Letters to the Editor do not reflect the opinions of The Reporter, its publisher or its staff. You can submit your own Letter to the Editor by email to News@ReadTheReporter.com.
Dear Editor:
After 24 years in office, the mayor of Carmel last week admitted he’d run up a multi-billion-dollar debt without any measurable results.
In announcing a $240,000 research study to pin down actual return on investment and traffic improvement numbers, the mayor is quoted as saying, “We’ll get a lot of information we don’t have. We have the basics, but it’s not as in-depth as I’d like. I’m excited we’ll have a lot of in-depth information about how these investments have worked out.”
The information he doesn’t have, then, is precise return on investment and traffic safety information. What traffic numbers he does have, from his own police department’s annual reports, shows roundabouts have not reduced the per capita incidence of traffic accidents and only marginally reduced that of injury accidents. His rhetoric claims otherwise but his facts haven’t.
City public records include no return on investment calculations.
In other words, he’s been playing a game for 24 years without knowing the score.
In his excitement, he failed to mention the one-man firm he’s hired has no track record of return-on-investment studies, nor has it produced any traffic safety studies for other cities. Its website lists one project: A tourism impact study for Nantucket, Mass., listing how many tourists spent how many dollars in how many shops and restaurants.
Exciting.
Bill Shaffer
Carmel