City-County Council Dems oust Carlino from caucus over accusations against leadership

Update: Carlino released a statement Wednesday afternoon saying she had stepped down from her role as chair of the council’s investigative committee and apologized for “distractions and disruptions” she says she caused by calling on fellow council members to step down. The Democratic Caucus later released a statement saying Carlino was still a member of the caucus. Read the latest here. 

The Democratic Caucus of the Indianapolis City-County Council voted Tuesday evening to remove Councilor Crista Carlino from its ranks, a week after she called on council leadership to step down.

The closed-door vote was based on Carlino’s implied accusation—shared at the June 17 Administration and Finance Committee meeting—that Council President Vop Osili and Council Vice President Ali Brown shifted the focus of an outside investigation into Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration’s handling of sexual harassment allegations.

Both Osili and Brown denied Carlino’s accusation last week. According to one Democrat, the 18-member caucus voted to expel Carlino after she “admitted” that there was no basis for her accusations against council leadership.

The councilor, Ron Gibson, told IBJ that the caucus requested that Carlino issue a public apology, but she would not commit to doing so.

“Thus, we voted to remove her from our caucus,” Gibson said. “If she is willing to be fully transparent in a public statement, then we will reinstate her.”

IBJ has reached out to Carlino for comment. The Democratic Caucus plans to release a statement on Tuesday’s decision, a council spokesperson said.

Carlino told attendees of the committee hearing last week that she was not the “architect” of the agreement between the council and Atlanta-based law firm Fisher Phillips. Instead, her comments implied that Osili and Brown were involved in determining the scope of the investigation, although she was not specific about how they might have done so.

Carlino called on Hogsett to resign and for Osili and Brown to step down from their leadership posts.

The 54-page report that the city paid the Atlanta-based law firm about $450,000 to create over seven months ultimately determined that Hogsett and his administration did not break any applicable laws in managing harassment allegations against Thomas Cook, his former chief of staff.

The caucus, led by Osili, Brown and Majority Leader Maggie Lewis, now has 17 members. Carlino is the second Democrat to be expelled from the caucus this year, joining Councilor Jesse Brown. Another councilor, Ethan Evans, decided to leave the caucus in 2022.

Carlino also told reporters last week that she had lost her job as director of development and communications for RecycleForce and Keys2Work within 90 days of becoming chair of the investigative committee. RecycleForce President Gregg Keesling told IBJ the position was eliminated after a cost-benefit analysis determined it wasn’t worth keeping.

He said the change didn’t have anything to do with her work as a councilor.