Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard will wait until next year to seek a new director for the city’s beleaguered redevelopment commission, the once-big-spending agency now facing a tight budget, staff exodus and brow-raising audit.
“This is a good chance to step back and re-evaluate how the [Carmel Redevelopment Commission] works and who we need in those positions,” said Brainard, the mastermind behind Carmel’s aggressive push to rebuild downtown.
For more than a decade, the CRC fueled that transformation—borrowing $240 million to support projects like City Center, the Arts & Design District and the Center for the Performing Arts.
In August, in fact, councilors rejected a $60,000 contract extension for longtime Executive Director Les Olds, a retired architect working as a $100-per-hour consultant. Finance Committee Chairwoman Luci Snyder balked at the expense, given the lull in redevelopment activity.
She also criticized the executive director’s job performance, citing the commission’s financial crisis and evidence of abysmal recordkeeping under his watch.
The mayor implored the council to keep Olds in place, calling his industry experience invaluable. Two days later, Brainard sat down with the State Board of Accounts to discuss results of the 2012 audit.
The annual review of CRC records identified some procedural errors, like failing to use approved ledger forms, along with seemingly serious missteps such as not collecting more than $835,000 in payments due to the agency.
...
http://www.ibj.com/article?articleId=44389
