2017 and 2019.
Michael joined the Oakland City Auditor’s Office in 2019 as the Whistleblower Program Manager, a role in which he led investigations into allegations of fraud, waste, and abuse reported to the City Auditor’s Whistleblower Hotline. He was promoted to Assistant City Auditor in April 2021 and led the Office’s professional staff in conducting performance audits, investigations, and other projects.
Michael has a Master of Public Policy degree from U.C. Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Sonoma State University, and is a Certified Internal Auditor. A lifetime Bay Area resident, Michael grew up in Vallejo. He lives in West Oakland’s Prescott neighborhood.
