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City-County Council member Jesse Brown, a first-term Democrat, has called for Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett to resign over his handling of sexual harassment claims against former top aide Thomas Cook.
Cook served five years as the Democratic mayor’s chief deputy and advised Hogsett in other capacities. He was accused by three subordinate female staffers of abusing his power and making unwanted advances in allegations first reported by The Indianapolis Star. An article by Mirror Indy, published Wednesday, also contained the stories of the three women.
“As today’s Mirror Indy article makes clear, Joe Hogsett knew about Cook’s predatory behavior by May 2017 (at the latest), yet he continued to employ and empower Cook for six more years,” wrote Brown, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist often at odds with much of the rest of the council’s Democratic caucus. “As a direct result of Hogsett’s complicity, Cook went on to sexually abuse at least two more subordinate City employees.”
Council President Vop Osili, a Democrat, did not respond to IBJ’s requests for comment on Brown’s call for the mayor to resign.
In a post on X late Thursday, Osili acknowledged the two women who came forward, Caroline Ellert and Lauren Roberts. A third woman has remained anonymous.
“To both of them, I want to say clearly: you are believed. You have been heard. And you are not alone in seeking change,” Osili wrote. “We must make meaningful changes to the system that failed to protect these women from the appalling and predatory treatment they experienced.”
Osili said he has been working with the council to address any issues in the city’s current sexual harassment procedures and response. He said women on the council are leading that charge, and “there will be more to share on our next steps soon.”
Republicans, who are outnumbered 19-6 on the council and hold little sway, said they would work to introduce a resolution at Monday night’s council meeting to create a committee to investigate the mayor’s response to the allegations against Cook.
“In order to properly restore the trust in our executive branch, we must have an outside body thoroughly investigate these and any other allegations that may exist,” the Republican caucus said in a written statement. “We hope our Democrat colleagues will join us to make sure all elected officials are held to the highest of standards and to send a message that employees of the City-County have a safe and equitable workplace.”
Cook’s behavior was investigated on three separate occasions, according to a July statement from city attorneys. The first was in 2017, when he was reprimanded for “inappropriate advances” toward a coworker on the Hogsett campaign in 2014. Cook resigned to join an Indianapolis law firm after an alleged inappropriate relationship in 2020, but the reason for his departure was not shared publicly at the time. He was brought back to lead Hogsett’s 2023 reelection campaign.
In October, following a third alleged inappropriate relationship with a subordinate on the campaign, Hogsett severed ties with Cook, including all contracts with the city and related entities.
Brown said in a statement posted to X that the mayor was complicit in Cook’s alleged abuse of women.
“It’s one thing for the Mayor’s chief of staff to use his power and position to sexually exploit his direct reports; it’s another for the Mayor to allow it to happen again, and again, and again,” he wrote.
In the same statement, Brown said the administration has failed in the three weeks since the allegations came to light to address the situation. He said there is still no clear, confidential method to report sexual harassment. Additionally, Brown said training is not required for all employees—just elected officials and supervisors.
City spokeswoman Aliya Wishner provided a statement denying Brown’s claim, saying the city’s reporting policy states that an employee can confidentially report sexual harassment to anyone within the city-county enterprise with whom they feel comfortable, and it explicitly prohibits retaliation, the statement said.
Supervisors began receiving mandatory bi-annual sexual harassment training in 2019, Wishner wrote. All new employees are required to complete training as part of their onboarding process.
Additionally, the administration is working to create an anonymous online option for reporting sexual harassment, Wishner wrote.
Brown said the issue regarding the mayor should be taken up by the City-County Council Ethics Committee.
Democrat Jessica McCormick, who is chair of the council committee, said it is intended to address ethics violations of councilors, not city or county employees. She said issues involving city employees fall under the purview of the city-county human resources department.
However, McCormick said she is committed to conducting a thorough review of city-county policies and practices around sexual harassment and, if deemed necessary, amending ordinances and making change within the council’s power.
She referred to her personal roles as a woman, a mother and an aunt, saying she is “dedicated to fixing this.”
“I am here and will advocate for victims who have suffered within the city, within the employment, to the extent that we can as councilors,” McCormick said.
Roberts, the former campaign staffer who came to Hogsett with concerns about Cook in 2017, also indicated in a post on X that she would like to see the Ethics Committee led by McCormick take action. Roberts said she was never interviewed for the 2017 investigation.
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Good luck with that.
That would require anyone even knowing where the mayor is right now. I would check whatever dance party at a Lawrence school he is pandering at today.
As I read in the Star, issues were reported to the City HR Department. IF THIS IS TRUE, the entire department should be terminated due to such a high level of incompetency.
It also appears that if we had any non biased investigative reporting and journalism in this city, this all could have, and should have, been exposed in 2017. Most surprising is the fact that a first term self proclaimed socialist councilor is the one turning on his own mayor and demanding the mayor resign.
Don’t be too surprised. Brown may have been elected as a Democrat, but he’s never been “on their team” – take a chance to learn more about him.
Makes one miss Gary Welsh, although I wouldn’t have ever described him as non-biased.
Voting mostly with the Democrats doesn’t really seem he’s at odds with the Democrats.
Very surprised to see IBJ run this story after working so hard to protect their buddy. As always it is useful to try to imagine an alternate universe. If this was Holcomb or Pence IBJ employees would have made this a weeklong cycle.
While it is probably just a publicity stunt, Brown brings up an interesting question: who else knew and hid it?
Come on IBJ. I want to hear from your gaggle of Libs you print on a normal basis. Sheila, Marshaun, the Delaney’s, judge Jane, Michael O’Conner, Kip Tew, Dan Parker. All the original Evan Bayh Mouseketeers.
Let’s hear them defend their good buddy Joe
I’ll wait.
This is a weird take.
You’re surprised that a business paper reports the news?
Mark this day down, I agree with Frank. Don’t knock the IBJ, it’s the last vestige of journalism left in this city.
Perhaps the mayor was informed of all of these allegations at an after hours mixer, in which case he might be able to legitimately claim he was never made aware of it. Let’s give the mayor some grace.
My opinion, which I openly admit is less informed than others, is that this is just one of many shortcomings Mayor Hogsett. I have lived in this city for 42 years and while every administration has had their strengths and weaknesses, this is the most disengaged, ineffective administration of any I have witnessed, regardless of political party. Again, just my opinion.
I guess it’s too much to be expected the City’s HR group take notice of the private sector businesses sexual harassment policies. If you sexually harass any employee, ya get fired. The policy is posted required by law in any workplace generally with 15 or more employees. The City of Indianapolis government certainly employs more than 15 persons. Hogsett should have instructed his HR group to have fired the guy immediately because sexual harassment is illegal. TITLE VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) makes it illegal for employers to allow anyone to be sexually harassed at work by anyone else, regardless of sex, gender, or sexual orientation. Hmmm!!!! Good ole Title VII ….. doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on in the ole mayor’s office. Title VII applies to employers. It is designed to make employers accountable for providing a work environment that is free from harassment and other kinds of discrimination. It does not make it illegal for someone to harass someone else. Instead, it makes it illegal for employers to allow harassment to occur or to fail to stop it once they know it’s happening. But, the usual tap-dancing among the members of the City-County Council and the 25th floor honchos in the CC Building will be spinning the story and the mayor will go scott-free. My view is Joey employed the guy, Joey allowed the harassment and likely took no immediate action to stop it, thus according to TITLE VII Joey H broke federal law. Oh sure, yeh, “he didn’t know anything was going on”. It’s wrong and illegal in the private sector and the same in public sector workplaces, the government jobs.