Housing, youth engagement highlight Finkam’s first six months as Carmel mayor

By GARRETT BERGQUIST
WISH-TV | wishtv.com

Mayor Sue Finkam said several of her initiatives since taking office have gotten more public input than she had expected.

June marks six months in office for Finkam, who succeeded longtime mayor Jim Brainard after Brainard chose not to run for another term. Changes are already evident in the office itself. The Republican is moving her own office into a smaller conference room and turning the current office into an emergency operations center.

Finkam in February launched a task force to review Carmel’s housing inventory and pricing, and the needs of its residents. In an interview with News 8 for Sunday’s “All INdiana Politics,” Finkam said the response to the task force has been tremendous, so much so she has decided to delay the release of the task force’s report, originally set for July.

“We’ve had such robust meetings with experts weighing in, we haven’t had time for our community to give their two cents on some of the data, so we want to make sure we allow ample time for that,” she said. “I’d rather have public input baked into the report than not.”

Carmel officials sent out a community survey in February to gauge residents’ satisfaction with city services. Respondents overwhelmingly indicated they were satisfied, though some indicated they were unfamiliar with some of the city’s departments and services. Finkam said she will send the survey results to a marketing company and share them with each department to look for areas to improve.

Finkam said one unexpected development has been excitement among school-age girls about Carmel having a woman mayor. Finkam is actually the third woman to hold the office, following Jane Reiman and Dorothy Hancock, who combined led the city from 1980 until 1992.

“Just seeing how excited they are, and they want to be engaged in civil leadership is important,” she said.

Finkam has recently begun having fifth-graders deliver her reports to the City Council. She said it’s exciting to see young people become interested in leadership and it’s critical to prepare young people to lead.

“You never know where these types of things may lead but I hope in 15 to 20 years, Carmel has managed to grow and release tons of civic leaders across the country because of little opportunities they got to engage with city government here, and that matters,” she said.

All INdiana Politics airs at 9:30 a.m. Sunday on WISH-TV.

This story was originally published by WISH-TV at wishtv.com/news/politics/housing-youth-engagement-highlight-finkams-first-six-months-as-carmel-mayor.