JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — The election is two weeks away, and the start of the Indiana legislative session is over two months away, and some Indiana lawmakers are talking about the changes they want to see in the wake of Jamey Noel's criminal case coming to a close.
"I'm frustrated because millions of dollars were stolen from our community," Rep. Wendy Dant Chesser, D-Jeffersonville, said. "So, it's time to address the root problem."
Jamey Noel was sentenced last Monday Oct. 14 to a 15-year prison sentence, with three years suspended to probation. The special prosecutor says Noel will serve at least nine years.
Noel and his family were accused of stealing over $4 million from his nonprofit fire and EMS companies, and also from the Clark County Sheriff's Office Jail Commissary fund. The money was spent on lavish vacations, steak dinners, Netflix subscriptions, vaping products, lingerie and more.
Dant Chesser debuted a "government ethics" legislation package she plans to author and present in the January legislative session. She gave a few high points of the package on Tuesday, including "ethical and fiduciary training" for public servants, and more mandated posting of jail commissary expenses.
The jail commissary is a fund meant to be used for inmate personal items, technology improvements in the jail and more. Noel was accused in court documents of stealing over $700,000 from that. Indiana State Police say an entire year of Clark County commissary expenses (2018) was missing. Current state law only requires sheriff's offices to report their commissary spending twice per year.
Dant Chesser wants more reporting of the commissary fund.
"My intention with these filings in the Indiana legislature is to codify transparent practices so that every sheriff commissary fund will be subject to this higher level of transparency," she said.
However, the commissary wasn't even close to the largest public fund Noel exploited. Noel's department New Chapel Fire received over $7.2 million from the New Albany Township Fire Protection District board of fire trustees between 2016 and 2023. Darrell Mills, the president of that board, told FOCUS in February they never noticed any red flags with the service they were getting until after Noel was arrested.
Mills ended that contract a few months later at the end of May, after finding several aspects of their contract were not being upheld. The 10-year contract required that the fire board receive a yearly financial report from New Chapel, and that the board approve New Chapel's budget. That never happened for any of the contract years.
"I have run nonprofits for the last 15 years. And so, as we've managed boards, and ensured that our fiduciaries are in accordance with all the general accounting principles, it should be expected that all boards operate that way. Especially those that are receiving public funds," Dant Chesser said.
She said changes to how fire boards operate isn't in her draft legislation at the moment, but those appointed board members could get some of the trainings she's vouching for.
In March, Republican state Rep. Ed Clere, R-New Albany, added an amendment to a bill that required the posting of all fire and EMS contracts to Indiana's transparency website. Until this amendment, only fire and EMS contracts over $50,000 had to be posted.
Clere says he has talked with Dant Chesser about her bill package and thinks it'll be a bipartisan effort.
"I want to talk with sheriffs and other stakeholders. But there needs to be more transparency," Clere said about the commissary fund changes.
He was still not sure on how effective ethical trainings would be.
"I'm not sure you can train people to be ethical. You can educate them regarding responsibilities and expectations, but at some point, the individual has to be accountable for their own behavior," Clere said.
He said he has talked with some people about changes to the fire protection district board of trustees process.
Both Clere and Dant Chesser are running for re-election in two weeks. Dant Chesser was appointed to her seat by House Democrats in June, after Rep. Rita Fleming stepped down. Dant Chesser says the press conference Tuesday was not meant to be a campaign event.
"I'm doing my job. I was caucused-in as State Representative --sworn-in on June 4-- asked to do this job. And now I'm doing my job," she said.
► Contact FOCUS investigator/reporter Travis Breese at tbreese@whas11.com, or on X.