What happened: The Carmel City Council voted to approve changes to municipal traffic violations and penalties, specifically in regards to parking tickets.
What it means: Under the current law, officers have to charge court costs – which is $118 – instead of just letting parking violators pay the $10 ticket. City Councilor Sue Finkam said this allows parking enforcement to be more educational rather than punitive when it comes to giving out tickets.
What’s next: Passed 7-0 and goes into effect.
What happened: City Council President Rick Sharp asked about any shortfalls with the 2015 city budget.
What it means: The state’s Department of Local Government Finance reviewed Carmel’s budget and cut it by around $7 million because auditors were concerned that Carmel was over-projecting revenues. Clerk-Treasurer Diana Cordray said action needs to be taken to fix the budget. Curt Coonrod, a financial advisor to the Mayor’s Office, said DLGF is very conservative and regular under-projects the city’s revenues. He said Carmel has never come up short on its operating budget. “Carmel’s revenues will cover Carmel’s expenditures for 2015,” he said.
What’s next: The Mayor’s Office needs to communicate with DLGF to let them know that revenue will be higher than DLGF’s projections or the budget needs to be cut. If the budget is cut, it can later be restored by a vote from the Carmel City Council, which often happens.
What happened: The Carmel City Council is considering a partnership with Indianapolis, Westfield and Greenwood known as the Central Indiana Regional Development Authority.
What it means: As a part of Gov. Mike Pence’s Regional Cities initiative, signed into law in April, areas of the state will work together to receive grant money for projects such as transportation, bioscience research and bike trails. This is not a taxing agency. Members selected for the board won’t be elected officials.
What’s next: The bill was sent to committee.
