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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowReports that Mayor Joe Hogsett ignored blatant conflict-of-interest issues as his administration negotiated deals for a number of key projects across the city is disappointing but no surprise.
It’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from a mayor who has repeatedly failed to lead a city that has elected him three times.
The latest allegations come in a well-documented story reported jointly by The Indianapolis Star and nonprofit Mirror Indy that involves Thomas Cook, Hogsett’s former chief of staff and campaign manager.
More than a year ago, stories written separately by the news organizations accused Hogsett of keeping Cook on staff—and in a position of significant authority—even after he was accused of having an intimate relationship with a subordinate and of sexually harassing other women.
Cook has not been charged with a crime. Last year, he acknowledged relationships that he called “consensual” but that “violated a trust placed in me.”
The latest news is that after Cook left the Hogsett administration, he took a job at a law firm where he negotiated for clients seeking development deals with the city. On the other side of the negotiating table was the woman that the city’s human resources department determined Cook was in an inappropriate relationship with. She was leading the Department of Metropolitan Development, which recommends incentives.
You can spot the problem easily. Cook and the DMD leader—who are in a relationship—are on opposite sides of a negotiation in which millions of taxpayer dollars are at stake. But Hogsett either couldn’t see the problem or simply failed to do anything about it.
According to reporting by IndyStar and Mirror Indy, the DMD awarded or recommended at least $80 million in public incentives for projects with ties to Cook’s clients, including developments at the City Market block, a vacant jail site and the former Angie’s List campus (a project in which IBJ owner Nate Feltman has invested). In some cases, the story says, the DMD director “threw her support behind developments despite significant neighborhood opposition” and “granted exceptions that allowed luxury apartment developments to sidestep affordable housing requirements.”
We encourage you to read the stories at IndyStar.com and MirrorIndy.org. They lay out the deals, the timing and who knew what when in great detail.
What seems evident is that Hogsett didn’t take the steps needed to ensure that his team was acting with integrity—and that’s the biggest problem of all.
The City-County Council hired an outside firm last year to investigate whether the Hogsett administration acted appropriately after Cook was accused of sexual harassment by several women. It found in part a workplace culture that resembled “more of a fraternity or sorority … than emblematic of a business setting.”
This is more evidence of that culture. And the City-County Council—which approved many of the incentives in question—should dive in again to determine what went wrong.•
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Funny. Of all the rumored malfeasance from this administration that has contributed to local and downtown rot and decay, everyone is now ready to plant their flag on this hill. A seedy relationship.