Dant Chesser testimony influences committee passage of House Bill 1208 to increase jail commissary fund reporting
Today, Jan. 28, State Rep. Wendy Dant Chesser (D-Jeffersonville) testified in support of House Bill (HB) 1208 in the House Committee on Local Government. HB 1208 requires the State Board of Accounts (SBOA) to create training requirements for the sheriffs responsible for their county’s commissary funds. The bill also requires the sheriff's office to report receipts and disbursements from the fund to the county fiscal body three times a year. The bill was amended in committee to increase the number of reporting requirements from three times a year to four. It passed unanimously out of committee for a vote on the House floor.
Dant Chesser gave the following statement in her testimony:
“Former Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel plead guilty to 27 charges, including theft, official misconduct, tax evasion and money laundering. He stole close to $458,000 from the county’s commissary fund. If you google search the phrase ‘former Indiana Sheriff,’ it pulls up local news reports of theft by Noel, his wife and daughter. It’s a real-life tabloid scandal that’s not going away.
“We have lived under this shadow for 18 months, and I fear it will wrongly implicate all of us who work to improve our community. How did this happen? What went wrong? It was an abuse of trust by an elected official who ignored his responsibility to the public. It was a blatant abuse of power that was carried out through abject control, threats and intimidation. It was a lack of oversight by others sidelined in their duty to protect public trust and accountability by those with authority.
“Now is the time to fix it. It’s been difficult to right the wrongs that Noel did to our community. But looking forward, we can take the initial steps to prevent future bad actors. I stand in support of House Bill 1208, and I thank the author for allowing me to join this conversation. I did author my own commissary fund bill, but I recognize it’s better to jump onboard a moving train than jumpstart a new one. While I support this bill, I believe it can be made stronger by increasing the reporting requirements from only a few times a year.
“The best step we take is always the next one: first steps, good steps. Let’s make it better.”