Five things mayors, business leaders and former city councilors said about Jim Brainard

Brittany Carloni, Indianapolis Star
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

When Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard completes his seventh and final term at the end of 2023, he will end more than 25 years of leading Carmel through population growth and transformative development.

Brainard was first elected mayor of Carmel in 1995. Earlier this month he announced he won’t seek reelection to an eighth term in office.

His decision opens up the field in the race for mayor in Carmel next year. Already Councilman Kevin Rider announced he is seeking the city’s top job.

Carmel:Debt, development and diversity -- The impact of Jim Brainard's leadership

But what will Brainard’s legacy be when he leaves office?

Here are what five people told IndyStar:

Stephen Goldsmith, mayor of Indianapolis from 1992-2000 and the Derek Bok professor of the practice of urban policy and the director of the Innovations in American Government Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government

“What Jim did in Carmel both by regional and national standards is indeed remarkable,” Goldsmith said. "The fact that you could have new urbanism and succeed, was not clear at the time he started."

Former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith (right) is pictured here getting a close look at the parking structure under construction at Circle Centre Mall in April 1993. Terry Greene, vice president of DeMars Program Management, explained the garage features to the then-mayor. Goldsmith served two terms as Indianapolis from 1992-2000. (Photo taken April 28, 1993)

Paul Helmke, former mayor of Fort Wayne and professor of practice at Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs

“Jim, I think, by aggressively pushing change, defending change and then seeing the change worked, really sent the message we can grow and do things differently,” Helmke said.

Bruce Cordingley, president and CEO of Pedcor Companies

Only one other city in the world compares to what Brainard has accomplished in Carmel, Cordingley said: Le Plessis-Robinson, a suburb of Paris.

“They have a passion for their cities, but [Brainard’s] creativity and innovation is a league of its own,” Cordingley said.

Luci Snyder, former Carmel City Councilor

Snyder said she got along “just fine” with Brainard. She understood what he wanted to do.

“But he wanted to do this, this and this and this. And I said, ‘Wait, we’ve got a loan here. Let's pay this off before we go borrow some money for this, this and this,’” Snyder said.

Scott Fadness, mayor of Fishers

“I think prior to Jim doing that in Carmel, it was kind of thought of as an audacious idea, that you could take a European urban planning concept or something from the East Coast of the United States and translate that into the Indiana landscape,” Fadness said.

Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness spoke at a vigil remembering teachers Kristal Sergi and Frank Sergi, at Hoosier Road Elementary in Fishers, Ind., Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018. Kristal, a preschool teacher at Hoosier Road, and Frank, an art teacher at Fall Creek Intermediate, were found dead in their Fishers home Wednesday night, Oct. 24, 2018. The couple was amidst divorce proceedings and the police said they are not looking for a suspect in the deaths.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard's legacy: What 5 community leaders said