Mike Wolanin | The Republic Columbus Township Trustee Ben Jackson listens to a panel discussion on homelessness in Columbus at Donner Center in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Nov. 17, 2023.
State records show that Columbus Township reported spending more than $900,000 from its township assistance fund to make credit card payments as former Trustee Ben Jackson was allegedly using the card to rack up $1.12 million in personal expenses.
The records show that Columbus Township reported $918,707 in credit card expenses in its township assistance fund from 2016 to 2024. Township assistance, sometimes referred to as poor relief, is a program that provides emergency financial assistance to residents who are facing financial difficulties.
The figures come from the annual financial reports that Columbus Township reported to the Indiana state government from 2016 to 2024, a period that largely aligns with the Indiana State Board of Account’s investigation into Jackson’s credit card use.
The investigation found that Jackson had allegedly accumulated up $1.12 million in personal expenses on the township’s credit card — including lavish trips across the United States and overseas, college tuition for his children, retail purchases, home improvement projects, among several other things.
The expenses were labelled as “cardmember service” or Elan Financial Services, which is a credit card servicer, and coincide with totals and other findings included in the SBOA’s special investigation report into the matter.
While the reports are not audited before being made available to the public and could contain material misstatements, state auditors said they had determined that Jackson “was reporting the credit card expenditures in the annual financial report presented to the township board each year.”
However, state auditors found “no evidence that the township board questioned the credit card expenditures during the review of the annual report.”
Besides the township assistance fund, a total of $339,852 from the township general fund and $47,114 from its firefighting fund were used to make credit card payments over the eight-year period, according to the reports.
Current Columbus Township Trustee Kris Weisner said nobody was denied township assistance due to Jackson’s alleged misuse of funds.
“No one was denied assistance due to misuse of funds from inside the office,” Weisner said. “…No services or monies were withheld from the public that needed those funds.”
In the reports, the township assistance fund is divided into five categories, including personal services, supplies, services and charges, capital outlays and township assistance.
One in three requests denied
Reports filed with the state government show that Columbus Township denied one in three requests for township assistance in 2024 — the highest denial rate among townships in Bartholomew County that received more than 10 requests and nearly triple the next highest rate.
In 2024, Columbus Township reported denying 232 requests for township assistance worth a collective $230,349 — or 33% of the 703 requests that township officials reported receiving last year, according to state records.
By comparison, the other 11 townships in Bartholomew County denied a collective total of 34 of 936 requests for township assistance last year, or 3.6%. The next highest denial rate among townships that received more than 10 requests for township assistance was 12% in Clifty Township.
Columbus Township reported $233,935 in credit card payments in 2024 — including $153,287 listed as coming out of the township assistance fund.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that Columbus Township has the third highest poverty rate among all townships in the county, suggesting the potential for an elevated need for assistance.
It is unclear how Columbus Township’s rate of denial for township assistance evolved over Jackson’s tenure, as the figures on denials were only available for calendar year 2024.
Township assistance fund
About 47% of the credit card payments that Columbus Township reported coming out of the township assistance fund — $435,406 — were categorized as “capital outlays,” according to the reports.
An additional 44% — $406,511 — were listed as “services and charges” and 8% — $72,685 — were listed as “supplies.”
Columbus Township also reported striking increases in credit card payments in the township assistance fund under those three categories in recent years.
In 2020, Columbus Township reported $76,739 in credit card payments listed as “capital outlays” in the township assistance fund — up from $7,948 in 2019. The following year, “capital outlays” paid to “cardmember service” jumped to $100,628.
In 2019, Columbus Township reported $40,157 in credit card payments that were categorized as “services and charges” — up from $10,652 in 2018.
By 2021, credit card payments listed as “services and charges” had risen to $53,990 and then jumped to $68,850 in 2022 and $97,771 in 2023.
Additionally, credit card payments listed as “supplies” increased from $309 in 2018 to $18,041 in 2021.
Overall — across all township funds — $623,660 in credit card charges were categorized as “services and charges,” while $549,041 was listed as “capital outlays” and $132,026 was listed as “supplies.”
Not all of those transactions were necessarily credit card payments for personal use. The SBOA investigation found that 9% of Jackson’s credit card use over the eight-year period was for legitimate township business.
Abrupt change
In 2023, transactions categorized as “cardmember service” abruptly halted, replaced by a new designation: Elan Financial Services.
Columbus Township reported $271,040 to Elan Financial Services in 2023 — including $205,679 from the township assistance fund — and $233,935 in 2024 — including $153,287 from the township assistance fund.
However, as the credit card payments shifted from “cardmember service” to Elan Financial Services, Columbus Township started reporting notable increases in credit card payments coming out of the township’s firefighting fund for the first time during Jackson’s tenure.
The township reported $43,094 in credit card charges in the firefighting fund in 2023 and 2024, compared to a total of $4,020 from 2016 to 2022.
The increase in credit card charges in the firefighting fund coincide with friction between Jackson and former Columbus Township Fire Chief Dave Thompson.
In September 2023, the Columbus Township board voted 2-1 to suspend Thompson one week with pay for allegedly grabbing another township firefighter by the shirt and being verbally abusive.
In February 2024, Thompson resigned after allegedly walking off the job for “personal reasons,” Jackson told The Republic at the time.
Thompson did not return phone calls seeking comment.
11 trips in six countries
The charges to the township assistance fund and denials in assistance stand in contrast with the 11 trips across six countries that Jackson allegedly paid for in 2024 with the township credit card.
The trips allegedly resulted in a collective $110,843 in charges on the township credit card — more than 1.5 times Jackson’s annual salary as a full-time trustee, according to the SBOA report and other state records.
In 2024, Jackson, his wife and three adult children began the new year on a $24,559 vacation to Winter Park Resort, a ski resort in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, with taxpayers allegedly footing the bill, according to the SBOA report.
That was the first of 11 trips last year that Jackson allegedly paid for with the township’s credit card, the report states.
Just 10 days after returning from Colorado, Jackson allegedly used the township credit card for a $4,811 trip to West Virginia that included a three-day stay at Snowshoe Mountain Ski Resort.
Ten days after returning from West Virginia, Jackson allegedly used the township credit again for a $6,539 trip to the Canadian Rockies that included a five-day stay Fairmount Chateau Lake Louise resort.
The resort describes itself on its website as a “wilderness retreat” and “AAA four-diamond, year-round luxury alpine resort” with “grand spaces and exquisite details.” As of Wednesday, the cheapest room for two adults available at the resort this weekend was nearly $1,310 per night.
The next trips in 2024 that Jackson allegedly paid for with the township credit card were in March.
That month, he allegedly used the credit card to pay for a $12,508 trip — including airfare for himself, his wife and one of their children — to Steamboat Ski Resort in Colorado. Five days after returning from that trip, Jackson alleged used the card for a $12,246 trip to Disney World in Florida that included a stay at Disney World Resorts, Fiesta Key RV Resort, Disney World tickets and sport fishing.
The next trips allegedly came in May — a three-day, $3,520 trip to Boston that included airfare for Jackson and one of his children, car rental and music school for one of his children and a three-day; and a $6,013 trip to Chicago that included purchases at Wrigley Field, indoor skydiving and a stay at Hotel Zachary, a four-star hotel across the street from Wrigley Field.
Just over two weeks after returning from Chicago, Jackson allegedly used the credit card to pay for himself, his wife, two children and another individual to go on a nine-day, $10,402 trip to Puerto Rico that included a hotel stay in Chicago before their flight to the Caribbean.
In August, Jackson and his wife went on an $18,683 trip to Europe — which included airfare and purchases in Austria, Italy, Germany and Switzerland — all allegedly paid for with the township credit card.
In October, Jackson returned to Florida for a three-day, $6,833 trip to Disney World — his second trip to the entertainment resort complex last year — that was allegedly paid for with the township credit card. He also allegedly went on a two-day, $1,875 trip to Chicago that month.
The day after Jackson returned from Chicago in October, the SBOA showed up at the Columbus Township office inquiring about the township’s credit card expenditures, resulting in an investigation that ended up including Indiana State Police and Bartholomew County authorities.
As of Friday morning, Jackson had yet to be formally charged with any crimes over the allegations.
Bartholomew County Prosecutor Lindsey Holden-Kay said previously that she expects a criminal investigation into Jackson involving “multiple felonies” will be completed shortly, though it was not yet known whether he could face state or federal charges.
