Dalton, Ga., Mayor David Pennington has ordered a formal investigation into a city parks employee who holds for-profit sporting events on the fields his department helps manage.
Youth Sport Supervisor Steve Roberts' side business, Southern Baseball, creates at least the appearance of impropriety and that's enough reason to give it a thorough examination, Pennington said Thursday.
The mayor said he has asked the city Parks and Recreation Commission to perform a "full investigation" and to deliver its findings to the city by Oct. 25.
PDF: PDF: Southern Baseball contact pagePDF: Southern Baseball's incorporation papers.
"From this City Council's standpoint, we don't tolerate even a perception of a conflict of interest," Pennington said after being alerted to the situation by the Times Free Press.
Through Southern Baseball, Roberts rents Heritage Pointe, the city's main sports park, to bring in weekend tournaments. Teams pay him $5 per person per day to participate, he said.
Roberts insists that Southern Baseball gets no special treatment from the city. He said he pays the same rental fee as anyone else, and that he spends little to no city time on the enterprise.
"I don't get any special treatment," he said. "I don't get any special dates. ... I pay the same price for the fields as anyone else."
Roberts coordinates the city's massive youth sports program, supervising nearly 300 volunteers and more than 2,000 youth participants. He oversees a $175,000 annual budget.
But until Wednesday, the Southern Baseball website listed Roberts' city e-mail address, a city fax number and personal cell phone as the primary ways to reach the business. The e-mail address was changed to a personal address and the fax number was deleted after the Times Free Press asked Roberts about the business.
He might handle Southern Baseball work while at his city job to forward e-mails to his personal account and to his business partners' e-mails, he said, and that adds up to mere minutes in a year.
He did, however, acknowledge that some e-mails get longer responses.
"I'm not saying I wouldn't correspond with anyone at any given time," he said. "Have I ever used [the city account] for an e-mail to somebody? I'm not going to sit here and say I've never answered an e-mail."
Pennington said the city does not have a formal policy on employee conflicts of interest. Current policy outlines what's appropriate for department heads, but not for other employees.
"What we have now is really for department heads and elected officials, and we are going to broaden that to deal with all employees," Pennington said.
Privately organized sports tournaments are not unusual at Dalton's five-field Heritage Pointe Park. The city has recruited such groups heavily in recent years, trying to get the athletes and their families to stay in hotels, eat in local restaurants and bring in business during sometimes-slow weekends.
"Heritage Pointe is rented out every weekend. I don't do anything differently than anyone else," Roberts said.
Heritage Pointe is available for rent for $700 a day for all five fields and tournaments typically run Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, according to Parks Director Ronnie Nix, Roberts' boss.
Nix said he knew about Roberts' business dealings, but feels it's all above board. He said he understands that it might create the appearance of a conflict of interest, particularly if a tournament organizer wanted to reserve a field on a date already taken by Roberts' group.
"I think anything, given the right circumstances, could create a conflict," Nix said. "We have not had a conflict, and to my knowledge, we've never had a complaint about the situation."
On top of that, the city needs groups like Roberts' to rent fields and bring in teams, Nix said.
"We want to have tournaments," Nix said. "We are in the tournament business."
Southern Baseball will hold its final tournament of 2010 on Oct. 23.
Roberts, before Pennington's request for an investigation, said he welcomes scrutiny of his business dealings.
"I feel very comfortable with the way that we do it. We are very clear on how I pay, when I pay and it's the same way as anybody else," Roberts said.
WHAT'S NEXT
Dalton Mayor David Pennington has ordered a full investigation into city employee Steve Roberts' private business dealings with the city. The report should be ready to deliver to the City Council on Oct. 25.