City-County Council Dems pledge reforms to protect against sexual harassment

Most of the Indianapolis City-County Council’s Democratic caucus issued a joint statement Friday morning committing to city human resources reforms in light of sexual harassment allegations against a former top aide to Mayor Joe Hogsett.

The Democrats, led by President Vop Osili and Vice President Ali Brown, laid out “initial plans to strengthen employee protections,” after three subordinate female staffers publicly accused Thomas Cook, the mayor’s former chief of staff, of abusing his power and making unwanted advances over the past decade.

Hogsett, a Democrat, has been criticized for knowing about the harassment accusations and not doing enough to stop repeat incidents.

Seventeen members of the 19-member Democratic caucus signed onto the statement shared by City-County Council spokeswoman Sara Hindi. The statement lays out three specific commitments:

• “Create a separate branch of Human Resources from the Administration that explicitly addresses sexual harassment and other discrimination related complaints.
• Create a commission that engages subject matter 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 not limited to the use of the Employee Assistance Program.
• Modify Revised Code Section 293-304 to include all city county employees in an annual mandatory sexual harassment training.”

“As the legislative branch of local government, we are committed to working together to determine the necessary changes to the city’s policies and systems to ensure a safe work environment for all employees, now and into the future,” the joint statement read. “Our priority is to create a workplace where every employee feels secure, valued, and supported. We are focused on implementing improvements that will bring greater accountability for all leaders, whether elected, appointed, or hired.”

Democrats on the council hold a 19-6 supermajority against the Republican caucus.

The omitted Democrats were Jesse Brown and Ron Gibson. Brown, a self-described democratic socialist, called for the mayor’s resignation on Wednesday.  Brown has previously faced threat of expulsion from the caucus.

Gibson told IBJ he decided against signing the statement because he wants to wait and see what the Hogsett administration does before backing a certain solution.

“I wanted to give them that time and space for the mayor to make it right before we as a legislature try to intervene,” Gibson said. “If that doesn’t occur, then I believe that all the recommendations laid out to date should be, if you will, followed up on by the legislative body, if necessary.”

Gibson, a first-term councilor who previously served as an at-large councilor from 2000 to 2007, also called Cook’s alleged actions “absurd and unacceptable.”

The minority caucus plans to propose a different route.

Republicans said in a statement Thursday that 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.

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.