NEW RICHMOND — The dust settled on a belligerent special meeting of the New Richmond Town Council on Monday with Councilman Carmine Azzato giving up his seat and Council President and Town Superintendent Luke Martin lawyering up instead of stepping down from one of his positions.
With a small crowd of residents once again sitting ringside at a small town political circus, a combative Azzato — whose nearly 20-year-old felony conviction in a New York auto scam case disqualifies him from holding public office in Indiana — renewed a series of grievances against Martin and called him a dictator.
“That’s right,” Martin replied.
Fueling the increasingly acrimonious spat between them, Azzato insisted he would have Martin prosecuted for not immediately resigning as superintendent after the town’s attorney determined he could not hold both positions at the same time. Martin was already overseeing town maintenance duties when he joined the council.
A defiant Martin said he is not making his next move until his own lawyer tells him what to do. He demanded an apology from the Montgomery County GOP, blaming the party for causing the issues by appointing him and Azzato to the council.
Martin then made a dubious request for candidates interested in the open seat to submit their resumes to town hall for a criminal background check and interview before their names are forwarded to the GOP.
The bizarre proceedings played out after Town Attorney Rob Reimondo publicly announced the findings of his inquiries into Martin and Azzato’s roles. He laid out his conclusions in a letter sent to the council Friday.
In Martin’s case, based on a review of state law and conversations with state attorneys and auditors, Reimondo concluded that Martin’s employment with the town was “incompatible” with his role on the board, even though Martin recuses himself from board votes regarding town superintendent matters. He called on Martin to immediately resign from the superintendent’s position.
“The Code section states very clearly that the office holder is automatically deemed to have resigned their existing position in favor of the new position when he or she is elected or employed by the Town,” Reimondo wrote in the letter, which he provided to the Journal Review.
Reimondo wrote that he spoke with Azzato on Dec. 8 after learning the councilman may have had a felony record. Azzato acknowledged his criminal history. Reimondo pointed him to the state law that prohibits people who have pled guilty to a felony from assuming or seeking office. Azzato was appointed in 2020 to fill a vacant seat.
“Mr. Azzato was not aware of this Code provision and was adamant that he had no prior knowledge of the requirements. Moreover, he was not asked about his criminal past when he was vetted by the selection body prior to assuming the office,” Reimondo wrote in calling for Azzato to resign.
“It seems apparent that he did not attempt to deceive anyone and he readily agreed that he would abide by all applicable laws,” Reimondo added.
Former GOP Chair Dan Guard, who appointed Azzato, said he never performed a criminal background check on anyone selected for a board or commission, though he suggested that may be a good idea moving forward.
Current party chair Jim Johnson said he would discuss the idea with his committee.
“There’s some logistics there we need to figure out in how to do that,” Johnson said.
Azzato said he was officially submitting his resignation Tuesday morning and was not upset over having to leave the board.
“I’m actually glad a coward went forward and spoke behind my back,” said Azzato, who is in the process of getting the conviction expunged.
But Azzato vowed to continue speaking out in council meetings. Responding to accusations from critics that he’s a bully, Azzato said he understands why that would come from “someone that is buddies with Luke.”
“It’s because I didn’t lye [sic] down, play dead and keep hush hush about what’s truly going on in our Town,” Azzato said in a written statement. “Luke Martin is power hungry, he manipulates the Town Residents to push his personal agenda.”
Asked for his takeaway from the council meetings in recent months, Martin declined to comment on the record, but then added, “If you step back and look at it objectively, you get a pretty good feel for what kind of guy [Azzato] really is, and that’s all I’m going to say.”
