The Carmel City Council on June 20 unanimously approved a new assistant director position at the Carmel Redevelopment Commission. The position will be paid a base salary of no more than $3,373.38 every two weeks. CRC Director Corrie Meyer’s base salary was previously set at $4,485.38 every two weeks. The CRC is a government body that focuses on areas in need of reinvestment or underused areas. It uses funds such as tax increment financing, a way to capture increases in property tax revenues to be used for redevelopment. The new salary can’t be funded using TIF funds and will be covered through the city budget. Meyer said she doesn’t know yet if that means cutting the budget, moving line items around or asking for more money. Prior to her arrival, Meyer said there were approximately six full-time paid staff members for the CRC, but the staff was reduced. Some left for jobs in the private sector and some went to work for other departments in the city. The decrease in staff came after the CRC approached the City Council in 2012 to ask for help refinancing $184 million of debt. Currently, the CRC staff consists of Meyer and Mike Lee, an office manager. “We have a small staff at the redevelopment department,” she said. All six councilors in attendance voted to suspend the rules and vote on the proposal on first reading instead of tabling the bill or sending it to committee. The new position was approved after only a few minutes of discussion. “I think we all know how much is going on in the city and that staff is as smaller than it should be,” Councilor Kevin “Woody” Rider said.
