‘Welcome to the circus’: Fairfield Trustee Taletha Coles paces room as accusations fly

When she couldn’t adjourn a contentious township budget meeting, Trustee Taletha Coles circled the room, trading accusations, making no promises to live by spending cuts her board made

Fairfield Township Trustee Taletha Coles, standing center, argues with township board members Steve Snyder, left, Rocky Hession, second from left, and Perry Schnarr, far right, during a budget hearing Friday at the township offices on Wabash Avenue. Financial adviser Ben Roeger, of Indianapolis-based C.L. Coonrod & Co. CPA, listened in. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

Fairfield Township’s budget approval meeting probably wasn’t going to go well, anyway.

Last month, one board member walked out of preliminary talks when Trustee Taletha Coles refused to consider potential cuts she didn’t like. Others left in disgust, adding to an endless stream of questions about Coles’ spending, her locked township offices and seemingly erratic ideas and decision making since she took office in 2019.

And Coles, a Democrat, already had signaled to media and to her three-member board that she didn’t plan to submit changes she didn’t like to the state. (I’ll drop links to a few backgrounders down below, catching up on years of feuding and secrecy, if any of this doesn’t already sound familiar.)

But Friday’s noon meeting at the Wabash Township offices on Wabash Avenue …

Where to start?

Dave Bangert @davebangert

Fairfield Township feud/budget meeting just now between Trustee Taletha Coles and her township board didn’t go as I expected. It went worse. Stay tuned, and I’ll try to break it down so you can see for yourself.