Opening Talk at Strategic Planning Meeting

Loving Carmel — and Owning the Responsibility That Comes With It

Good morning to my colleagues, City leadership and staff, and to those here today to help us with our important work. I’ll begin simply. I love this village. I know everyone in this room does too. That love is why Carmel has remained passionate, beautiful, and special for generations. But love also carries responsibility. And sometimes responsibility asks us to talk about things we would rather avoid.

The Conversations We’ve Been Avoiding

For instance, for thirty-five years, Carmel has not had an honest public conversation about parking structures. Not because the idea is wrong — but because it feels uncomfortable to us. We have struggled with what to do about our police station — not because we don’t value safety — but because the solution feels complicated.

We debate housing, traffic, and infrastructure — but we rarely allow ourselves to connect them into one honest picture. And we talk about preservation far more easily than we talk about sustainability. Yet sustainability is what allows preservation to exist.

When Success Brings Responsibilities We Don’t Like to Acknowledge

We proudly fund destination marketing — and we should. It works. People come. But every visitor also brings a car, a need for services, and an expectation of experience. When we refuse to talk about the infrastructure that success requires, we quietly shift the cost onto residents, staff, and the future.

Meanwhile, our neighboring cities are reinventing themselves. Each new hotel opening around us is generating roughly one million dollars a year in transient occupancy tax — funding their parks, libraries, roads, and public safety. I’m excited for them; they are my friends. They aren’t doing this because they love their towns less. They’re doing it because they love their towns enough to adapt.

Doing Big Things — The Carmel Way

We can do that too — in a Carmel way.

Not bigger.Not louder.Not careless.

But integrated. Thoughtful. And brave.

And we already have proof that Carmel can do big things well.

The Library: Proof That the Right Model Works

The Harrison Memorial Library restoration began as a bold idea many thought was too ambitious. Today, it is an almost fully privately funded $17.5 million project, professionally managed, widely supported, on schedule, and on budget. Within weeks, we will have accurate cost estimates and schematic drawings. By the 100th anniversary it will be completed. That’s a very clear goal — and one we will achieve.

But the most important part is not the building. It’s the model.

The Library is being delivered through a public-private partnership — a collaboration between committed community leaders, skilled private partners who share Carmel’s values, and a City that insisted on transparency and discipline.

That partnership did not reduce our control. It strengthened our capacity.It did not compromise our character. It protected it.

If we can do this for our cultural heart, we can do it for our civic future.

Asking Better Questions

So with that proof behind us, let me ask a few questions — not to argue, but to invite imagination. What if we stopped talking about our police station as a single building…and started talking about it as part of a holistic civic center?

What if we stopped seeing Vista Lobos as just a parking lot…and started seeing it as an opportunity to solve parking, housing, and financial needs together?

What if we talked honestly about the Sunset Center parking lots — not as untouchable asphalt, but as community assets tied to cultural vitality and financial sustainability?

And what if we talked about Sunset Center itself not only as a beloved venue, but as an institution that must remain financially healthy to remain artistically vibrant?

What if we explored public-private partnerships not as a loss of control…but as tools to protect our independence without asking residents alone to carry the burden?

What I’m Really Asking For: Permission

I am not here to advocate for any specific project.I am here to advocate for something more important. Permission.

Permission for Carmel to finally talk about the things we have been afraid to touch.

Because silence is not preservation. It is postponement.And postponement has consequences. If the only solutions we allow ourselves to discuss involve raising taxes, we’ve already limited our imagination. And if we refuse to discuss how to use our own assets — our land, our facilities, our parking lots — we are choosing financial fear over creative stewardship.

Protecting Carmel With Courage

Carmel does not lack beauty.It does not lack history.And it does not lack love.

What it sometimes lacks is permission to imagine how all of that survives.

This moment is not about approving anything.It is about changing what is allowed to be discussed.

Because the right projects will never appear until the right conversations are permitted.

I want Carmel to remain a village that future generations thank us for — not because we protected it from change, but because we protected it with courage.

The Leadership Moment Before Us

So today, I am not asking for agreement.I am asking for openness. Permission.

Permission to explore parking with design, not fear.Permission to explore civic centers with vision, not suspicion.Permission to explore Sunset Center and our parking lots as assets, not taboos.Permission to explore partnerships with intelligence, not ideology.Permission to imagine how Carmel stays Carmel in a changing world.

If we give ourselves that permission — even imperfectly — we will have moved this village onto a better path. That’s the leadership moment before us.And that is the moment I hope we choose.

Thank you.