Indy City-County Council Proposes Changes in Sexual...
Indy City-County Council Proposes Changes in Sexual Harassment Policies
Source: Photo: Donnie Burgess
INDIANAPOLIS — The accusations of sexual harassment against former Indianapolis deputy mayor Thomas Cook have resulted in calls for change.
Lauren Roberts and Caroline Ellert, former employees of the Hogsett administration, accuse Cook of grooming and sexually harassing them for years despite their efforts to report the abuse to higher-ups in the Democrat Party. A report from digital news outlet Mirror Indy also details accusations against current Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett. Those accusations claim Hogsett knew of Cook’s behavior for years and did not take proper and timely action.
This has led to a response from the Indianapolis City-County Council.
A statement was released Friday by the council, signed by several council members including President Vop Osili, calling for several changes to sexual harassment prevention policy.
The councilors offer the idea of creating a separate human resources branch that would focus exclusively on complains of sexual harassment and discrimination. This branch would operate separately from the mayor’s office.
Councilors also propose creating a commission of “subject matter experts” that will consistently evaluate current policies, find gaps and offer solutions to improve responses to harassment issues and discrimination.
The third idea proposed by city-county councilors is to modify city code to require all city-county employees to do annual, mandatory sexual harassment prevention training course.
This proposal comes one day after the Indy GOP put forth the idea of forming an investigative committee during the full council meeting this Monday. Republican Caucus and minority leader Brian Mowery told WIBC News Thursday he wants Democrats to join the committee in order to get the full story. Mowery did not join calls for Mayor Hogsett to resign.
Democrat councilor Jesse Brown was the first to demand Hogsett’s resignation.
