ELWOOD – Elwood Mayor Ron Arnold, the subject of an Indiana State Police investigation into the alleged misuse of campaign funds, announced Thursday he would resign with less than a year remaining in his first term.
The move was reportedly in response to a March 1 deadline given to him to either resign or face possible criminal charges. With the resignation, Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings said he would not file infraction charges against Arnold.
“Those are violations that would have been an infraction,” he said. “We were talking about a fine.”
In a press release issued Thursday, Arnold announced his resignation would be effective March 27.
Cummings said he wanted Arnold to leave office by March 1, but was fine with the March 27 effective date of the resignation.
“This is better for all involved and the city of Elwood to move past it,” he said.
Arnold was elected mayor in 2011, defeating Democrat Fred Mort by a vote of 1,258 to 707. Arnold announced Jan. 30 of this year that he would not seek re-election.
The ISP investigation started in February 2014 with the focus on the use of mayoral campaign funds to pay for out-of-state hotel bills and cable TV bills.
Last October, state police investigators recommended that two Level 6 felony charges and several misdemeanor charges be filed against Arnold over the allegations.
The investigation looked at expenditures by Arnold’s campaign for hotel stays in Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana, expenses for Internet and cellular telephone service, and expenditures for car insurance and gasoline purchases.
Prosecutor Cummings asked ISP investigators earlier this year to check on claims by Arnold that he went to Illinois to seek campaign contributions from a U.S. senator and the owner of the Chicago White Sox.
The senator told ISP investigators he didn’t know who Arnold was and had never had contact with the Elwood mayor.
Arnold’s attorney, Bryan Williams, said the end result of the ISP probe was that Arnold could have been charged with several infractions, not felony or misdemeanor charges.
Williams said Arnold was looking into some other opportunities and the timing was right for his resignation.
Arnold could not be reached for comment Thursday.