Carmel committee urges formal tracking, agreements after review of city support for partner events and affiliated nonprofits

The Affiliate Review Committee on July 2, 2025, reviewed how the City of Carmel provides in‑kind and monetary support to partner-run events and city‑affiliated nonprofit organizations and recommended the city adopt consistent tracking systems, require written agreements for recipients of city support and stop using the city legal office to set up outside 501(c)(3) entities.

Committee members said the review was prompted by uneven recordkeeping, concentration of subsidy dollars in a few events and uncertainty about when outside sponsorships are recorded and tracked in the city’s accounting systems.

Why it matters: City leaders told the committee that large amounts of staff time and subsidy dollars flow to a small set of events and organizations, and that without consistent documentation the city cannot reliably justify allocations during the annual budget process or show that sponsor dollars are being used as intended.

Most important findings and recommendations

The report and committee discussion identified three main areas of support to review: in‑kind support (street closures, barricades, public safety staffing and event setup/teardown), direct monetary support (subsidies and grants) and city‑affiliated charitable organizations. The staff presentation, compiled from department records, reported year‑to‑date figures as of June 25, 2025.

Staff advised that in‑kind support is driven primarily by the street department, Carmel Police Department and Carmel Fire Department; those three departments provide the bulk of event labor and public‑safety coverage. The committee heard that Christkindlmarket accounted for roughly 85.5% of the listed in‑kind total in the dataset, and that the Center for the Performing Arts received about 81.8% of monetary support shown in the presentation for the period reviewed.

Cityworks and hours tracking

Director Higginbotham, who…