Another prominent Indianapolis Democrat is calling on Mayor Joe Hogsett to resign.
Councilor Andy Nielsen, who represents parts of the east side, says the Democratic mayor needs to step down over his handling of sexual harassment allegations against his former chief of staff, Thomas Cook.
“I believe that our community’s collective character is stronger than this — and that accountability starts with a change in leadership. Mayor Joe Hogsett must resign,” Nielsen wrote in a June 2 statement.
Nielsen joins Councilor Jesse Brown, another eastside Democrat who called for the mayor to resign in August after IndyStar and Mirror Indy reported on the troubling allegations against Cook.
The stunning declaration comes four days after a law firm produced a scathing 54-page report detailing how the Hogsett administration responded to the allegations, which date back to 2017.
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Hogsett said in a statement that the city’s Office of Corporation Counsel is looking into implementing the recommendations put forth by the firm.
“While we don’t always agree, one thing the City-County Council and I do agree on is the importance of continually improving City policies and training; a bipartisan commitment I reaffirmed in a letter to the Council President and Committee Chair last Friday, May 30,” the statement read.
While the report found no legal wrongdoing, it raised questions as to why Cook was allowed to remain in city government for 68 days after a human resources investigation uncovered his relationship with a subordinate in 2020, a violation of the employee handbook.
That relationship has previously been characterized by the Hogsett administration as consensual.
Still, it came three years after the mayor was alerted by former campaign staffer Lauren Roberts about Cook’s alleged harassment of her while they worked on Hogsett’s first campaign for mayor. After an investigation conducted by a law firm on behalf of the campaign, Cook received a verbal reprimand and was told any future transgressions could result in immediate termination, according to the report.
Despite these two instances, Hogsett kept Cook on as an advisor during his 2023 run for a third term as mayor. It was only after former city staffer Caroline Ellert came forward about her experiences that Hogsett asked Cook to exit the campaign.
Nielsen said the mayor’s decisions to keep Cook around for years despite repeated violations of trust “demonstrated a profound lack of judgment and disregard for fundamental ethics.”
In October, the City-County Council hired Atlanta-based law firm Fisher Phillips to investigate the Hogsett administration.
The final report, which was presented by Atlanta-based law firm Fisher Phillips to councilors last week, featured testimony from several unnamed city officials who said they believed Cook may have used his last days in city government to negotiate contracts for his own benefit.
The report could result in more investigations, said Councilor Crista Carlino, a westside Democrat who chairs the investigative committee that oversaw the probe.
Nielsen is one of seven councilors — five Democrats, two Republicans — serving on the committee.
Hogsett said that he instructed the city attorney’s office to “review all relevant materials on the range of work Thomas Cook was engaged with during his final months of employment with the City, which will be made available to the Council and the public in the next few days.”
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Peter Blanchard covers local government. Reach him at 317-605-4836 or peter.blanchard@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @peterlblanchard.
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