Approximately 45 people we on hand Tuesday night at Point Blank Range & Gun Shop, 1250 W. City Center Drive, Carmel, to show support for Christine Pauley, candidate for Hamilton County Council District 4. At the fundraiser, catered by Donatello’s Italian Restaurant, Hamilton County Councilman Paul Ayers publicly endorsed Pauley’s run for the District 4 seat.
Hamilton County Councilman Paul Ayers (right) publicly announced his endorsement of Christine Pauley (left), candidate for District 4 of the county council, at a Pauley campaign event Tuesday at Point Blank Range and Gun Shop in Carmel. (Photo provided)
“He [Ayers] had written a letter to the precinct chairs letting them know that he was going to endorse me,” Pauley said. “Last night he was public about it. We had a good number a people turn out and one part of this that was very good is that I had quite a number of young people there. They are our future. At least 25 percent of the people there were young Republicans.”
Pauley is currently the City of Carmel Clerk-Treasurer, which is an elected position. She won that election against a 20-year incumbent in 2015, beginning her term in 2016.
She is also the executive director of the Carmel Bond Bank. According to Pauley the Carmel Bond Bank is a separate entity from the city, as required by statute. When Carmel became a second-class city in January 2016, they had to establish the bond bank to consolidate and achieve efficiency for combined sales of bonds. Carmel’s Bond Bank had a combined bond sale of approximately $254 million.
When Carmel became to a second-class city, the city council changed its form of governance. Part of that is the establishment of a controller and a city clerk of court. Those structural changes take effect in the 2020 election. The fiscal responsibilities of the current clerk-treasurer will be transferred to the city controller, a mayoral appointment.
Pauley told The Reporter her decision to run for the District 4 council seat was, “Based on the desire to give back to the community in that capacity I am currently under, which is as the fiscal officer for the City of Carmel. Along with my experience with the Carmel Bond Bank, that is transferrable in a seamless fashion to the county level because the county council is the fiscal body for the county. I have a wealth of business experience prior to my election as clerk-treasurer.”
She said she believes her understanding of municipal finance can be of high value to the county council as they begin to realize the variety of infrastructure investments the county is currently looking at pursuing.
“All you have to do is look at Steve Dillinger’s state of the county report and see how strong we are going to be pursuing infrastructure investments,” Pauley said. “I work directly at the state, county and city level, not only here in Carmel. I started a Hamilton County area finance officers’ group. We meet on a quarterly basis at each other’s city halls for Zionsville, Carmel, Westfield, Fishers and Noblesville. We discuss issues of importance that affect each one of us. I have established a cohesive group of peers within the surrounding communities to work together as a team to solve problems.”
Photos provided