Walton residents voting this November face a unique choice for city mayor. Both candidates have served in the role this year alone: Gabe Brown resigned in May, and Terri Courtney was subsequently appointed to serve out the term.
Brown resigned from his second term as mayor after nearly seven years in office. The move followed an investigation into potential misconduct, which resulted in city council’s charging Brown for misuse of city property and money. The misuse includes hundreds of thousands of dollars for work done on the Owens Park Lake project, which council alleged was made without prior approval.
Work on the lake project dates to December 2021. Walton entered into a contract for work to be completed by May 31, 2022, for $107,000. Even as that date passed, however, work continued on the lake, and the city continued to be charged in the years since.
At the time, city policy – which, until recently, hadn’t been updated since the 1990s – mandated that projects over $40,000 had to be brought before city council for approval prior to making payment. While the original contract for $107,000 was approved, charges and payments for the lake project made in June 2022 and beyond were almost always made in increments under $40,000. Brown said he didn’t technically need approval in these instances, even though they ended up totaling over $300,000. City council said otherwise.
In late March, shortly after the investigation started, Brown resigned. He then rescinded the resignation minutes before it was set to go into effect.
Subsequently, city council decided to prepare charges against Brown to remove him from office. At a special meeting in May, while council was in executive session preparing to reveal the charges to the public, Brown dropped off another letter of resignation, this one taking effect immediately.
Council then tabled the motion to bring charges against Brown, as they would bear no consequences against him since he resigned. It appointed Courtney to serve as mayor in his place.
In the months since Courtney took up the mayor’s seat, council has passed a series of measures to tighten city policy, including updating how city property and money can be used, and establishing a committee to look into hiring a city administrator. If Courtney is re-elected, she said she would continue this process.
“As a council member, I introduced the first phase of legislation to ensure checks and balances due to the previous mayor’s actions,” she said. “I am committed to and support council’s ongoing commitment to continue to review policy and procedures and ordinances to help eliminate abuse and mistrust.”
Courtney, 51, served on council for four years before her appointment as mayor. She hopes to keep the momentum going in a full term. “I care about our hometown and realized that someone had to step up,” she said.
Courtney said that one of the top issues facing Walton is the ongoing charges and potential future lawsuits related to the investigation of Brown. “We couldn’t continue with unchecked spending and self-serving actions.”
Of other issues, Courtney said Walton’s infrastructure is lagging despite its rapid growth, citing that industry and population has doubled in recent years. Concern over infrastructure caused council to vote against allowing cannabis business operations in Walton, alleging that its water and sewer systems wouldn’t be able to accommodate the extra strain. Upgrading those systems is one of her top priorities if re-elected. “[We need to] generate additional revenue and secure low interest loans to meet current and future infrastructure needs,” she said.
Courtney also hopes to create a community council, composed of local business leaders and citizens that have a shared vision for “the betterment of the city,” and aims to work with council specifically to improve city parks, the downtown district and the city’s overall cleanliness, appearance and safety.
Similar needs are high on Brown’s list of priorities if he is re-elected. Brown, 43, was first elected to city council in 2013. He served for four years before winning the mayor’s seat. No. 1, he said, is to upgrade the water and sewer systems so that the city can support bringing in more high-paying jobs.
“The plan will be to make a major investment into an oxidation ditch,” he said. “In order to bring us into the future, to bring these-high paying jobs, we’re looking at needing somewhere around a $20 million investment, whether that be through financing or through a public-private partnership.”
Also on his list is managing traffic concerns and the upcoming I-75 interchange, as well as overseeing the completion of the Owens Park Lake project – the very one that landed him in hot water earlier this year.
“It really just needs somebody that has vision to bring it home so we can have one of the premier parks in all of the state, and I think that’s exactly what it can be,” he said. According to Brown, potential renovations include clearing brush and removing trees, and constructing bathrooms, pavilions, walking trails, a competitive disc golf course and a lakeside beach.
“You’ve gotta be able to pay for these things,” said Brown, adding that he hopes to implement a payroll tax in Walton. “We’ve got well over 1,000 that work here and live elsewhere.… People are using our utilities, our infrastructure, and the citizens of Walton are paying the brunt of it.”
When considering whether he would continue council’s motions to update city policy, Brown said that he believed their policies were “reactionary,” adding that council should have pulled the trigger on hiring a city administrator while he was mayor to avoid situations like this happening.
Further, Brown said he’d like to require all city council members to undergo training through the Kentucky League of Cities, a nonprofit association that, among other services, provides city leaders with training, to become familiar with municipal law, legislative and executive powers, and code enforcement, among other things. Brown said that, so far, he’s earned a master of city governance recognition through the league. The program requires more than 90 hours of courses in governance and ethics.
“They offer training and guidance, and, really, it makes you a better elected official,” he said.