This morning, incumbent Carmel Mayor , Jim Brainard, was interviewed in-studio by WIBC radio host Tony Katz during his ‘Tony Katz and the Morning News’ show. Brainard’s interview comes just days after his challenger, Hamilton County Councilor Fred Glynn also appeared on the same show.
If you missed the interview, you may hear it in its entirely at the following link:
https://omny.fm/shows/tony-katz-and-the-morning-news/carmel-mayor-jim-brainard
After opening with a perfunctory denial of any knowledge or participation by him or his campaign in any scheme to offer money to Fred Glynn to drop out of the mayoral race, Brainard then was asked about growing community concerns about the pace of infrastructure projects and mounting public debt.
When asked by Katz if infrastructure growth needed to slow up a bit to make sure that the dollars were available and not have a debt problem, Brainard matter-of-factly replied:
“We don’t have a debt problem. You know, I’m proud of our fiscal record. I think, you know, other communities talk to us about how to manage (our) growth like we have. We are an example to the rest of the country.”
Oh really?
Brainard then goes on to trumpet Carmel’s municipal credit rating. When asked by Katz about a recent downgrade, Brainard twists the truth to sidestep the more recent downgrades by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s to instead focus on downgrades during the last recession over a decade ago:
“Yeah, we started out as a AA, we went up to AA+, at one point during the recession we went back to AA. These are all really good ratings, like the difference between an A and an A-. These are good ratings that allow us to invest in our community.”
Not mentioned was that both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s based their more recent downgrades over concerns about the level of bonded debt and the ability of the city to meet substantially increasing debt-service obligations beginning in 2021. For the mayor to answer the question about downgrades by addressing instead the more distant downgrades appears to be an effort to deflect the criticism rather than discuss the concerns cited by both rating services.
Katz goes on to ask if there is a moment when there needs to be an effort to start working on the debt to ensure it isn’t a problem for the next generation of people living in Carmel. Brainard gives a classic Brainard response, full of deflection and pretzel logic.
“First, of all, it’s (the debt) going to be paid off in the next generation.”
The mayor then goes on to claim that “we have never had a deficit in the city of Carmel.” All while conveniently forgetting about the fiscal crisis in 2012 triggered by lax oversight of and unchecked spending by the Carmel Redevelopment Commission that induced an insolvency situation at the CRC that could only be resolved through a bailout by the City Council.
After wrapping up with a final question about debt concerns, Katz posed a final question about the allegations of bribery by his campaign, to which Brainard replied:
“It’s not bribery, either, you know. Bribery involves public money. This is campaign money.”
Listen to this interview in its entirety for yourself to make certain you hear all of the questions and answers within the context of the interview. Listen to the manner in which Jim Brainard almost flippantly brushes aside legitimate questions and uses inaccurate analogies to spin an alternate-reality portrayal of his accomplishments and deflect those concerns.
Then, go cast an informed vote on May 7th.
brought to you by our friends at Essayists of Carmel, Indiana.
