As the number of millennials increases in Carmel, there’s a growing interest in making sure there are jobs available for the next generation choosing to make this city their home.
All candidates for the Carmel City Council were asked: “What is Carmel doing to increase jobs and how do you plan to help?”
Responses come from phone interviews and from comments at a forum of the League of Women Voters. For more replies from candidates, visit youarecurrent.com
Central District
Eric Seidensticker
“The Council is very supportive of the all the infrastructure improvements that have happened. We also have maintained low taxes and that’s a concerted effort of many of us in the city. All of our amenities help develop an area where businesses are interested in moving to. It’s a great place to bring your kids up and the schools have been tremendous. My wife is a realtor and it’s location, location, location in Carmel and it’s a great location. We’re just north of a big city and just south of some very friendly cities as well.”
Bruce Kimball
“As far as millennials, they make up about fifty percent of the working population. When I graduated from college, we followed the corporations to get our jobs. Today it’s just the inverse. Corporations follow the employees. Again that comes back to quality of life. Millennials today don’t want to walk out of their office and jump in the car and go to lunch. They are looking for a walkable, bicycle-friendly environment and we’ve done a fantastic job of that. The top CEOs will tell you that they follow the millennials.”
Southeast
Luci Snyder
“I have been a commercial real estate broker and I was on the original board that created the Hamilton County Alliance, now called Invest Indiana. We began to figure out how we market Hamilton County and we became so successful that each area had its own marketing effort to create new jobs. I think it’s incorrect to state that only the Carmel Redevelopment Commission attracts new jobs. What the City Council has done and continues to do to attract new jobs is fund our efforts to go out and find companies. Because companies invest in communities that invest in themselves. And so that story must be told and we always approve the budget for the department of community relations. We understand even in down times, and maybe especially in down times, we don’t stop advertising. That’s how you get new customers. The millennials are everything that we’ve heard has been said and we are increasing our housing choices because we’ve learned that don’t particularly like to buy but when they like to rent they like to rent high-end apartments.”
Jeff Worrell
“I think it is important to increase jobs. As a member of the Carmel Redevelopment Commission, I think I’ve played a role in that in building the infrastructure that’s attracting new businesses and new corporations to our community. The more that I interact with people who are moving to Carmel, it is the millennials, the younger crowd and they require a reason to move here. Corporations are trying to attract employees and it’s important that we continue to build the infrastructure and create a community that’s positive that they want to come to. That also helps keep our personal property taxes low.”
Southwest
Keith Griffin
“The biggest thing is continuing to improve the infrastructure. Carmel is a tremendous brand and we need to get improving our brand. We need to get out that our brand is phenomenal. The quality of life is phenomenal. But the heart of it is improving our infrastructure.”
Carol Schleif
“There’s a lot of economic development that we promote. Mostly that happens from mayor’s office. The council does what we can and we try but it’s mostly an economic development thing through the mayor’s office which we get notices of.”
Northeast
John Accetturo
“Government doesn’t create jobs. Yes, we can create an environment that attracts businesses into our community. I think has done a nice job on this. As a previous member of the City Council, I did vote on incentives for companies to move here because I think it’s important to be competitive with other cities. We can do a lot. It’s also important that we bring all types of jobs to Carmel. People need jobs at the higher pay level, but we have a responsibility to people at the lower echelon to support them with other types of jobs.”
Sue Finkam
“I agree that millennials, unlike previous generations, don’t move to jobs they move to where they want to live and they can live anywhere because of the time of business environment we have with high-speed internet and outsourced jobs and home-based jobs. Millennials get to be picky and choosy about where they want to live. Lucky for us, they are choosing Carmel. They want arts. They want recreation. They want rental properties. They want social opportunities where they can co-work and they want philanthropic opportunities where they can be a part of the community. It should be noted that 44 percent of all new job announcements in Hamilton County were in Carmel, so we’re doing a great job.”
Northwest
Laura Campbell
“I think Carmel is doing a good job of bringing businesses to the area and that’s something that they’re continuing to be focused on. I think continuing our amenities like walking paths and the Carmel Arts & Design District, I think areas like that help attract all age groups but especially millennials and I think the housing that’s going in near downtown is attractive to millennials because they don’t want to own cars or spent too much time in their cars. So I think if you have a community where people are able to walk or bike to get to most parts of the city, I think that’s a plus.”
At-Large
Ron Carter
“Frankly, there’s not a lot that a City Council can do or does to in increasing the number of jobs that come to the community with the exception of working in cooperation with the mayor to make sure we get amenities that help differentiate our community from other communities with whom we compete for jobs. Carmel has done a great job putting together an entire package that does differentiate us from other communities, that does make sure we get the jobs we need in this community which helps keep our tax rates low and make sure we continue to prosper.”
Ron Houck
“I think you’ve all heard about the many fine amenities in our community. It’s the same thing that draws us here that also draws corporations. I think we have tremendous potential in terms of the U.S. 31 corridor and the marketing of that area can help bring in even more high-paying jobs that benefit our community. We need to continue to market ourselves from a local, regional and national perspective.”
Kevin “Woody” Rider
“Quality of life. People will tell you the reason they moved to Carmel was schools and the next is the amenities that we have. You create an environment where businesses want to move here. A business moved here from San Diego, who leaves the weather in San Diego? They did it because of quality of life. Their employees could afford to buy nice homes. Their taxes are extremely low. My mother-in-law just moved to Carmel and she’s going to save five to six thousand dollars a year with the exact same overhead that she had in a city that I’m not going to mention.”
