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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said Tuesday that he has signed an executive order mandating that all city-county employees complete annual sexual harassment awareness and prevention training, effective immediately.
Previous rules only required supervisors to receive sexual harassment training every two years. All new employees were required to receive sexual harassment training as part of the onboarding process, city spokeswoman Aliya Wishner told IBJ in an email earlier this month. The administration was also working to set up an anonymous online reporting system, she said.
The Hogsett administration is currently under scrutiny after three former female employees made harassment accusations against former Chief of Staff Thomas Cook, who served as Hogsett’s close adviser for years despite concerns raised about his behavior as early as 2017.
On Aug. 12, Hogsett spent some of his annual budget presentation to the City-County Council apologizing to the women. Then, councilors introduced two related proposals that will be heard at the Council Rules and Public Policy Committee on Friday at 5:30 p.m.
A Democrat-led proposal authorizes the Rules and Public Policy Committee, led by council President Vop Osili, to evaluate and make changes to the city’s processes regarding sexual harassment allegations.
The proposal authorizes the committee to consider the following measures:
- Creating a separate branch of human resources from the mayor’s administration that explicitly addresses sexual harassment and other discrimination-related complaints;
- Creating a commission that engages experts to evaluate the city’s current policies, identify gaps and implement best practices that will foster a culture of safety, respect, and accountability. This includes but is not limited to the use of the employee assistance program;
- Modifying Revised Code Section 293-304 to include all city-county employees in an annual mandatory sexual harassment training.
The Republicans’ proposal seeks to create an investigative committee to further probe the allegations as well as the mayor and his office’s handling of the situation.
The committee could subpoena witnesses and documents in its investigation with the goal of producing a report explaining any evidence of wrongdoing and proposals to prevent similar events in the future.
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Joe is as guilty as Thomas is but instead of admitting guilt everybody else is blamed and needs more training? Wow, that’s pretty rude!
We are also creating new administrivia that will last forever.
ALL employees ANNUALLY!!!
That is ridiculous. Do a new 1 time event for all current employees and then include it in the training of new hires.
Follow the Money. There must be a consultant or business that is. Making big bucks off of this.
Annual sexual harassment training is standard at most large companies. It is actually more surprising this wasn’t in place already.
It is. This is a half-assed response announcing a supplemental training to make it look like something is happening.
Shocked it was not already a required annual training- it’s 2024. This should have been the standard long ago. Allegedly they have a zero-tolerance policy, but based on how Cook was treated, it wasn’t actually Zero Tolerance for leadership. Not shocking, but very disappointing.
Thomas Cook was never fired from the City and continued after he resigned from the Mayor’s office to work for Mayor Hogsett’s campaign at a high level. Sounds to me like Joe didn’t think it was a problem. This says he is part of the problem. Resigning is the only thing he should be doing.
Joe diving for cover.
Brings back memories of the Hogsett respons to the riots; hide until it is safe to come out, blame everyone else then make a mandate proclaiming he is in charge (until he is not)
Do the right thing Joe & resign
From the Hogsett administration’s sexual harassment manual:
1. Mayor’s closest friend/advisor commits sexual harassment.
2. Mayor looks other way.
3. Truth finally begins to emerge.
4. Mayor mandates sexual harassment training for everyone.
5. City Dems: SHRUG!
Mind numbing. The guy who allowed/enabled it for years gets painted as the hero and the worker bees get extra “training”
I notice the normal gaggle of IBJ Libs who have a comment for everything are sitting this one out. Joe B and the boys must be having connectivity issues.
IBJ employees— next time you print Ed Delaney’s Democrat vomit, can you ask him if his daughter the employment attorney can represent Hogsett’s victims pro bono?
No one says anything positive about Joe in this forum. Yet if he ran tomorrow, he would win by a large margin. Don’t know what that says about the urban voter but here we are.
Exactly
Yeah, I voted for him holding my nose. The Republican candidate was a joke, the Marion County Republican Party doesn’t have any serious candidates. Even in 2019, Merritt was a total clown.