Mayor: Internal investigation after clerk’s arrest shows no city money missing

  An internal investigation after the arrest of Dublin’s former city clerk showed there was no financial loss to the city.

Dublin Mayor Joshua Kight made the announcement during the last Thursday’s City Council meeting. He reminded everyone that the council had a called meeting on Oct. 1 to approve City Treasurer Blake Daniels as the interim city clerk after Heather Browning resigned earlier that week before she was arrested and charged with theft of deception by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

“Mr. Daniels and the finance team reported during pre-council (last week), that based on available information and investigation that he had conducted through our city finances over the past few weeks, there appears to be no loss to the city related to our former city clerk,” Kight said.

Browning was arrested and charged with theft by deception by the GBI after the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office requested the agency to investigate. According to the GBI, the investigation showed Browning breached her fiduciary duty by falsely writing and cashing checks from the bank accounts of members from Cedar Grove Methodist Church who reported money missing from church accounts.  

“Of course it was devastating to the church that was affected, but it has does not appear that anything inappropriate happened to the city of Dublin funds,” Kight said. “All of us at city council is comfortable about the fact that everything turned out OK for the city of Dublin. Thank you, Mr. Daniels, for conducting that investigation and for taking on this role as city clerk.” 

Nicole Graham, manager of marketing for the Gas Authority, presented Sara Kolbie with the American Public Gas Association’s first place 2025 Communication and Marketing Award for a marketing video created by the Gas Authority. The purpose was to promote the Renewable Natural Gas Project the city is a part of along with Sustain RNG, the city of Eatonton, the Gas Authority and Smurfit-Westrock. 

“This award was for the video and we so appreciate Dublin’s involvement in it,” Graham said. “It’s a
really innovative and creative project that probably would not have happened without Dublin and the industrial customer being able to take on this gas. We appreciate your time to be able to do this video.”  

The video was shown before the award presentation.

“This has been a real benefit to some of the industrial customers of our gas product,” Kight said. “The gas department of the city of Dublin is a primary engine to creating money and revenues that we are able to put into our city infrastructure, our parks and other services that we are able to offer. It’s a very important part of the city financial plan and this is just adding another aspect to it.” 

In other business, the council:

– Honored deputy municipal court clerk Regina McDaniel as the employee of the second quarter, and firefighter Jacob Bond as employee of the third quarter.

– Approved a tire balancing machine for the city shop from Lewis Tool & Equipment LCC out of Baxley for $16,860.33.

“Our city shop had an unexpected issue with our current tire balancing machine that is incapable of being repaired,” said Dublin City Manager Josh Powell. “As you can imagine it is a very important piece of equipment for the shop.”

– Heard a first reading of an ordinance to amend the zoning code regarding buffer zones, parking lot requirements for certain developments and fence requirements. The second reading and public hearing will be held at the 5:30 p.m. Nov. 6 city council meeting. 

– Approved a contract with Carter and Sloope Engineering Services and grant application services for the One Georgia Authority Infrastructure Grant for the replacement of a portion of the Ferry Branch sewer line. The cost of the service with Carter and Sloope Engineering Services is $24,138.

“It is quite a lengthy line but we’ve had this opportunity to potentially get some grant funding to cover that expense, and save some of the city’s SPLOST dollars for some other projects,” Powell said.

The sewer line runs from Stubbs Park through a few neighborhoods to the Alabama Street Lift Station. 

“We’ve had some issues with this in the past,” Kight said. “We put it in the SPLOST to use sales tax dollars for the replacement of the line.”

– Approved a resolution to authorize the 2026 employee health insurance benefits package.

– Approved a contract with Lord Aeck Sargent for engineering services for the Ground Water Plant facility on Madison Street. Earlier this year, the council agreed that Lord Aeck Sargent to provide an assessment of this facility and do a detail analysis of what was needed with the idea that they would do the schematic designs and the construction documents that would be needed for a contractor to perform the work.

The cost will be $142,040 and will paid out of the 2018 SPLOST funds. 

“We’re hopeful as we go and work with them on this project, we are able to bid out for the work to get the cost down so that we can pay for the entirety of the project out of the 2018 SPLOST,” Powell said.

Kight said the plant is an old building built almost 100 years ago and parts are in disrepair.

“It is critical to our water supply for the community,” the mayor said. “These are really some overdue repairs to get that facility up to higher standards that we need it to be. Luckily we have the funds available from the 2018 SPLOST that we can use to pay for this work.” 

– Approved Michael Maffett to serve on the Dublin-Laurens County Economic Development Authority by a vote of 6-1 with councilman Bennie Jones voting no. Maffett will replace Guy Cochran, who resigned earlier this month. This was a joint appointment with Laurens County, who approved Maffett in a meeting held on Oct. 7. Maffett’s term will run from now until June 30, 2026, the remainder of Cochran’s unexpired term.

– At the end of the meeting, Powell announced that Pritchett Park is almost completed. He said they plan to hold a ribbon cutting for it next month.

– When talking about the Oconee Gym, Powell said the weight equipment should be arriving this week.