This is part of Mr. Clean, a series that focuses on ethical concerns within Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration. It was reported in a collaboration between Mirror Indy and IndyStar and is not available for republication in other media. For questions, see Mirror Indy’s content republishing guidelines.
Renounce all perks of the office. Increase competition in government contracting. Total transparency in travel outside of Indiana. Regulate lobbyist influence in Indianapolis government.
These were among the promises of a hard-charging Joe Hogsett when he first ran for Indianapolis mayor in 2015 with a long to-do list focused on ethics reform.
More than halfway through his third term, though, few of his eight initial ethics-related campaign vows have come to pass. And Hogsett has refused to answer specific questions about several of his ethics promises and failed to produce evidence that shows his administration made progress on others.
During a yearlong reporting partnership, IndyStar and Mirror Indy have already disclosed:
- Hogsett pledged on the campaign trail to crack down on public employees who use their position for personal gain. But he allowed his former chief of staff, Thomas Cook, to cut deals involving millions of dollars of city incentives with a top city official with whom Cook had a secret romantic relationship.
- Hogsett promised to stop awarding no-bid contracts whenever feasible, but his administration routinely awarded such contracts. At least $6.5 million in such contracts flowed to several of the mayor’s allies.
- Hogsett vowed in political ads to fight “insiders,” but his campaign acted behind closed doors to advance the interests of those who bankrolled his mayoral runs. His top campaign fundraiser arranged for wish lists of donors’ preferred city contracts to be hand-delivered to the city’s public works chief at the time.
Those aren’t the only promises that appear to have languished. An analysis of Hogsett’s full, eight-point “Disclose Indy” ethics plan reveals that even simple promises, such as his vow to do a top-to-bottom audit of all city spending when he took office, appear to have gone unfulfilled.
“His administration has clearly fallen short,” said Julia Vaughn, executive director of Common Cause Indiana, the government accountability group that once dubbed Hogsett “Mr. Clean” when he had garnered a reputation for taking on public corruption cases as U.S. attorney.
Unfortunately, Vaughn said, Hogsett’s commitment to ethics contained “a lot of talk but very little follow through.”
Hogsett, through spokesperson Emily Kaufmann, declined an interview request from the news outlets related to his ethics promises.
In response to questions for a previous story, Hogsett said through a spokesperson that he has delivered on his promise to strengthen the city’s ethics code.
“The responsible and ethical use of taxpayer dollars has been a cornerstone of my approach to governing since long before my 2015 campaign for mayor of Indianapolis,” he said.
Here is an analysis of Hogsett’s ethics platform, promise by promise. You can also explore the initial ethics plan, which we annotated to show what happened with each promise.
Renounce all perks of office
Hogsett promised to reject “all perks of the office,” noting that there “is always a danger that elected leaders will forget that they are servants of the people.”
In his annual economic disclosure forms, Hogsett swears he has never accepted an item of entertainment, food, drink or other gifts worth $100 or more from a person who has a business relationship with a city-county agency.
But the mayor and his family, along with his friends, a top campaign staffer, and top donors, frequently make use of the city’s suites at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium, despite Hogsett’s pledge to renounce all perks of office.
The mayor and his son are listed in city attendance records as having gone to about a dozen events in the suites since January 2025, including the WWE Royal Rumble and a Chaka Khan concert.
The mayor has also driven around in a loaned Indy 500-themed Corvette.
It’s unclear if the mayor has accepted any gifts worth less than $100. The mayor’s office didn’t answer questions about gifts he’s accepted as mayor.
Complete transparency in out-of-state travel
Hogsett promised to “completely and immediately disclose all sources of funds” used to pay for his travel.
Hogsett has taken few trips compared to his jetsetting predecessor, Greg Ballard, a Republican who was criticized by some for excessive overseas travel.
On the travel front, Vaughn said Hogsett did not seem to be “abusing the process in terms of taking out-of-state or out-of-country trips on the public’s dime.”
“I would draw a clear distinction between the globe-trotting that was routine during the Ballard administration,” she said. “Mayor Hogsett has not participated in those kinds of (trips).”
When Hogsett has traveled, the funding for some, though not all, of those trips appears to have been disclosed in his economic interest statements or through a spokesperson.
For example, Kaufmann said Hogsett’s flight and hotel costs for a recent trip to New York City to meet with MLS Commissioner Don Garber and other MLS executives about the possibility of Indianapolis getting a team, was funded by the Capital Improvement Board of Managers, a quasi-governmental agency.
Kaufmann didn’t answer questions about several trips, however, and his economic interest statements didn’t make clear how much the trips cost or whether any taxpayer funds were used. That includes:
- A 2023 trip to New York City for an educational policymaker meeting hosted by education reform group RISE Indy.
- A 2022 trip to Tennessee hosted by IndyChamber for an economic development event.
- A 2022 Oakland trip to learn about “educational and talent-development efforts in that city.”
Hogsett also promised he would “not accept expense-paid trips that have even the appearance of being a mix of business and leisure.”
But in 2020, he joined the Indiana University football team at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, a trip partially paid for by IU.
“This invitation included tickets to the game itself and a one-night stay after the game at the team’s designated hotel,” according to Hogsett’s 2021 disclosure. “There were no additional accommodations provided by Indiana University; all other costs related to this event were at my expense.”
Kaufmann did not respond to questions about this trip.
Restore the 2-term limit for Indianapolis mayor
Hogsett said a mayor “should be given a maximum of eight years to implement his or her vision.”
But on Nov. 15, 2022, he announced he would seek “a third and final term” as mayor, citing unfinished business in the wake of COVID-19 lockdowns. It’s also unclear whether he ever tried to formally institute a two-term limit. Kaufmann didn’t respond to questions about Hogsett’s efforts on term limits.
Hogsett may even renege on his promise to serve that third and final term: He hasn’t ruled out running again in 2027. If he runs again and wins reelection, he would be the first mayor since Bill Hudnut to serve four consecutive terms.
Refusal of speaking fees
It’s hard to assess whether Hogsett has kept his promise to “refuse any and all speaking fees or other forms of honoraria” because the mayor’s spokesperson didn’t respond to questions about this topic. However, there is no evidence he’s ever accepted a speaking fee.
Hogsett is a frequent speaker at various Indianapolis civic and political events.
For instance, shortly after taking office, venture capital firm High Alpha invited him to its monthly speaker series to share “his vision for Indianapolis and the startup community during his next four years in office.”
He’s also given speeches at events hosted by groups including the Rotary Club of Indianapolis, Indiana Black Expo, the Greater Indianapolis Multifaith Initiative and various local Democratic Party events.
Top-to-bottom audit of city spending and operations
Hogsett pledged he would “commission a competition among qualified accounting and financial services firms to thoroughly and completely audit and analyze the spending and operational processes in all city-county government departments and agencies.”
IndyStar and Mirror Indy asked the city whether that audit was ever commissioned and if so, to provide a copy of the audit.
We received no response.
Tighten loopholes in the city-county ethics code
In his first term, Hogsett supported a plan at the City-County Council that introduced more severe penalties for violations of city ordinances, but some proposals were watered down or failed to materialize.
Hogsett initially said he’d champion a full-blown cooling-off period, but the city’s ethics code doesn’t require employees to wait to take a job with companies they oversaw or awarded contracts to while in their government role.
The city’s rules instead prevent former employees from working on “particular matters” in which they were substantially involved, though city attorneys can waive those restrictions for past employees under certain circumstances.
Earlier this year, Hogsett’s last chief of staff Dan Parker left the administration to take a job at American Structurepoint, a top city contractor run by major Hogsett donors. Parker himself signed many of the city’s contracts with Structurepoint while he led the city’s Department of Public Works from 2017 to 2022. Parker didn’t receive a waiver, Hogsett’s previous spokesperson said.
“I think while they may have attempted to tighten loopholes, they created new ones,” Vaughn said.
Hogsett also promised to launch Disclose Indy, a “one-stop shop for all existing information critical to public and media oversight of the government.” Members of the public would be able to use this portal to find contracts, ethics filings, campaign finance reports and more.
The creation of the Disclose Indy portal was written into city code. But a decade into Hogsett’s tenure, the portal didn’t exist. The city had a webpage called Disclose Indy, but it didn’t contain the information Hogsett promised it would.
In response to questions from reporters earlier this year, Hogsett’s spokesperson said the city satisfied the requirements of the Disclose Indy ordinance when it redesigned the city’s website in 2019. Indeed, several of the promised records, such as campaign finance reports and contracts, are available online, though not in a single location.
The former city-county councilor who sponsored the mayor’s Disclose Indy proposal said the city website did not live up to the intent of the law.
“I am disappointed and frustrated that the intent of that portal has not been executed effectively,” said state Rep. Blake Johnson, D-Indianapolis. “You can find some things, but it is not what is in plain text in that ordinance.”
Other documents were missing, the news outlets found, including financial disclosure forms for Hogsett’s cabinet members and appointees. IndyStar/Mirror Indy obtained some of the missing documents through public records requests and published them online.
The lack of follow through on Disclose Indy is disappointing, Vaughn said.
“If they were really serious about this,” she said, “that would have been one of the first things they finished.”
Regulate lobbyist influence
During his first year in office, Hogsett did follow through on his promise to tighten rules for lobbyists and increase transparency around lobbying activities.
The new regulations required additional reporting on gifts to officials, employees and appointees and introduced harsher penalties for lobbyists who break the rules. For example, a lobbyist who failed to disclose their activities would face being blacklisted from lobbying or contracting with the city.
Hogsett also promised “strict and meaningful enforcement” provisions, noting that under the system at the time, “no major enforcement actions have ever been undertaken.”
But more than a decade after making those changes, questions have arisen around whether Hogsett’s administration is enforcing the new rules.
IndyStar/Mirror Indy uncovered how nearly two dozen companies and nonprofits had not filed their lobbyist disclosures — legally required reports that show who they lobbied, what topics were discussed, and whether lobbyists gave any gifts to city officials.
Hogsett has refused to say whether his administration will take any actions against lobbyists who broke the rules.
Increase competition and transparency in contracting
Hogsett said he would increase competition for professional services contracts — specialized jobs such as legal and engineering work.
Although state law allows cities to award that kind of work without a competitive process, Hogsett said no-bid contracts should “never be the default.”
“Wherever feasible,” he said, “I intend to introduce increased competition to professional services contracting to drive down costs and make the vendor selection more transparent.”
But IndyStar/Mirror Indy found that the city routinely relies on no-bid contracts, some of which benefit Hogsett’s political allies. Several contracts worth up to a combined $6.5 million were awarded — without a competitive process — to four former city employees, a top donor and a former council Democrat.
IndyStar/Mirror Indy sent the mayor’s office a list of more than 200 professional services contracts awarded since Hogsett was first elected to determine how many were awarded without a competitive process. A spokesperson identified two contracts from that list that had been subjected to requests for proposal, but said that assessment was not meant to be all-inclusive.
Of a list of 90 contracts awarded by the Office of Corporation Counsel, Kaufmann said none were competitively bid.
“Because legal services are selected based on specialized knowledge in a particular area of the law, previous experience and availability, contracts for legal services are routinely procured without a bidding process,” she said. “Our administration has and continues to follow practices that are widely accepted best practices for municipal government.”
Asked what steps Hogsett took to increase competition for professional services contracts, Kaufmann did not answer the question.
Hogsett also promised to make all of the city requests for proposals public. At least some of those documents are available on the city’s procurement portal, though it’s unclear if every department publishes their requests this way.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Emily Hopkins is a senior reporter at Mirror Indy. You can reach them by phone or Signal at 317-790-5268 or email at emily.hopkins@mirrorindy.org. Follow them on most social media @indyemapolis or on Bluesky @emilyhopkins.bsky.social.
Contact investigative reporter Hayleigh Colombo at hcolombo@indystar.com or follow her on X @hayleighcolombo.
Peter Blanchard covers local government at Mirror Indy. Reach him at 317-605-4836 or peter.blanchard@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @peterlblanchard.
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