Stacy Bailey's Appeal Rejected by City Manager

Former Canton Police Department Sergeant Stacy Bailey's appeal of her termination by the department has been rejected by City Manager Scott Wood, official city documents show.

Bailey was fired from the department last year for allegedly purchasing a golf cart for the special needs son of the man she was having an affair with at the time. She was specifically accused of violating the City of Canton's financial policy and altering the number of signers needed on checks written from the Young Explorers fund, which Bailey was in charge of.

The former sergeant appealed her termination, claiming that an internal investigation by the Marietta Police Department did not exercise due diligence in reviewing the case.

Documents provided by Bailey's attorney Lance LoRusso and attached to this article show that the number of people needed to sign an Explorers check set at one when the account was created; furthermore, LoRusso contends that bank employees would not have processed Explorers program checks if there were not enough authorized signatures. The internal investigation failed to question bank employees.

Bailey and LoRusso further contend that the Explorers program checking account was never subject to the City of Canton financial policy. The account was never audited by the city and the program itself is operated under the auspices of the Boy Scouts of America. The internal investigation criticised the city's finance department for its lack of oversight of the Explorers fund, but took no further action against the organization.

The rejection of Bailey's appeal leaves her without recourse to attempt to get her job back, LoRusso said. According to him, "the appeal to the City Manager is the only level of appeal for an employee of the City of Canton." 

Despite the loss of her job with the city, Bailey is pressing forward with a lawsuit which claims she was denied overtime compensation and a pay raise for earning a master's degree while other police officers were given the compensation. Bailey is seeking back pay and damages for what she says are violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

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