Walton City Council publicizes report on investigation into former mayor

The Walton City Council on Tuesday voted to publicize a report on an investigation into former Mayor Gabe Brown.

Earlier this month, council directed the city’s attorney, Bryce Rhoades, to prepare a report of the findings of the city council’s investigation into Brown. Here’s what they found:

1. Brown appeared to use a city-issued gas card for personal use or otherwise allowed it to be used.
2. Brown kept a city-owned vehicle in his possession for an additional week after returning from city business and abandoned the vehicle outside a council member's home.
3. Brown used a city plow truck to clear the parking lot of a private business outside of city limits and received cash and goods as payment.
   
   • The report showed Brown did this in exchange for goods and $20.
   • Brown also authorized payments in excess of the agreed contract price with a contractor and failed to submit two change orders to city council for approval.
   • The report stated that, in total, Brown spent more than $193,000 over the agreed-upon price for the Owens Park Lake project.
4. Brown authorized payment to that same contractor on another occasion prior to the city getting an invoice for the work performed. The report stated this was $1,000.
5. Brown authorized payment to that contractor on a different occasion personally via a cashier’s check payable from the General Fund.
   
   • The report showed Brown issued a payment for over $28,000 from the park fund but then stopped the payment or directed it to be stopped. He then issued a cashier check for the same amount.
6. Brown authorized a total payment of $200,611.90 to a second contractor for work performed on the Owens Park Lake Project without first making newspaper advertisements for bids.
   
   • The report stated this contractor charged a flat rate of $5,600 a day and the city has paid over $166,000. The city council found this was a rule violation on advertising for bids on contracts more than $40,000.

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Walton City Council member Dan Martin said council saw these as minor payments and didn’t realize it was for the park project.

“What it looked like here … as Mayor Brown was proceeding and approving those jobs they were separating a large project into small projects to stay underneath the $40,000 limit,” he said.

Martin said they started to look into the mayor after he admitted to the snow plow truck incident.

“There are items that I wish council had caught earlier in the process,” he said. “I think most council members will tell you that we failed in some ways on this.”

The council voted unanimously to publicize the report. Brown can still run for mayor again in November.

“If the people want to elect him, I will work with him again, and I hope we can put aside what’s happened here,” Martin said.

But Martin said if Brown was elected he wouldn’t trust him — "trust has to be earned."

Martin couldn’t give an exact number on how much this whole situation cost the city. He said the city council is looking into if they can recuperate some of the costs and if insurance will cover some of it. He said Brown “made a good faith effort to repay some questionable purchases.”

The city council hired someone to do a financial audit dating back to the start of this fiscal year. The audit report shows they reviewed financials for the Owens Park Lake project beginning in 2022-2024 and identified several transaction concerns.

The report showed the flat fee payments to the contractor were questionable charges and higher than the industry standard.

The audit recommended a number of things to prevent this situation from happening again, including the city council forming a financial committee, the creation of a purchase order system and no payments should be issued before an invoice.

Martin said he is committed to making changes so this doesn’t happen again and hopes to put this situation behind them.

The city council said they will appoint a new interim mayor on Monday during a special meeting. Six people are vying for the open seat and three of them are current council members. They are:

• Mark Carnahan — the former Walton mayor
• Dan Martin — a current council member
• Amy Long — a current council member
• Terri Courtney — a current council member
• Bruce Bloomer
• Eric Tungate