Walton Mayor Gabe Brown rescinded his resignation Saturday night, three days after he announced at a city council meeting that he would be stepping down from the position.
In a letter to city council members, Brown said that while he was originally “at peace” with his decision to resign, he ultimately changed his mind.
“You wouldn’t let me walk away. I was at peace with my decision to step aside when I went to bed Wednesday night,” Brown said in his letter. “Thursday morning, the harassment started and through to Saturday, continued.
I was willing to step aside for the sake of Walton’s name and the image I have worked to improve. As much as I love Walton, I love myself and my family’s name much more. It has become clear that the bullying won’t end with my resignation and it has become clear that council wants to sully my name and reputation, therefore declaring your desire to fight.
Effective immediately, I am withdrawing my resignation. Have a blessed Easter.”
Brown has served as mayor for seven years. He formally announced his resignation during a closed session at a special council meeting on Wednesday, March 27, after showing up almost an hour late.
Following his announcement, council approved a resolution to censure Brown, accusing him of using city property for personal gain.
In the resolution, Brown is accused of using a city snowplow outside of city limits for monetary payment and for taking a city vehicle to Bowling Green and not returning it promptly.
Council had originally planned to appoint a new mayor at another special called meeting on Monday evening. Yet, Brown’s rescinsion came minutes before his resignation was set to go into effect on March 31.
Despite retaining his role as mayor, Brown did not appear at the council meeting. In his place, councilman Dan Martin acted as chairperson to lead the meeting.
The council unanimously approved two ordinances creating new procedures around the use of city vehicles and entering contracts for purchases over $20,000.
The vehicle ordinance states that city vehicles can only be used by authorized city employees and for city purposes. It lays out a procedure for signing out city vehicles, in which the user must log the date, time, and purpose of its use, as well as its mileage and time of return. Any violation of the policy results in termination of that official’s city automobile privileges and repayment of any gas charges.
Currently, Brown has possession of city vehicle keys, according to city clerk Gevana Hicks. City attorney Michael Duncan said he would request for the keys to be returned to City Hall.
Council also held a first reading of an ordinance revising the policy for the timing of payment for the mayor and city council members. While the original ordinance allowed for officials to decide to be paid monthly, annually or twice annually, the amended policy removes the option to be paid monthly and specifies that officials must never receive advance payments.
According to council member Terri Courtney, Brown received a four-month advance on his payroll in January.
“Because it wasn’t written in here that we weren’t going to payroll advance, it happened,” she said. “So now it’s written in here that we’re not going to payroll advance.”
During the meeting, Walton residents and former city officials voiced their opinions on the situation, and Hicks even removed a post made by Brown in the City of Walton, KY, Facebook group that former council member Mike Wood said was offensive.
The post in question was made on Saturday, and is a video of the O’dell Owens farm property with an instrumental version of the song “The Day They Made Me Boss” by Youngbleed, an American rapper, played over it.
While the video that Brown posted doesn’t contain vocals, Wood said that the original song’s lyrics, which contains myriad expletives, is offensive to the community and a poor representation of the city.
“That’s offensive. In my opinion as a city council member for 18 years, anything that has the city of Walton on it, if it’s our page, then somebody needs to be held accountable for it,” he said.
The council ultimately went into a closed session for discussions which “might lead to the appointment, discipline or dismissal of an individual employee.” According to Courtney and Martin, the council is going to continue to gather evidence surrounding Brown’s actions during his mayoral term.
It is expected that after the council’s investigation has been completed, Walton will hold a public hearing to consider impeaching Brown as mayor. It is currently unclear when that hearing would take place.