Meet the candidate for City-County Council District 11

One candidate is running unopposed for Indianapolis City-County Council District 11: Democratic incumbent Crista Carlino.  

Previously, Carlino, 37, represented District 6 and assumed office in 2020.  

Currently, she holds the position of director of development and communications at RecycleForce.  

The Indianapolis Recorder and WFYI sent Carlino a survey to help voters learn more. Carlino’s responses to the survey are below.   

Editors' note: Responses were edited for style and grammar, and any numbers used were checked for accuracy. When a statement required more clarification or could not be independently verified, WFYI and the Indianapolis Recorder reached out to candidates before publication. Those instances, and those candidate responses, are noted throughout in editors’ notes, marked by an * and presented in italics.

Early voting opened Oct. 11. Election Day is Nov. 7. 

CRISTA CARLINO

What are the top concerns that your district’s constituents have shared with you, and what are the issues that you foresee affecting them most in the next two to three years?

Infrastructure is the most common concern among the residents of District 11. Due to the state’s road funding formula, Marion County and the city of Indianapolis are underfunded, and it is important that we work with the other end of Market Street to make our Indiana’s formula more equitable, so our city leaders can continue making investments in our residential communities as well.

Affordable housing is a major issue in Indianapolis. What measures should the council take to address this?

The council has worked with the Hogsett administration and other county officials to provide relief for homeowners to make it easier to stay in their homes. Additionally, the City has supported 5033* affordable units since 2016—but we have to do more, and act quickly. I support the increase to our Department of Metropolitan Development’s budget to support neighborhood planning, so that communities have input on how we work together to house our neighbors. We must continue to leverage all our tools to build and preserve workforce housing. I’d like to see us work closer with our partners in philanthropy to infuse historic levels of critical grant funding and support to address this crisis as quickly as possible.

*Editors’ note: The Indianapolis Metropolitan Area Housing Affordability Report denotes the number of approved units by year. This report was published in January 2023.

What is your top concern regarding public safety in Indianapolis? What steps will you take as a council member to address it?

More licensed mental health clinicians are needed to support our current programs, so we can maintain and grow them. I’m advocating to work with our local universities to recruit diverse, local clinicians who have a heart for our city and want to help care for our citizens.

What specific steps will you take to address environmental concerns in your district that affect your constituents’ quality of life and life expectancy?

I currently serve on the Environmental Sustainability Committee and Public Works committees and have been working on initiatives that span from universal recycling and composting, to making historic investments in our city parks and trails.

What specific steps will you take to connect minority-owned businesses in Indianapolis with contracts for city projects? How else will you support growth opportunities for minority-owned businesses?

I work closely with the Westside Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Speedway Chamber of Commerce to support business owners and communicate project postings and how to become a certified XBE vendor with the City. I use my platforms: email newsletter/social media to promote the work happening in our Office of Minority and Women Business Development and recently co-sponsored legislation to form the Office of Equity, Inclusion & Belonging.

What would you like to see happen for K-12 education in Indianapolis, and how would you work as a city-county councilor to achieve that? 

While the city doesn’t have much input in how local school boards and superintendents run their school districts, we do support K-12 investments made by the state of Indiana, and know just how much our school budgets have suffered with the advent of tax caps and circuit breakers. Schools are not required to provide transportation for all students—and while many do, so many districts are making cuts to this critical operation for fiscal reasons. The cost to transport students is increasing as well, making this issue much more important than ever before. Getting kids to school safely is a critical first step in the education day that many schools and families are increasingly struggling to afford. I’d like to see dedicated funding for after school activity transportation as well as for athletics and clubs, and funding for school staff like teachers, coaches and bus drivers.