OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Carmel Mayor's Advisory Commission on Senior Living Meeting – May 27, 2026

City Council — Wednesday, May 27, 2026
BodyCarmel, Indiana
SessionCity Council
DateWednesday, May 27, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 49:29

Transcript — Verbatim
0:02

Welcome to the uh Wednesday, May 27, 2026, Mayor's Advisory Commission on Senior Living.

0:09

We'll call the meeting to order at 5 32 p.m.

0:13

If everybody wouldn't mind uh since we have some new committee members, uh we'll start down here.

0:18

Please enter to introduce yourself to the audience.

0:23

Naomi Paradise.

0:26

And I'm John O'Donnell.

0:30

And I am Carol Applegate.

0:34

Tammy Haney.

0:36

John Schuller.

0:38

Anna Stout.

0:41

And I'm Counselor Rich Taylor.

0:43

Carol and I serve as co-chairs of the commission.

0:46

We'll now move into our order of business today.

0:49

First item on our agenda.

0:51

Carol, if you wouldn't mind making an introduction on item A, the Carmel age friendly community survey findings.

0:58

Yes, I sort of wanted to give a history of how we got to this point tonight.

1:06

And so back when our committee started, our commission started, we uh decided as a group to go with the ARP age-friendly community for seniors.

1:18

And that is kind of a process that we've had to go through.

1:23

And some of the things that you have to qualify for being an ARP uh age-friendly community is that their goal of live ability is to feel safe in the community, participate in community activities, be treated with respect, have access to safe, appropriate and affordable housing and transportation, have access to recreational opportunities and health services, and know what services and activities are available and have access to information by means that they prefer.

1:58

Be active, vital contributors to the economic, civic, and social life of the community, and receive appropriate support if they can no longer look after themselves.

2:08

So that's really what ARP is trying to do and help us with to become a very um great um city for our seniors to live.

2:19

And the first step in that process was to conduct a survey, which many of you may have gotten a copy of that.

2:26

And Dr.

2:27

Bastani and his group from IU was very um so generous to have conducted that survey, sent it out, and then brought the results back into their um into their offices, and they analyze that data.

2:45

Um so that data is what we're gonna present tonight to show you what was the results of that survey.

2:52

And once we have that done, our this committee, this commission met last Friday afternoon and as at a retreat and worked on our plan of action.

3:03

And so when we get all these things done, um we get the survey done, we get the plan of action, we submit the application to ARP, and then hopefully we are being we will be certified as an age-friendly community.

3:18

Uh, that is not a it's an ongoing process, so the things that we looked at at the in our meeting last week were just some of our priorities, and our plan of action will be ongoing.

3:29

We'll look at it in a two or three years, we'll review it, we'll add to, we'll subtract, we'll give them a report on an on an annual basis.

3:38

So tonight I have with us um Nick Stewart from Dr.

3:42

Bastani's office.

3:44

He's not able to, Dr.

3:45

Bastani was not able to meet with us tonight.

3:47

And so Nick is going to review that the survey results uh and give us an idea of what they came out with in the final findings.

3:58

And I and for the commission members, I gave you a sheet that we talked about last Wednesday.

4:05

So as Nick goes through this again, I would like for you to maybe make notes on things that we might not have included in that report.

4:13

And Dave was so kind as to sort of summarize that.

4:16

So those are in front of you, and as Nick goes through his information, we'll sort of add to and so forth.

4:23

So Nick, it's yours.

4:28

Thank you, Carol.

4:29

I appreciate it.

4:30

So just to give a little bit of background and some uh information about the survey.

4:36

We did randomly select 10,000 residents of Carmel, age 55 and older.

4:42

We sent out surveys to those people.

4:44

There is a lower return rate as there often is with surveys.

4:48

We received approximately 500 back.

4:50

This data is derived from the 500 that we received.

4:54

So if you see something that you're not sure of, maybe not sure that answer came from, just know it's from those 500 responses.

5:01

We cannot be certain that this is perfectly accurate, but we are certain that it reflects the respondees.

5:07

And Nick, could would you do a favor, just talk about representative sample and some of that?

5:12

We had a lot of discussion with that early, earlier with Monica, just how you know the minimum number we wanted to receive and whether or not we achieve that, etc.

5:24

So my understanding was that the minimum number that we wanted to receive was at least 300 to have a representative sample.

5:31

We've beat that benchmark at 500.

5:35

So we can say that this sample is representative of the community at large.

5:41

There will be variants within, but we're relatively confident this represents the community as best it can.

5:46

Thank you, Nick.

5:47

You're very welcome.

5:50

The AARP has eight domains of livability, so we're going to break this down into those same eight domains just to give you an overview of what you will see.

5:59

First, I will show a domain of living, the associated data, which I won't talk about too much, and then we'll go into what those notable findings are from the data and some possible recommendations from that.

6:13

Our first topic will be housing.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Senior Services█████████████████████████████████████████████56%
Public Engagement█████████11%
Community Engagement██████8%
Affordable Housing█████6%
Transportation Safety█████6%
Technology and Innovation████5%
Procedural███4%
Parks and Recreation███4%
Summary of Proceedings

Mayor's Advisory Commission on Senior Living Meeting – May 27, 2026

The Mayor's Advisory Commission on Senior Living met on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, at 5:32 p.m. to discuss the results of the Carmel Age-Friendly Community Survey and outline next steps toward AARP age-friendly certification. The meeting featured a presentation by Nick Stewart of Indiana University on the survey findings, followed by a discussion of priorities and an action plan.

Discussion Items

  • Survey Presentation: Nick Stewart presented the results of the Carmel Age-Friendly Community Survey, which was sent to 10,000 residents aged 55 and older, receiving approximately 500 responses—exceeding the 300-response benchmark for a representative sample. The survey addressed AARP’s eight domains of livability.

    • Housing: 74.2% of respondents said it is very or extremely important to remain in their community; 63.7% cited wanting a home suitable for independent living as a major factor; 24.6% reported their home needs repairs or modifications; 69.7% reported fair, poor, or unaware of low-income housing options; 79.1% reported similarly regarding repair/maintenance services. Recommendations included increasing availability or awareness of senior housing with accessibility features, low-income housing, and home repair/maintenance services.

    • Outdoor Spaces and Buildings: Overall ratings were high, but 60.4% rated bike/pedestrian paths as unaware, poor, fair, or good; 46.3% similarly rated public building accessibility; 56% rated public benches similarly. Recommendations included increasing availability or awareness of paths, benches, and signage for accessibility.

    • Transportation: 89.2% of respondents drive themselves (higher than typical for this age group). Public transportation was rated poorly overall, with over 72.5% rating it poor or unaware. Recommendations included prioritizing public transportation services in senior-dense areas, awareness campaigns, and technology support to access private services.

    • Civic Participation and Employment: Many respondents were unaware of specific opportunities; recommendations focused on increasing public outreach and awareness.

    • Communication and Information: Respondents were most likely to seek information from family/friends (94.3%), internet (88.1%), or doctors (86.3%). 66.4% hardly ever or never receive news from local government. Respondents 75+ were less likely to use internet/apps and more likely to prefer television; 34.9% found technology too complicated (23.9% difficult to learn). Recommendations included improving website usability, partnering with healthcare providers, and creating technology support for seniors.

    • Respect and Social Inclusion: Respondents were unaware of senior-specific activities (37%) or senior discounts (45.6%). Many were unaware of continuing education opportunities. Recommendations included increasing offerings or awareness of educational opportunities for older adults.

    • Social Participation: The survey found that seniors in Carmel are generally well-connected, with frequent social interactions and strong support networks, contrasting with national loneliness trends. Commissioners noted this as a positive finding. Recommendations focused on increasing opportunities for isolated seniors.

    • Health Services and Community Support: Majority were unaware of affordable home health care services, home care services, and wellness programs. Recommendations included increasing awareness and access to these services to support aging in place.

  • Q&A and Discussion: Commissioners asked questions about the driving rate, representativeness, and data limitations. Nick Stewart explained that causality cannot be determined from the survey and suggested future surveys or focus groups for deeper insights. Carol Applegate noted that communication and awareness are key issues; Rich Taylor thanked the IU team for their pro bono work. The commission noted the importance of coordinating with other city commissions, such as the Housing Commission.

Key Outcomes

  • Action Plan Development: The commission held a retreat on Friday, May 22, 2026, to develop priorities based on the survey results. A draft action plan will be circulated for review, then submitted to the mayor for approval, with the goal of applying for AARP age-friendly community certification by July 2026.

  • Transportation Update: John Schuller reported conversations with Hamilton County Express and plans to finalize a transportation program for Carmel seniors.

  • Subcommittees: Commissioners were asked to indicate areas of interest for forming subcommittees to work on specific priorities.

  • Communications: The commission plans to work with the local weekly newspaper (The Current in Carmel) and the mayor’s marketing team to raise awareness of senior issues and survey results. An article in a larger paper is also planned.

  • Fall Conference: A fall conference for seniors is being planned, with breakout sessions.

  • Parade Float: An application has been submitted for a parade float in July to potentially announce the age-friendly certification.

  • Housing Commission: Carol Applegate noted she would speak to the Housing Commission the following morning to address housing issues identified in the survey.

The meeting adjourned at 6:02 p.m.

Meeting Transcript

Welcome to the uh Wednesday, May 27, 2026, Mayor's Advisory Commission on Senior Living. We'll call the meeting to order at 5 32 p.m. If everybody wouldn't mind uh since we have some new committee members, uh we'll start down here. Please enter to introduce yourself to the audience. Naomi Paradise. And I'm John O'Donnell. And I am Carol Applegate. Tammy Haney. John Schuller. Anna Stout. And I'm Counselor Rich Taylor. Carol and I serve as co-chairs of the commission. We'll now move into our order of business today. First item on our agenda. Carol, if you wouldn't mind making an introduction on item A, the Carmel age friendly community survey findings. Yes, I sort of wanted to give a history of how we got to this point tonight. And so back when our committee started, our commission started, we uh decided as a group to go with the ARP age-friendly community for seniors. And that is kind of a process that we've had to go through. And some of the things that you have to qualify for being an ARP uh age-friendly community is that their goal of live ability is to feel safe in the community, participate in community activities, be treated with respect, have access to safe, appropriate and affordable housing and transportation, have access to recreational opportunities and health services, and know what services and activities are available and have access to information by means that they prefer. Be active, vital contributors to the economic, civic, and social life of the community, and receive appropriate support if they can no longer look after themselves. So that's really what ARP is trying to do and help us with to become a very um great um city for our seniors to live. And the first step in that process was to conduct a survey, which many of you may have gotten a copy of that. And Dr. Bastani and his group from IU was very um so generous to have conducted that survey, sent it out, and then brought the results back into their um into their offices, and they analyze that data. Um so that data is what we're gonna present tonight to show you what was the results of that survey. And once we have that done, our this committee, this commission met last Friday afternoon and as at a retreat and worked on our plan of action. And so when we get all these things done, um we get the survey done, we get the plan of action, we submit the application to ARP, and then hopefully we are being we will be certified as an age-friendly community. Uh, that is not a it's an ongoing process, so the things that we looked at at the in our meeting last week were just some of our priorities, and our plan of action will be ongoing. We'll look at it in a two or three years, we'll review it, we'll add to, we'll subtract, we'll give them a report on an on an annual basis. So tonight I have with us um Nick Stewart from Dr. Bastani's office. He's not able to, Dr. Bastani was not able to meet with us tonight. And so Nick is going to review that the survey results uh and give us an idea of what they came out with in the final findings. And I and for the commission members, I gave you a sheet that we talked about last Wednesday. So as Nick goes through this again, I would like for you to maybe make notes on things that we might not have included in that report. And Dave was so kind as to sort of summarize that. So those are in front of you, and as Nick goes through his information, we'll sort of add to and so forth. So Nick, it's yours. Thank you, Carol. I appreciate it. So just to give a little bit of background and some uh information about the survey. We did randomly select 10,000 residents of Carmel, age 55 and older. We sent out surveys to those people. There is a lower return rate as there often is with surveys. We received approximately 500 back. This data is derived from the 500 that we received. So if you see something that you're not sure of, maybe not sure that answer came from, just know it's from those 500 responses. We cannot be certain that this is perfectly accurate, but we are certain that it reflects the respondees. And Nick, could would you do a favor, just talk about representative sample and some of that?

SUMMARIZED BY OPENPUBLICA AI
TRANSCRIPT VIA PUBLIC VIDEO
openpublica.com