Local parks director admitted he forged document for son's community service

NORTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Sandy Springs Parks and Recreation director is off the job, just days after Channel 2 Action News started asking questions about an incident in which officials said he admitted to forging a community service document for his own son.

Athens-Clarke County’s Chief Probation Officer, Dale Allen, told Channel 2’s Mike Petchenik Ronnie Young’s son, Reid, was sentenced to 60 hours of community service after an arrest for an underage alcohol offense.

“Normally, if you’re local in Athens, we assign you to a community service site,” he said.  “We keep control of the community service log sheet where the hours are recorded.”

Allen told Petchenik, as is common for college students who aren’t from Athens, Reid Young requested to complete his community service by cleaning up Sandy Springs Parks.

Allen said, at the time, nobody was aware Young’s father was director of the department.

“There’s no law or regulation that saws you can’t do community service for a relative, but that’s not best practice,” Allen said.  “We wouldn’t have accepted that.”

Allen said the issue didn’t come to his attention until a secretary in his office flagged a document Reid Young turned in to prove he had completed his community service.

“I believe he provided documentation on letterhead,” he said.  “We noticed a signature on the letterhead was a little different than the one previous.”

Probation investigators questioned Parks and Recreation workers, and Allen said the employee whose signature was on the form said he had not signed it.

“The more we delved into it we found out that Mr. Ronnie Young had signed it. Mr. Young told me he had signed it for his employee,” Allen said.  “He said he actually does that on more than one occasion.”

Allen said Young was also unable to provide a time sheet showing his son had completed any hours at city parks.

“Ronnie Young stated that Reid Young had done a lot of hours at the park because he was upset that he’d gotten multiple charges in Athens,” said Allen.  “We’re not saying he didn’t do the hours.  We just can’t verify he did the hours and our inquiry determined it was under his dad’s auspices and we’re just not comfortable with that, so we asked the judge not to accept those hours formally.”

Allen said in light of the discovery, a judge ordered Reid Young to re-do his hours cleaning up after UGA football games in Athens.

He said he investigated whether Young committed a crime, but declined to charge him with felony forgery because he couldn’t prove there was any intent to defraud.

After Petchenik confirmed the information a few weeks ago, he reached out to the city of Sandy Springs.  A city spokeswoman referred him to Jacobs Engineering, a private company with the contract to operate the city’s parks department.

Petchenik left several message for a supervisor in the Atlanta office, but did not hear back.

Allen confirms someone from Jacobs’s human resources called him a few days after with questions of their own after Petchenik’s inquiry.

A spokesman for the company confirms that Young left his position on Oct. 4.  However, Jacobs wouldn’t confirm whether Ronnie Young was fired or resigned from his position, or for what reason.

“Surprised he’s no longer at his job?” Petchenik asked Allen.

“Not surprised.” Allen said.  “I don’t think it was a best practice.”

Petchenik attempted to reach Young at his home, but nobody was there when he knocked on the door.  An e-mail was also unreturned seeking comment.

Petchenik also attempted to reach Young’s son, Reid, at a cell phone number and e-mail he found for him, but as of Thursday afternoon, he had not heard back.

Sandy Springs spokeswoman, Sharon Kraun, told Petchenik the city’s assistant parks director will take over the department on an interim basis.

Cox Media Group