During this election season, candidates for the Carmel City Council have been asked about issues that affect the citizens of Carmel.
One topic is whether Carmel should become a “second-class city” which would eliminate the elected clerk-treasurer position and replace it with an appointed city controller and an elected clerk. The change would also add two more seats to the Carmel City Council.
Candidates for council shared their thoughts at a recent forum and through phone interviews.
At-Large
Ron Carter
There has been very little transparency from the standpoint of the mistakes that the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office has made over the years. That’s something that probably needs to be aired and probably needs to be aired during this campaign. What I would say that I certainly agree with the expanded representation that citizens of Carmel would have. From the standpoint that a city with over $120 million budget that it’s time that we have someone who has been appointed that has the professional qualifications. With our fire department, we wouldn’t think of having someone who has not been a seasoned veteran firefighter as the chief. We would not think of hiring someone as city engineer who is not an engineer and doesn’t have a great deal of professional credentials. We would not think of hiring a police chief who doesn’t have the qualifications of a long service on the police department.
Ron Houck
First off, I believe in a strong system of checks and balances. I believe the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office provides the system that we need for appropriate management of our finances. I believe an elected official best represents you rather than an appointed official. So I favor keeping the Clerk-Treasurer’s position currently.
Kevin “Woody” Rider
Second-class city and we’ve had a lot of these conversations, I’m a supporter of it, the representation is a big part of it. More representation. Right now we fight and scramble back and forth for four votes and I think you’ll find a better dynamic with nine representatives and during our negotiations with mayor on this topic during the many different times it has come up, he did agree at one point in time for the council to approve who is appointed. Never forget that everybody thinks that the clerk-treasurer is the stop-gap. The city council votes on financial needs of the city. We have the final say. We can cut anything. We can’t add, but if we don’t say so the money doesn’t get spent.
Northwest District (unopposed)
Laura Campbell
When you look at the size of Carmel, Fisher is a second-class city and so is Noblesville and I think for the size of the city that expanding the size of our council could make sense. Carmel is continuing to grow so it makes sense to add more council members and to have that representation. I understand the concerns about transparency when you don’t have an elected clerk-treasurer, but at the same time that can’t be the only excuse to not move forward. So I’d like to put some safeguards in place to ensure transparency with an appointed city controller.
Northeast District
John Accetturo
I think the big advantage of having a second-class city is having two additional city council people to support the 80,000 residents of our city. Yes, having a clerk-treasurer does provide some checks and balances so they are some pluses and minuses to whether or not we need to go to a second-class city. But I would imagine at some time or another we’re going to need to move forward and we will be a second-class city at some point.
Sue Finkam
I do wholly support the second-class city status. To say we would not benefit from checks and balances because we don’t have a clerk-treasurer is totally undermining the voting power the city council has. There is no business dealing with over $100 million in revenue that doesn’t have a CFO. It’s ludicrous if you don’t have a financial specialist.
Southwest District
Keith Griffin
My thoughts are that it’s something that needs further discussion and needs further evaluation. It seems that’s where we are headed and it needs careful consideration. I don’t feel I have enough information to come out in favor one way or against. I’m open to the idea.
Carol Schleif
I’m not in favor of that. The Clerk-Treasurer has done a really good job with checks and balances. With what’s been going on, especially with the Carmel Redevelopment Commission and how that was handled and hidden from us, it’s really important to have that check and balance in place and be sure to have that person be elected. We want somebody to be independently free thinking about what is really good for Carmel.
Southeast District
Luci Snyder
I think we have three branches of government here and they serve as a system of checks and balances. Granted, we should work together. Granted, they should be transparent. But nevertheless when we are spending millions of dollars, it’s good to have independent elected second pair of eyes looking at everything we do.
Jeff Worrell
I would definitely support moving to second-class city status. I look at it from the standpoint of professionalism. Having a professional person, I liken it to my experience working in corporations where we have the comptroller with the financial expertise to advise the executive staff. That’s what we’ve been lacking. I think that this move remove some of the politics that is unfortunately going on.
Central District
Bruce Kimball
I believe the clerk-treasurer and the mayor and council all need to work together. It’s not really a check and balance, we all need to work together. One of the advantages of the second-class city is that we’ll have a comptroller. Public finances are extremely complex and we need qualified people with the proper training and degrees in that position.
Eric Seidensticker
The issue of second-class city has been brought up a few times. The benefit of a nine member council versus a seven member council is certainly a benefit. Our clerk-treasurer’s office has done an outstanding job and I disagree with what’s been stated. Her awards and certifications are beyond reproach. The negative side of second-class city is that you do take away that elected position. That office has years of information and it’s a tremendous benefit. I would like to see a blend where we can get the nine members on the council but we keep the clerk-treasurer.
