The Carmel City Council unanimously approved a resolution forming a joint committee to review the city's ties to four affiliate organizations: Carmel Christkindlmarkt, Promote Carmel, Carmel City Center Community Development Corp. and Carmel Midtown Community Development Corporation.

The Affiliate Review Committee will include three city councilors, the mayor and two mayoral appointees. The city council will select the committee chair. Reviews won't begin until February 2025.

After introducing the ordinance at the council's Nov. 18 meeting, sponsor Jeff Worrell said the ad hoc committee will "establish a new level of transparency and accountability in our government."

"This is not an effort to investigate or impugn any current or former city official or employee," Worrell said before the vote. "While some may feel concerned about the committee's findings, my sole agenda is to work diligently within our government framework to support and establish precedents that will help Carmel be the very best city it can be."

Carmel Mayor Sue Finkam urged the council to approve the measure, which she said supports her administration's ongoing efforts to take a closer look at city-affiliated organizations in an effort to benefit taxpayers.

"This resolution allows us to present an initial and additional level of accountability and transparency to the important work already underway. I appreciate the opportunity to do that alongside the council," Finkam said. "I think it's important we can have a public conversation about the mission, governance and financials of all of them."

Worrell told Current Nov. 15 he had previously been working to draft a resolution initiating a city council investigation into Finkam's decision to abruptly terminate two of three Carmel Christkindlmarkt board members in early October but decided to reach out to the mayor to see if they could work together to publicly address questions he and some of his constituents still have about the matter. He said Finkam supported the idea, and he agreed to accept her proposed changes to the resolution.

The resolution requires the committee to publicly release a final report on each entity it reviews, which would include a summary of the purpose of the entity, its governance structure and federal tax requirements, total cash compensation of its executives, risks to the city, a historical record of the investments the city has made to each entity and a current balance sheet of the entity's assets and liabilities.

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