Walton City Council releases report into investigation into former mayor

WALTON, Ky. – The Walton City Council voted Tuesday to release a report on an investigation into former Mayor Gabe Brown.

Earlier this month, the City Council directed City Attorney Bryce Rhoades to prepare a report on the results of the City Council’s investigation into Brown. This is what they found:

1. Brown appeared to be using or otherwise permitting use of a city-issued gas card for personal use.
2. Brown retained a city vehicle in his possession for an additional week after returning from city business and left the vehicle outside a city council member’s home.
3. Brown used a plow truck to clear the parking lot of a private business outside city limits and received cash and merchandise as payment.
   • The report indicated that Brown did this in exchange for merchandise and $20.
   • Brown also approved payments in excess of the agreed upon contract price with a contractor and failed to submit two change orders to the City Council for approval.
   • The report said Brown spent a total of more than $193,000 over the agreed price on the Owens Park Lake project.
4. Brown authorized payment to the same contractor on another occasion before the city received an invoice for the work performed. The report said it was $1,000.
5. Brown personally authorized payment to this contractor on another occasion by cashier’s check payable from the general fund.
   • The report shows that Brown made a payment of over $28,000 from the parking fund but then stopped the payment or ordered it stopped. He then wrote a cashier’s check for the same amount.
6. Brown approved a total payment of $200,611.90 to a second contractor for work performed on the Owens Park Lake project without first placing newspaper advertisements for bids.
   • According to the report, that contractor charged a flat rate of $5,600 per day and the city paid over $166,000. The City Council found this to be a violation of rules when advertising bids for contracts over $40,000.

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Walton City Council member Dan Martin said the city council viewed these as small payments and did not know they were for the park project.

“That’s what it looked like here … when Mayor Brown went ahead and approved these contracts, they were breaking up a large project into small projects to stay under the $40,000 limit,” he said.

Martin said they began investigating the mayor after he admitted to the snowplow incident.

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

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

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

But Martin said if Brown were elected he wouldn’t trust him – “Trust has to be earned.”

Martin couldn’t give an exact figure as to how much this whole situation has cost the city. He said the city council is looking into whether it can reimburse some of the costs and whether insurance will cover some of it. He said Brown was “trying in good faith to repay some questionable purchases.”

The city council has appointed someone to conduct a financial audit since the beginning of this fiscal year. The audit report shows that they reviewed the financials for the Owens Park Lake project from 2022-2024 and identified several transaction issues.

The report showed that the lump sum payments to the contractor were questionable fees that were above industry standards.

The audit recommended a number of measures to prevent this situation from happening again, including the city council forming a finance committee, establishing an ordering system and assuming that no payments should be made before an invoice.

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

The City Council announced it would appoint a new interim mayor at a special meeting on Monday. Six people are vying for the open seat and three of them are current council members. They are:

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