City-County Council Names Members Of Committee On Sexual Harassment

Source: Photo: Mayor Joe Hogsett speaking to the Indianapolis City-County Council, August 9th, 2021.

INDIANAPOLIS — Now that the Indianapolis City-County Council has voted to form a select committee to investigate sexual harassment claims within city government, the political parties that make up the council have chosen their representatives on that committee.

Five Democrats and two Republicans make up the committee. The Democrats include Crista Carlino, Andy Nielsen, Rena Allen, Jessica McCormick, and Kristin Jones. The two Republicans are minority leader Brian Mowery and Joshua Bain.

“Those individuals specifically we know have the time to do a deep dive into the work that’s going to come for them,” said Council Majority leader Maggie Lewis (D). “The commitment. The willingness to add on. Our schedules are already busy … and we need some individuals that have some time to do that deep dive and ask those difficult questions.”

Those difficult questions regarding looking into a wide variety of sexual harassment claims within the city’s government. Those include accusations against Thomas Cook, who is Mayor Joe Hogsett’s former chief of staff and mayoral campaign aid.

The accusations also involve former Director of Current Planning Matt Pleasant and former Director of Metropolitan Development Rusty Carr.

“This is something we are going to take very seriously,” Mowery said. “We are going to make sure we look at every avenue of information. This was a caucus decision. We took a vote as a caucus to make sure we had the right people on here.”

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Mowery added that it’s his goal to hold Mayor Hogsett accountable when it comes to the accusations against some of his staff.

“We are in the process of creating a safer, better workplace culture where our employees know how to identify and report issues of misconduct and feel safe that their identities and information will remain confidential in doing so,” Hogsett said in a statement from his office. “That’s why my Administration has worked diligently to implement the near-term steps I first outlined in my budget address to the City-County Council.”

Lauren Roberts is one of the former staffers who came forward about Cook. She accuses Hogsett of allowing Cook and other abusers to get away with bad behavior.