First on 2: Gratis mayor indicted

EATON, Ohio (WDTN) - UPDATED: According to Preble County court records, Gary Vest, mayor of the Village of Gratis, has been indicted for unlawful interest in a public contract.

The indictment charges Vest with using his position in November 2011 to secure a public contract that benefited his family.

2 NEWS on Assignment went to Gratis to find Mayor Vest.  He was not at home and no one at the village offices answered the doors. 

We did find a former mayor, Randy Kemper, who had worked alongside Vest on the council. He said he was floored by the indictment. Kemper told me the council had to act in a hurry to hire a temporary utiilty clerk, work was piling up. This controversy follows an auditor's report that indicated there were missing funds in Gratis.

Kemper told 2 NEWS, "What gets me there was $62,000 supposedly missing, the state auditor said this, not me again.  State auditor said $62,000 missing and nobody talks about that. That's been swept under the carpet or something. But yet over a piddly little $9/hour job,less than 30 hours a week.
These people have the whole damn town in an uproar."

Kemper said the vote to hire Vest's daughter was open and Gary Vest and his wife who both served on the council abstained.

Heather Troth who had been before the council asking questions wonders why the temporary job was never posted.

Troth told 2 NEWS, "At this point anybody in Gratis will tell you there's a lot of problems in Gratis. Hopefully this will be the closure of it. Hopefully we can take care of the problem and move forward."

Vest is scheduled to appear in Preble County Court August 10, 2012.  2 NEWS On Assignment has learned the Ohio Attorney General will provide a special prosecutor.