City harassment investigative committee begins law-firm selection process

The Indianapolis City-County Council’s new investigative committee convened for the first time Tuesday evening, with the seven-member body hearing an overview of the city’s current sexual harassment reporting process and receiving a list of potential law firms for a planned external probe.

A bipartisan group of councilors voted to create the committee after sexual harassment allegations came to light against Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett’s former chief of staff, Thomas Cook. Critics have said the mayor and his administration failed to act appropriately in Cook’s case, in which he was first accused of misconduct in 2017 but still employed by the mayor’s reelection campaign in 2023.

Democrat Crista Carlino, the chair of the investigative committee, told reporters after the meeting that her No. 1 priority is getting in place a permanent, completely anonymized reporting option for sexual harassment.

The city’s human resources department is currently using a temporary reporting process, which requires employees to log in with an email and password prior to filling it out. Brandon Beeler, corporation counsel for the city, said the form doesn’t include outward identifying information, but it could exist in the metadata.

City officials plan to sign a contract with a third-party vendor to create and operate an anonymous reporting option. Carlino said she and Councilor Jessica McCormick, chair of the City-County Council Ethics Committee, worked alongside the Hogsett administration on the selection of the vendor, and the contract just needs to be executed.

Indianapolis Human Resources Director Twana Ellis outlined the sexual harassment reporting process for the committee. She said that because employees had the option of directly contacting human resources or telling a manager within the city-county enterprise to make the complaint on their behalf, HR leaders did not see a need for a more anonymous process through a third party. However, Cook accusers Lauren Roberts and Caroline Ellert requested in an open letter that an outside firm handle sexual harassment complaints. Ellis said that media reports of their request led the city to seek the vendor.

There are currently four open investigations into sexual harassment at the city, Ellis said. That number is down from seven last month.

Ahead of the meeting, Carlino sent a letter to Hogsett requesting that he communicate his support of the committee’s work to employees within his administration. As part of the committee’s work, employees might be asked for documents or testimony.

Hogsett wrote in a responding letter that his administration is committed to cooperating, “subject, of course, to some legal constraints that I am bound to respect.” This includes withholding information on ongoing investigations and some confidential complaints, he wrote.

“I have directed the members of my administration, who may have relevant information to share with the Committee, to be cooperative and forthcoming to the fullest extent possible,” he wrote. “Further, I look forward to good-faith communication with the Committee’s members and its retained outside firm, so that any disagreements regarding the scope of the investigation or the availability of information can be resolved, if possible, in a non-adversarial, efficient manner.”

Council begins mulling law firms

Council attorney LeAnnette Pierce gave the committee packets that included information on three law firms that could conduct the outside investigation the council has authorized. Pierce said there are four total in consideration, but one firm did have proposal ready before the meeting.

Councilors required that the firm chosen has to be based outside of Indianapolis and not have business, political or financial ties to the city. Because of that requirement, Pierce said she exempted any firms with an Indianapolis office. Instead, she prioritized those with Chicago ties so the attorneys would be close enough to attend Indianapolis meetings. All of the firms considered have strong histories of working in employment law, Pierce said.

The firms currently under consideration are Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Morgan Lewis LLP and Fisher & Phillips LLP. In bid documents provided to councilors, the firms all provided discounted hourly rate estimates. Both Seyfarth Shaw and Morgan Lewis listed hourly rates at a high of $1,000. Fisher & Phillips listed hourly rates as high as $595.

The committee plans to vote on the law firm at its next meeting, at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 9, to authorize contract negotiations with one of the law firms.