Dalton, Ga., officials have found no wrongdoing on the part of a parks employee who was running a business that rented sports fields from the city.
Steve Roberts, who oversees the city's massive youth sports program, also ran Southern Baseball, a tournament organization that rented weekend space at Dalton's baseball fields.
Southern Baseball's website listed Roberts' city e-mail address and city of Dalton fax number as ways to contact him about tournaments.
When the situation was questioned by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Dalton Mayor David Pennington ordered an investigation. The parks commission read all of Roberts' e-mails and determined he mostly forwarded the messages to another address or on to his Southern Baseball business partners.
Roberts apparently had told his superiors about his business and had been given the green light to continue, the investigation concluded.
"Since he was granted permission and had the full support of his department head, I can't say that Mr. Roberts did anything wrong," said City Administrator Ty Ross. "Mr. Roberts' oversight of placing a city e-mail address on a private website has been rectified."
Pennington said Roberts no longer was renting Dalton fields through Southern Baseball, although the business was free to lease fields in other cities.
Roberts did not respond to an e-mail Thursday seeking comment.
Since the investigation started, the city has beefed up its conflict-of-interest policy to bar employees from engaging in any for-profit venture with the city.
The new policy bars Roberts and other employees from engaging in the sort of business he ran previously. Formerly, the city barred only department heads and elected officials from engaging in business dealings with the city.
Pennington ordered the original inquiry into Roberts' dealings and pushed for the new conflict-of-interest policy.
"He did do these things, but keep in mind it was approved by his supervisor," Pennington said. "It's hard to punish an employee who asked his supervisor and was told he could do it."
Contact staff writer Adam Crisp at acrisp@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6323. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/adam_crisp.