INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett is addressing allegations of sexual harassment against his former chief deputy mayor Thomas Cook.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Hogsett said, when asked what he expects to come of an investigation into the allegations. "We obviously have some idea of the nature of the allegations made by Ms. Roberts and Ms. Ellert but how broad that investigation becomes? I guess that's to be determined."
Hogsett was referring to Lauren Roberts and Caroline Ellert, two of the three women who say they were harassed by Cook.
Roberts says she reported the harassment in 2017, but was never contacted about an investigation.
Hogsett denied that saying he "respectfully disagrees" with her claim. Neither Roberts nor the city have released any records showing she was contacted.
Cook resigned in December 2020. But he was brought on as a volunteer for Hogsett's reelection campaign in 2022.
"He had not worked for me for three or four years and he offered to help," Hogsett said. "The campaign got started in earnest in, I believe, the summer of 2022. I was made aware of additional allegations about Mr. Cook in September of 2023 and, based on the investigation that was conducted, he was given the opportunity to no longer work on the campaign and the contracts he had obtained in his private sector employment practice was cancelled."
Hogsett says that investigation informed him of allegations beyond Roberts 2017 complaint.
"I didn't know anything about 2018 or 2019 until October or September of 2023," Hogsett said.
Hogsett said he wished he had implemented better protections for city-county employees earlier.
"Sexual harassment training for all city employees, annually, is something in retrospect I wish we had implemented earlier," Hogsett said.
When asked if he worried the allegations would derail his third term as Indy Mayor, Hogsett pivoted to a proposal to give him a raise, which he opposed.
"Well it's certainly not something that anyone would look forward to," said Hogsett. "I'm just glad I was able to alter the course of where the council was going with these pay increases because that's not why I ran for mayor."
Anonymous reporting tool
The city of Indianapolis rolled out a new anonymous reporting tool for employees the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 28.
A spokesperson for Mayor Joe Hogsett's office confirmed the tool was now internally available to staff.
The tool was one of the promises made in the wake of allegations that a former top city official had harassed and abused employees.
The spokesperson said the tool was being run by the city's human resources department until a third-party vendor could be selected. Third-party demonstrations of those services have already begun.
The reporting service is one of the proposed solutions Hogsett offered at the City-County Council meeting Aug. 12.
That night, he also apologized to two of the three women who reported harassment by Hogsett's former campaign manager, Thomas Cook. Roberts and Ellert were at the meeting.
Harassment allegations against former official
When Lauren Roberts and Caroline Ellert met nearly 10 years ago, Roberts was working on Hogsett's first campaign to be the next mayor of Indianapolis.
Ellert, still in college and majoring in political science and English, wanted to intern with the Hogsett campaign.
"I just remember you being really thoughtful and smart, and that's who you want on a campaign,” Roberts told Ellert.
So Roberts hired Ellert, introducing her to Cook, who was Robert's then boss and Hogsett's campaign manager.
After Roberts hired Ellert as an intern, she didn't stay with the campaign long. That’s because she says Cook started sexually harassing her soon after she started working for him.
According to the City of Indianapolis Office of Corporation Counsel, Cook was reprimanded in October 2017 and prohibited from having romantic relationships with any co-workers, subject to discipline, including termination. The Office of Corporation Counsel says an outside law firm specializing in employment law handled the investigation and sanctions.
In an emailed statement, the city’s Office of Corporation Counsel said:
“This reprimand and prohibition was based upon Mr. Cook’s inappropriate romantic advances to a coworker in 2014 when both were employed on the Hogsett for Mayor campaign, which were initially communicated to the administration in May 2017.”
“I do not believe there was an investigation in 2017 because I have yet to see documentation of that,” Roberts said.
RELATED: Here's how councilors want to investigate sexual harassment in Indianapolis city government
Councilors move toward investigation
City-county councilors are putting forward a detailed plan to investigate claims of sexual harassment in Indianapolis government.
At the Aug. 12 council meeting, councilors introduced two proposals to address the issue, after Hogsett apologized to the women and called for better protections. On Friday, Aug. 23, the Rules and Public Policy Committee discussed them, and councilors introduced detailed amendments to investigate how past claims were handled and how to handle future ones.
Democrats introduced the proposal to investigate future protections for employees. Republicans introduced the proposal to investigate the past allegations. Both proposals passed with bipartisan support.
"I think this reflects us doing our job. As a co-equal branch of government that's charged with holding the executive branch accountable, one of the main functions is oversight of the executive branch and what you're seeing tonight and the proposal you see reflects that," Councilor Andy Nielsen said.
"Under no circumstances should anyone employed by city agencies feel threatened, harassed or intimidated. All citizens of Indianapolis should have confidence that city leaders are taking these matters seriously," Councilor Crista Carlino said.
Mayor's office makes changes
Hogsett made several promises relating to sexual harassment allegations on Aug. 12 and has moved to fulfill some of them already.
On Aug. 20, he issued an executive order requiring all city-county employees to attend an annual, interactive harassment awareness and prevention training program. It was developed by the division of human resources and the office of corporation counsel.
In the executive order, the mayor said the city of Indianapolis and Marion County have a zero-tolerance policy for any form of sexual harassment.
On Aug. 28, the city rolled out an anonymous reporting tool to let employees report alleged harassment or discrimination anonymously. That tool is initially being run by the city's own HR department, but a spokesperson for the mayor's office said a third-party vendor will be selected to take over.
