Dublin City Council fills clerk vacancy after resignation tied to theft case

Dublin City Council appointed Treasurer Blake Daniels as interim city clerk after Heather Browning resigned amid theft charges tied to her role as a church treasurer.

DUBLIN, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Dublin City Council appointed Treasurer Blake Daniels as interim city clerk Wednesday following the resignation and arrest of former clerk Heather Browning, who is charged with stealing money from her church where she served as treasurer.

At a special called meeting, Mayor Joshua Kight said Browning resigned Monday after city leaders were notified of a Georgia Bureau of Investigation probe into her actions at Cedar Grove Methodist Church.

“At that time, all access to the building and computer systems and email systems was terminated for Mrs. Browning,” Kight said Wednesday. “We spoke with her and she came to city hall and she offered to resign. I suggested that that was the appropriate thing to do to end this immediately so that we didn’t have to go through termination proceedings with the full city council. She signed a resignation on the spot and I accepted it on behalf of the city.”

Kight reiterated that Browning did not have access to city money.

“It is important to note that our city clerk had no access to bank accounts so there was no way for our city clerk to move money out of a bank account. It just couldn’t happen,” Kight said. “We do not believe that that there’s any inappropriate payments that came about through that process because of the multiple layers of oversight that are provided.”

Kight said the city is reviewing all check approvals Browning handled under $1,000, but so far no improper payments have been found. He discussed city safeguards, including multi-step approvals, council oversight of check runs, and daily balancing of cash drawers with cameras.

“It appears at this point that her actions were related to her church only where she was the only signer on one particular bank account that created issues,” Kight said.

Council members unanimously approved Daniels as interim clerk until a permanent replacement is selected.

Kight said the city is continuing to review its financial processes to ensure public trust.

“I think all of us were close to Heather, and are incredibly disappointed, shocked, surprised, that this happened,” he said. “And we do pray for her as we pray for the victims of the church. But understand that every organization is gonna face challenges. Whatever organization you’re in, it’s gonna happen. The question is: how do you respond to it? Do you own it? And do you try to make it better going forward? And we’re taking this opportunity to certainly review all our processes and protocols to make sure that we are protecting the public’s funds and earning the public’s trust.”