WALTON, Ky. — Two women have filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the City of Walton, its city clerk and former mayor Gabe Brown. It comes on the heels of Brown’s resignation after a city investigation found misuse of city funds and property.
The women claim they were harassed and terminated after one of them reported allegations of financial fraud.
Brown has denied the allegations listed in the lawsuit. The City of Walton declined to respond. Members of city council, Walton’s current mayor and the city clerk did not respond to a request for comment.
“It's the most straightforward case of whistleblower retaliation that I've ever seen,” said Jamir Davis, an attorney representing the plaintiffs.
Former Walton city employee Cindy Kirtley said the issues began in 2022 after she says she noticed discrepancies in deposits, time cards and other areas.
“I went directly to the mayor multiple times,” Kirtley said. “Not one time did he ever follow up with me.”
That’s when she says the harassment began.
“Cindy was locked out of file cabinets, locked out of databases online,” Davis said.
He said Kirtley was also written up and began being treated differently.
“I was a great employee,” she said. “They raved. They loved me until I went to him about money missing.”
Kirtley was terminated the following summer. Her cousin, Tiechia Miles, was fired that fall. The city had contracted her for cleaning services.
“I was confused because it was just out of the blue,” Miles said.
A city investigation less than a year later found Brown misused city funds and property. He resigned last spring.
In their lawsuit, Miles and Kirtley allege retaliation and racial discrimination.
“In this particular instance, there's absolutely no retaliation,” Brown told WCPO. “There was absolutely no discrimination.”
Brown said the allegations are false.
“No allegations of financial misconduct were ever reported by Cindy,” he said. “I would have been the person that she went to. She never went to me with that.”
Brown said Kirtley was fired for just cause and had been written up for bad performance.
As for Miles, Brown said he gave her a chance to grow her business when awarding the contract. After a few years, he decided it was time to give someone else an opportunity to do the same thing.
“There's absolutely no discrimination involved in this whatsoever,” he said. “It was simple firing for cause.”
Now, a federal jury may decide. The case comes as Brown continues his campaign to win back his seat this November.
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