Mayor appoints Lisa Hartz as new Human Resources Director
The City of Carmel’s first – and only – Human Resources Director has decided to retire at the end of the year. Barbara Lamb will step down after a 25-year career at Carmel City Hall. Over the course of her tenure with Mayor Jim Brainard, Lamb became a leader in developing new, innovative programs that helped make the City of Carmel a highly desired place to work.
“Barb has been an outstanding leader who has overseen consistent growth in the number of City employees as we have worked to provide public service to a rapidly growing population,” Mayor Brainard said. “Even more importantly, her sense of fairness, justice and respect for diversity has helped us become a welcoming place to work in Carmel.”
Lamb was hired by the newly-elected Mayor in 1996 when the city’s population was roughly 30,000 and there were only 275 city employees. Today, Carmel has about 102,000 residents and the city employs nearly 600 people.
Originally from Elkhart County in northern Indiana, Lamb received a master’s degree in Public Management from the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs (at the Bloomington campus) in 1994 and worked for one year in the Human Resources Department for the City of Indianapolis. She also taught a graduate level HR course at IU before she accepted the position of HR Director for the City of Carmel.
“Mayor Brainard had the foresight to understand when he became Mayor that the city needed the HR function,” Lamb said. “He appointed me as the city’s first HR Director with responsibility for centralizing the city’s HR systems and bringing consistency to the policies and procedures of all departments. I created the first handbook for civilian employees and work closely with the Chief of Police and Fire Chief to create equity between civilians and sworn police officers and firefighters.”
Under Lamb’s direction, the city established many programs for its employees, including retiree health insurance, the employee health clinic, adoption benefits, a wellness program, tuition reimbursement, an equitable compensation system and annual employee appreciation breakfasts and picnics. Lamb also consolidated vacation, sick and personal time into a single Paid Time Off system.
Lamb’s philosophy during her time as HR Director has been to create the best city to work for, bar none. She saw her role as creating an environment in which individuals and teams could thrive and to remove impediments to success. Communication was also a key factor as Lamb believes that when employees know what is going on they are better prepared to contribute to the city’s success.
What are Lamb’s retirement plans?
“I will be at home with my husband Gary, who is already retired, and our two cats, Loki and Ozzie D,” Lamb said. “In the coming year I plan to travel (my first trip will be to visit my niece in San Francisco), read, do some consulting work and volunteer with the Humane Society of Hamilton County.”
Lisa Hartz named new HR Director
Mayor Brainard has also announced the appointment of Lisa Hartz to the position of the Human Resources Director for the City of Carmel.
Hartz currently serves as Director of Administration and Human Resources for the Greater Asheville Regional Airport Authority in North Carolina. Hartz brings more than 16 years of experience to her new role and previously worked in Indiana for more than 14 years for public entities. She earned her master’s degree in Business Administration from Columbia Southern University after earning her bachelor’s degree in Human Resources Management from Indiana University.