Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett is facing a call for resignation from within his own party following the release of an investigative report detailing the handling of misconduct allegations against his former chief of staff.
Law firm Fisher Phillips last Thursday released the results of its seven-month inquiry of the Hogsett administration’s handling of sexual harassment claims against Thomas Cook, the mayor’s former chief of staff. In its report, the firm said the city acted in compliance with state law, but the firm raised red flags regarding a workplace culture that was “more of a fraternity or sorority … than emblematic of a business setting.”
Democrat Andy Nielsen, a first-term city-county councilor representing District 14, said in a written statement Monday that the administration’s expectations for public servants “were and remain clearly inadequate.”
In a lengthy statement, Nielsen, who sat on the council’s investigative committee, lambasted the administration’s anti-harassment policies. He specifically criticized Hogsett’s decision to retain Cook for more than two months after ordering him to resign, despite a human resources investigation having found that Cook had violated the city’s Non-Fraternization Policy and the mayor having previously told Cook not to have relationships with city employees.
“Ultimately, the investigation’s underlying conclusion is clear: the Mayor’s repeated decisions to retain Cook demonstrated a profound lack of judgement and disregard for fundamental ethics,” Nielsen said. “These decisions knowingly put people in harm’s way and eroded trust in institutions that we should and must hold to the highest standards. I am incredibly disappointed by this poor leadership.”
In a written statement Monday afternoon, Hogsett did not address the call for resignation.
“While we don’t always agree, one thing the City-County Council and I do agree on is the importance of continually improving City policies and training,” he said, adding that within the first day after the report was released, he asked the Office of Corporation Counsel to review Cook’s work during his final months of employment and to explore the legal steps required to implement the recommendations made by Fisher Phillips.
“I ask that the Council work with my office to schedule a productive and open dialogue about all the measures proposed in the final report as soon as possible,” Hogsett said.
Last summer, IndyStar and later Mirror Indy published reports detailing three women’s accusations against Cook starting in 2015, while he worked for Hogsett’s campaign and the city. Cook has not been charged with a crime. He has previously acknowledged that he had “consensual relationships that violated a trust placed in me.”
The independent investigation by Fisher Phillips determined the administration fulfilled the city’s human resource policies and met minimum legal standards, although it did not opine on whether ethical or moral standards were met.
Nielsen on Monday said that Hogsett remaining in his post could further erode public trust—something he said he and other investigative committee members are working to restore by improving the city’s anti-sexual harassment policy and procedures to handle alleged violations more effectively.
“I believe that our community’s collective character is stronger than this—and that accountability starts with a change in leadership,” Nielsen said. “Mayor Joe Hogsett must resign.”
Nielsen’s call for Hogsett to step down comes just days after Republicans on City-County Council criticized the Mayor’s handling of the situation and said the administration’s actions, while legally satisfactory, didn’t go far enough.
Fisher Phillips conducted interviews with at least 12 individuals, including Hogsett and two of the women who accused Cook. The women are not identified by name in the report and are referred to as Complainant 1 and Complainant 2. The report said the firm made multiple attempts to interview Cook, who is not named in the report but is referred to as Respondent. The firm received no response.
The firm also reviewed more than 950 pages of documents, which included text messages and emails.
The report recommended several reforms the city could take on, including replacing the current Human Resources division with an independent board similar to that of the city’s information technology board. Additionally, it suggested appointing an independent inspector-general.
Fisher Phillips also said the city should update and modernize its policies and reporting systems and update training models to include completion tracking.
It did, however, recommend that the city “identifies action steps” it can take to minimize “potential for City-County employees to negotiate contracts for personal gain while employed at the City-County or for the 12-months following their departure.”
On Friday, Hogsett sent a letter to Council President Vop Osili and investigative committee chair Crista Carlino, both Democrats, indicating that while he was still reviewing the report and its findings, he wants to “make good” on the investigation’s effort to implement changes to city policies.
The mayor said he has directed the Office of Corporation Council to begin “analyzing the legal implications” of enacting the recommendations made by Fisher Phillips. Any policy recommendations or proposed ordinance changes stemming from the report will be considered through the council’s standard legislative process moving forward.
That is expected to include a review of documents from the period in which Cook remained in city employment, including his involvement on the Elanco Animal Health Inc. deal, in which he was serving as the administration’s lead.
“This investigation represented a significant investment of public resources,” Hogsett’s letter said. “We owe it to our constituents to continue the work that we began, and to do so in a spirit of good faith and open-mindedness.”
The investigative committee’s contract with Fisher Phillips, valued at about $450,000 total, concluded with last Thursday’s presentation.
Nielsen did not immediately return a call requesting comment.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
I’ll drink to that.
HE NEEDS TO RESIGN. HE IS NOTHING BUT A DRUNK BOY HIMSELF WHO IS INCAPABLE OF LEADING THIS CITY!!!!!! Our streets are a mess, everyone of them, where has he been???? Most people that I ask say he is on a binder, which is totally believable. All he is worried about is the damn soccer field. WHO CARES. FIX Indianapolis first. Crime is rampant, drugs are rampant. He is just not good and not good for our city. Letting a man work for 2 months more after his allegations is also unacceptable. Maybe the reason his wife divorced him was because of some of his bad habits!!
make hogsett pay the legal bill from his personal funds
He is not a leader. Our city has declined rapidly with him in office. It is sad for all the residents and business owners that reside in Indianapolis and Marion County. How much more can the city take of Joe Hogsett?
So glad I live in work in Hamilton County. Please resign Joe before it gets worse!
SC.
Hogsett is one of those guys who just wants to be in power. He doesn’t particularly stand for anything; he just wants to be there. His absence during the BLM riots that destroyed our downtown remains an indelible stain on his tenure.
A Stephen Goldsmith again!!!
If an executive in private industry had behaved like Hogsett did re the sexual harassment situations, that executive would have been fired – whether or not they “broke the [letter of] the law”. Too often government does not have to adhere to the rules they impose on others.
The issue is that there is no way to “fire” an elected official. They can be impeached and removed from office, but it is a narrowly prescribed procedure that has very specific rules. That is why we have that lovely saying “elections have consequences.”
Hogsett will ultimately end his time in office when his term ends and another election is held.
A Stephen Goldsmith would be great!
Goldsmith was another Mayor with an alleged fondness for eggnog, shall we say.
He also did not get along well with his own party (the GOP) and was *not* well-liked at city hall. His tenure was mostly marked by his “privatization” initiatives for city services, which involved giving very lucrative city contracts to politically well-connected individuals and their businesses.
He left Indianapolis to become a high-flying political advisor first in DC, then in New York, where he left in disgrace after a well-publicized domestic altercation. (In full transparency, he did get his name cleared, although neither party disputed that a heated altercation occurred). Now, he is a professor at Harvard, and we all know how well things are going there. All that aside, the biggest reason Indianapolis does not need another Goldsmith is because the city has already had a long history of “pay to play” and calling it “privatization” does not make it any better.