Carmel, Ind., officials hired a private firm to investigate the head of the city’s new Center for the Performing Arts shortly before he abruptly quit last month, The Indianapolis Star writes.
The city just north of Indianapolis paid a private investigator $8,000 to investigate Steven Libman, who had been hired in September 2009 as the first chief executive of the $175-million arts venue. During his tenure Mr. Libman and Jim Brainard, the mayor of Carmel, had clashed over the center’s operations and government aid.
In an e-mail to City Council members, Mr. Brainard alleged that the center’s foundation and the city faced a possible lawsuit over actions by Mr. Libman and that “for me not to act upon that information would have been a dereliction” of the mayor’s duty. Mr. Brainard did not disclose those actions.
Neither Mr. Brainard nor Mr. Libman returned The Star’s calls for comment.
Critics of the mayor and council members who had backed Mr. Libman in the fight over the center’s financing criticized the private investigation, which one council member called “an intrusion into people’s lives.”
http://liarcatchers.com/civil_investigations.html
