Investigative committee leader Carlino calls for resignations of mayor, council leadership

Indianapolis City-County Councilor Crista Carlino talks with reporters following a council committee meeting June 17. (IBJ photo/Taylor Wooten)

Democratic City-County Councilor Crista Carlino is calling on Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett to resign and for Council President Vop Osili and Vice President Ali Brown to step down from their leadership posts.

Carlino said it was time for a change in leadership for the city administration and for the council. She is the fourth councilor to call for Hogsett’s resignation.

Carlino’s comments came during a Tuesday meeting of the council’s Administration and Finance Committee that was focused on authorizing a payment to law firm Fisher Phillips, which the council hired to investigate the Hogsett administration’s handling of harassment allegations.

Carlino said the firm fulfilled its agreement to conduct a narrow investigation. But Carlino, chair of the investigative committee that hired Fisher Phillips, said she was not the “architect” of that agreement. Her comments seemed to imply 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 also said that Osili and Brown failed to provide the leadership the council needed as it tackled accusations against Thomas Cook, Hogsett’s former chief of staff and campaign manager, after they were reported last year by The Indianapolis Star and Mirror Indy. She said both Osili and Brown also failed to adequately support the women who made the allegations.

Carlino told the committee and the audience that the scope of the investigation into the Hogsett administration’s handling of the harassment allegations was more limited than she wanted. She and fellow councilor Andy Nielsen, also a Democrat, initially drafted a plan for the investigation and the committee’s work, which she said would have been a broad investigation of the Hogsett administration.

But Carlino said she realized during a closed-door meeting in January that the scope of the investigation was narrower, focused only on the allegations against Cook. She said “accountability has to be on the architect of the decision to limit the scope of this investigation,” but she did not say who that was.

“I feel disempowered and feel that our committee was disenfranchised in some of those really critical pieces,” she said.

In statements issued after the meeting, Osili denied having any influence on the scope of the contract and Brown said she had no involvement in shaping the investigation.

Two of the women at the center of the allegations said Fisher Phillips’ 54-page final report omitted key details and documents, including “uncomfortable” text messages they had received from Hogsett and provided to investigators. That prompted calls from councilors for a deeper probe into the firm’s investigation.

Council leadership, Hogsett react

In a statement issued after the meeting, Osili said he was “deeply disturbed” by Carlino’s accusations.

“In no way did I have any personal influence on the scope of the contract with the law firm that investigated misconduct in the Hogsett administration,” he said. “To suggest that I did is not only false, it is an attack against my integrity and the values that I hold in every aspect of my life.”

Vice President Brown told IBJ in a statement that she had no involvement in shaping the investigation, adding that she chose not to participate in the investigative committee’s work due to severe trauma from her own experience with sexual assault.

“This entire spectacle is an exploitation of my pain and a mockery of serious issues,” she wrote. She said Carlino “should be ashamed.” And Brown accused her fellow councilor of “weaponizing that trauma for political gain.”

In his own statement, Hogsett maintained that he won’t resign.

“I remain committed to continuing the important work we began nearly a year ago to ensure the confidentiality and safety of every employee,” he said. “My focus, and that of my administration, for the remainder of my term will be on the promises we made—to create economic and social vitality and growth for the people of Indianapolis.”

Carlino told reporters that leading the committee has come at a personal cost to her. Within 90 days of accepting the role as chair of the investigative committee, she said she lost her job. She formerly worked as as the director of development and communications for Recycle Force and Keys2Work.

“I’m a decorated former educator, multi-million dollar fundraiser,” Carlino said. “All I can say is that it’s a coincidence that the moment I took on this role, I lost the ability to feed my family and have not been able to secure gainful employment outside of my role on the council since November 2024.”

Carlino also did not deny a recent allegation in a constituent newsletter from fellow Councilor Jesse Brown, who wrote that Osili had attempted during a Democratic Caucus meeting in August 2024 to halt the investigation from even happening . Jesse Brown wrote that Osili has presented a proposal that focused only on future-facing human resources updates.

“I don’t keep very good notes in caucus, but I do know that Councilor Jesse Brown is a person who speaks the truth, and so if that was his account of it, I believe that that was the account of it,” she said.

Several other Democrats appeared supportive of Carlino during Tuesday’s meeting.

She stood alongside Nielsen, who has also called on the mayor to resign, and Councilor Jessica McCormick. Councilor Jared Evans, a fellow Democrat, walked over to hug her following the end of the meeting.

Payment to Fisher Phillips 

Ultimately, councilors on the committee voted 7-5 to move forward the proposal that will pay Fisher Phillips the remaining $300,000 for its investigatory work. The firm has already been paid $150,000.

Through a back-and-forth with their attorney, councilors decided that withholding the payment might not provide leverage to ask the firm to address any outstanding questions about the investigation. The amount the council currently owes is also less than the maximum Fisher Phillips had estimated, meaning those funds could potentially pay for additional hours of work from the firm.

“We should pass this proposal so we can get … the answers to our questions,” Carlino said. “But there has to be accountability, and I don’t think it should be laid in the lap of the Fisher Phillips firm.”

She told reporters she has asked the firm to address the concerns shared by the two women.

Carlino’s call for Osili to resign from his council post comes a week after the council president ordered sheriff’s deputies to remove a woman at the heart of the sexual harassment investigation from a public meeting. He later called that decision a mistake and said he “failed” her, his fellow councilors and attendees.

Although three other councilors have called for Hogsett to step down, Carlino is the only one who has called for Osili and Ali Brown to resign from their posts.

The meeting was also an opportunity for the women who have made allegations against Cook to be heard, although they did not appear in person. Instead, Emma Davidson Tribbs, executive director of the Women’s Defense League, read statements from Lauren Roberts, Caroline Ellert and DeAndre Baker, a former employee of the Department of Public Works.

Tribbs also played a recording of Roberts’ remarks during the council meeting, which ultimately devolved into arguments with officers. Once in an elevator, Roberts began crying and told the other women removed from the meeting that the officer grabbed her in a way that reminded her of a previous traumatic experience.

Baker, the former DPW employee, planned to speak at the June 9 council meeting about his own experiences with harassment but was dissuaded by Osili’s actions, Tribbs said.