Indianapolis City-County Councilor Crista Lee Wells will resign from the council on Oct. 31, marking the latest in a string of departures from the city's legislative body.
Wells represents District 11 on the west side. In a letter to council leadership shared on Facebook on Oct. 30, she said she will step down to transition into the next chapter of her personal and professional life, with more than a year left in her second term.
Under state law, the Marion County Democratic Party has 30 days to hold a special caucus to choose her replacement. Wells is the third councilor to step down since August, after Republican Joshua Bain left to serve on the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and Democrat Ali Brown resigned in September.
A councilor since 2020, Wells was elected as Crista Carlino and said she was the youngest woman ever elected to the council when she won her seat in November 2019. She later chaired the Parks and Recreation Committee and co-chaired the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee.
Wells led the council committee that hired a law firm to investigate Mayor Joe Hogsett's handling of alleged sexual harassment within his administration, and she later called for Hogsett's resignation. In August 2026 she was one of two Democrats who voted against the Democratic majority's override of Hogsett's veto of vehicle tax hikes.
