CHARLESTOWN, Ind. (WDRB) -- Newly elected Charlestown Mayor Treva Hodges claims the mayor's office was almost completely empty when she moved in Jan. 1.
Hodges said drawers were empty, computers were wiped and locked, and no documents were left for her staff. Out of curiosity, Hodges said her staff began searching through trash cans and eventually the dumpster. That's where she and her team discovered at least four trash bags full of shredded documents. Some, Hodges said, are crucial to Charlestown.
"We started to find what looked like official documents, things like unpaid, unopened bills for the city," she said. "We thought we should probably involve some law enforcement agencies."
Hodges requested that Indiana State Police investigate.Â
Empty files inside the mayor's office drawer.
Officers are currently reviewing those materials to determine if there is any previous wrongdoing by the former mayor Bob Hall and his administration.
"Our staff, before they threw anything away, they went through the clerk treasurer, who is the one responsible for all the city records, to make sure they had duplicates and all that," Hall said in defense of the claims.
Both Hall and Hodges praised Clerk Treasurer Donna Coomer and noted her spotless audits. Hodges even admitted that she does have access to records, minutes, contracts and agreements through the clerk treasurer. However, anything that hasn't been solidified is not available to her administration. That could include notes and documents related to developer and vendor interest.
"What we're missing are any kind of communication received on projects that are in development," Hodges said. "Charlestown' is growing. There's a lot that's been happening in Charlestown. There's nothing that tells us how we've gotten to the point we are or how to move forward."
As far as the computers that were reset or remain locked, Hall said it wasn't anything intentional and that the computer company contracted through the city should be able to resolve that.
Hodges said she's still sorting through shredded documents and trying to make sense of what is left. She told WDRB News that the request for an ISP investigation is to "encourage accountability."
"I don't think that anybody in any public service office can walk into an office that has been completely cleaned out and say that it wasn't, at minimal, extremely disrespectful," she said.
Hall said he's confident that ISP will find no wrongdoing by his administration.
"(Hodges' administration) is not interested in answers," he said. "They're interested in the politics of it. At some point, you have to quit campaigning and start governing. The campaign is over. She won. Now go be mayor."
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