Editor,
While there is much in Mr. Shapiro’s letter of April 23, 2015 that deserves clarification, I would like to address his comment, “The final mess will be if Team Brainard wins and they eliminate the Clerk Treasurer position. We will have zero checks and balances.”
What Mr. Shapiro is referring to is a decision by the Common Council to move the City of Carmel from a third-class city to a second-class city. Currently, the Common Councils of Noblesville, Fishers and Greenwood have approved second class city status while Carmel remains a third class city.
Should the Council vote to make the change, the position of the elected Clerk-Treasurer in a third-class city will be replaced with both an elected City Clerk and a mayoral appointed Controller in the next election cycle after the Common Council has voted to move to a second-class city status. The city will gain two additional council members and the mayor will no longer have a tie breaking vote on the Council. Council President Rick Sharp has promoted a myth that the Clerk-Treasurer has the responsibility of “checks and balances” yet nowhere in the Indiana Code 36-4-10-4 defining the responsibility of a Clerk Treasurer or City Clerk is this stated. Mr. Shapiro does not address the current situation in Carmel where our elected Clerk-Treasurer apparently doesn’t consider the checks and balances role very important. Why else would you explain our current Clerk-Treasurer complaining about transparency in our Redevelopment Commission of which she is the Treasurer? Yet, in the past ten years, our current Clerk-Treasurer has not attended or had a member of her staff attend a single meeting of the Redevelopment Commission. As a self-proclaimed member of Team Sharp, Mr. Shapiro should be less concerned with checks and balances and more concerned with our current Clerk-Treasurer’s practice of watching meetings on cable television rather than attending them, failing to give proper public notice for the City Budget costing the taxpayers thousands to fix the problem, and contracting with outside consultants who have embarrassed our City on national television with their shoddy work. Whether you subscribe to Mr. Shapiro’s and Team Sharp’s view of the role of the Clerk-Treasurer, I suggest the Citizens of Carmel deserve and expect a higher level of professionalism and due diligence from their elected Clerk Treasurer.
While Mr. Shapiro promotes the metaphor of Team Sharp versus Team Brainard, he dismisses the real issue in this election which should be Team Carmel.
Christine Pauley
Candidate Clerk Treasurer