ELWOOD — There are two sides to the story of Ron Arnold's time as mayor of Elwood: the political side and the personal side.
Arnold accomplished some good things during his shortened tenure, but opponents said his various family issues cast a black cloud over Elwood, and pending criminal charges ultimately forced him to resign.
It was quite an accomplishment in 2011 when Arnold was elected mayor in a city that was — and still is — a Democrat stronghold. Rather than clean house from the previous administration, Arnold chose to work with Democrats, including Bill Savage and former Mayor Merrill Taylor.
Savage had worked eight years with Taylor as the city's economic development director before Arnold took over. With a Republican in office, Savage said he thought his tenure was over. But rather than trying to find a new person, Arnold kept Savage on.
"He wasn't afraid to keep me on board and keep the projects moving forward," Savage said. "He put what was best for the city first."
Savage said he and Arnold had a great working relationship and thinks Arnold did some great things for the city, starting with bringing Warner Bodies — and 66 new jobs — into Elwood from Noblesville.
When he took office, Arnold said rebuilding the downtown area was important to him. One of his biggest efforts toward accomplishing that was the Christmas lights display the past two years. This past Christmas, with the addition of more lights and a Christmas mall, Elwood saw an influx of visitors from throughout the state.
But the other side to the Arnold story ultimately overwhelmed the good things he was able to accomplish.
Almost from the beginning, issues popped up from the mayor's office, starting with Arnold's feud with Dan Nance, former director of the parks department. After an audit found discrepancies in the department, Arnold ordered Nance's suspension. Nance sued Arnold, former Police Chief Sam Hanna and the city, saying he had been harassed and that Arnold was trying to extract revenge for an incident during the 2011 campaign. Nance claimed Arnold felt he had shown favoritism to Fred Mort, Arnold's opponent. A settlement to the suit was reached recently in federal court.
The problems didn't stop there. In 2012, one of Arnold's sons, a juvenile, was one of four accused of arson when the former State Plating plant went up in flames. Another son, Tyler Arnold, has been charged with various drug offenses and was arrested in 2013 for allegedly shaking his girlfriend's baby. He has yet to go on trial on that charge.
The final straw came with the announcement of an Indiana State Police investigation into Arnold's alleged misuse of campaign finance funding in March 2014. Arnold was accused of using campaign funds to pay for hotels, cellphone bills and gasoline, among other items.
Rather than face charges, which Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings said would have been infractions, Arnold chose to resign from office. His resignation is effective March 27, nine months before his first term was supposed to end.
The legacy of Arnold's tumultuous three years depends on who is asked. Some, like Savage, said they will remember a man who did his best for the city.
"I think we accomplished a lot of good things," Savage said. "There are still some projects we're working on to continue moving the city forward."
But even some of the things that brought more people into the city and helped downtown, such as the Christmas lights, were not without detractors. There were complaints about the price tag for the lights — $30,000 in 2014 — and where the money came from. It came from Madison County and was earmarked for building restoration. Arnold said he believed putting lights on the buildings' facades fulfilled the requirement for the money. He also said in January it was worth the cost, given the results of the lights.
Tim Berry, chairman of the Indiana Republican Party, said Arnold will be remembered for leading the city through a difficult economic time.
"He brought a lot of accomplishments to Elwood in the area of economic development, bringing new jobs and investments," Berry said.
Others think it's best that Arnold resigned when he did.
Hanna, who also served as Arnold's campaign treasurer, said he thinks the resignation is the best option because of the litany of issues.
“This is probably the best for him, his family and the community,” Hanna said. "It's also good for the police department, which needs time to heal."
Todd Jones, City Council president and a Democrat candidate for mayor, said he wanted to continue to build off of the positive things Arnold had done for the city. He said the problems the mayor faced speak for themselves.
"I don't think I need to get into the negatives Mr. Arnold's partaken in," Jones said. "I think Mr. Arnold did some positive things and we need to build off of that."
Arnold did not respond to calls from The Herald Bulletin seeking comment. He did not specify in his press release his exact reason for resigning or why he picked the date of March 27 as the effective date for his resignation.