The initial news report of the Mayor’s accident raises nothing but questions.
If an elected official is involved in an accident and is negligent or worse does the City have any liability? Clearly the answer is yes. The Mayor skirted the rules and made an exception for himself. Nancy Heck was a co-operative employee for the Mayor. Nancy, who owes her job to Mayor Brainard, is hardly an unbiased source.
In an attempted interview shortly after the accident investigation was begun in earnest the mayor couldn’t escape the reporter fast enough.
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From April 2017
“After checking to make sure he wasn’t injured, the officers offered to give Brainard a ride back to city hall. He declined multiple times, saying instead that he would walk back.
One of the officers, Carmel Police Lt. Adam Miller, was wearing a wireless microphone that captured the conversation (You can hear the conversation yourself by clicking on the video at the beginning of this post):
Lt. Miller: “Mayor, how are you doing? You alright?”
Brainard: “I’m fine, thank you. I don’t know, I may have slipped over. I was struggling to stay awake earlier. But I don’t think so. Maybe.”
Lt. Miller: “As far as the whole testing process and everything, do you just want to do that through HR? Or do you want us to help you with that? How do you want to handle that?”
Brainard: “Oh, do I need to be tested? Yeah, I do, don’t I?”
Lt. Miller: “Because it is a tow-away.”
Brainard: “Yeah.”
Lt. Miller: “If we’re going to tow it.”
Brainard: “Yeah, sure.”
Carmel’s drug and alcohol testing policy requires city employees driving city-owned vehicles to take a post-crash test as soon as possible if one ore more of the vehicles involved “incur disabling damage and must be transported away from the accident scene by a tow truck.”
Officer 2: “OK good.”
Officer 1: “I know, he’s going to have to go get tested.”The official report for the incident lists fatigue as a contributing factor to the crash. The boxes for drug and alcohol testing were left blank.
Following months of records requests and digging through crash reports, dash cam video and city policies, Call 6 Investigates found no evidence that the mayor ever submitted to a drug or alcohol test following the crash.
Call 6 Investigates specifically asked the city for any communications, invoices or proof that the mayor followed Carmel’s drug and alcohol testing policy and received the following response: “The city has identified no records that are responsive to your request.”The city declined a request for an interview with Brainard, but was willing to answer questions via email.
Our first question: Why did the mayor fall asleep while driving?
“The mayor was very tired, having worked several long days in a row,” wrote Nancy Heck, director of community relations and economic development for the city of Carmel. “He had been in downtown Indianapolis for an early morning event and had not had a break while on his way to his next event.”
And about the mayor’s apparent acknowledgment that he might have to take a post-crash alcohol and drug test?
“The mayor, when talking to the police, said he understood he may have to take a test, but he also knew he had a speech to give at the historical society and he did not want to cancel at the last minute,” Heck wrote. Heck also said that, despite the wording of the city’s employee drug and alcohol policy, the mayor is exempt from the post-crash testing requirement because he is an elected official.
Call 6 Investigates went through the city’s employee handbook and drug and alcohol testing policy and could not find any language exempting elected officials from it. Heck acknowledged that there is no language specifically exempting elected officials, but said they are, nevertheless, exempted.
“Elected officials are not employees. That’s not a policy, it’s just a fact,” Heck wrote. “They are not hired by the City. They are elected by the residents of Carmel.”Heck said Brainard did in fact meet with officials in the HR department following the crash, but that he did not take a drug or alcohol test. She said the mayor had not had any alcohol on the day of the crash.
Call 6 Investigates was able to confirm that Brainard did keep his appointment to speak at the Carmel Clay Historical Society less than an hour after the crash.
The other driver involved in the crash was cited for driving without a license and driving without insurance. No injuries were reported by either party. INDY REPUBLICAN would like to thank Mr. Lewbel for an excellent story last night. And for following up on this story. We are curious to find out if Mayor Brainard really is exempt from the policy that applies to those who work for him? We do not know if Brainard had taken any substances that day or if he was simply exhausted. But imagine that you or we had crashed a car into Jim Brainard’s city vehicle. Would we be allowed to avoid taking a blood alcohol test? We don’t think so! Let us keep up the pressure on the media to get to the bottom of this. If Mayor Brainard God forbid has another car crash. He or others may be injured or even killed.Please click the contact tabs on the following news websites and demand they keep looking into this. Don’t just call, email, or submit contact forms. Submit, email and call them every 15 minutes! 24/7 if nobody is there leave them a message on their voicemails! Hand deliver letters to there offices!
Tell them the ghost of Gary Welsh sent you!
One Civic Square
Carmel, IN 46032
(317) 571-2401
