County Council unanimously votes to remove Fairfield Township Trustee Taletha Coles
LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Within the span of five minutes, the Tippecanoe County Council voted in a unanimous decision on a resolution to remove Fairfield Township Trustee Taletha Coles from her elected office.
This marks the completion of three of the four steps required to remove Coles from her position, and in all three cases, the Fairfield Township board, the County Commissioners and the County Council unanimously voted on the resolution.
Coles will now be summoned into court within 20 days of the resolution. Tippecanoe Circuit Judge Sean Persin will then weigh in on the matter and decide if Coles should be removed from office, County Attorney Doug Masson said, outlining the new state law.
“I will be filing this with the court, there was a brief hearing on Friday where the court just confirmed that it wasn’t required to do anything until or unless you took some action,” said Masson.
“We’ve got 10 days to get it on file, I got some i’s to dot and t’s to cross, so it won’t be today but in the next couple of days I will get that filed with the court and then it’ll be up to Judge Persin to set the schedule.”
Coles was a no-show at the council meeting.
The Journal & Courier emailed Coles Tuesday morning asking why she did not attend the meeting and if she had any comments about her removal.
She did not respond before deadline.
Before the council cast their votes, Councilman Barry Richard recognized the process leading to Tuesday's vote.
“I would like to just thank the board, the Fairfield board, the trustee board that comes forward, the former employees that have taken their time to come in and bring this all to light. The lawmakers who made this resource available to us to act upon it,” said Richard.
“I think without question there’s a lot of lack of integrity and responsibility on the trustee that has occurred. But where I feel the worse is all the individuals that needed help in our community during these last four years and was unable to receive the help they should have gotten.”
After the votes were cast, a collective sigh could be heard from the audience.Former township employee Trisha Fogleman, Township Board President Perry Schnarr, Board Secretary Rocky Hession and board member and Democratic candidate for Fairfield Township trustee, Monica Casanova, were all in the audience waiting to hear the council’s decision.
Fogleman was shocked by the council’s unanimous decision.
“I came in hoping for the best, expecting the worst. You never know how things are going to go, and I’ve been through so much since I started with the township, that now I don’t take anything for granted,” said Fogleman.
When it came to the three members of the Fairfield Township Board, the group felt a moment of relief when they heard the council’s decision.
“It proves that everybody in the county understands what she’s done. And we’re not even done yet, because there’s still an investigation going on. This is just the procedure to remove her, it has nothing to do with any type of criminal charges that may come from it,” said Hession.
Coles currently is under investigation by the Indiana State Police and the Indiana State Board of Accounts for her management of the public's money and assets.
“Our state legislators gave us something to work with, now we’ve been through three of the processes that are needed to take care of things. It’s just unfortunate for all of us, all of Tippecanoe County and Fairfield Township that we have to do this. And it’s wasting a lot of Township money,” said Schnarr.
“We’re kind of bucking the system here because notoriously it’s been extremely difficult to relieve anybody elected from their office, but this is the first time that such an extensive examination process for something where its four steps. So, we hope we can set precedent with this decision,” added Hession.
The resolution will now be sent to Tippecanoe Circuit Judge Sean Persin who will weigh on the matter. Coles will now be summoned into court within 20 days of the resolution filing.
In March, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a bill that creates this four-step path to remove rogue township trustees.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Tippecanoe County Council unanimously votes to oust Trustee Aletha Coles
