One of Mayor Joe Hogsett’s deputy mayors gained another step toward formal confirmation by the City-County Council despite concerns about her leadership.
Lena Hill faced a second round of questioning from councilors on the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee who were initially wary of approving her appointment as deputy mayor of public health and safety.
But councilors voted 9-1 to recommend approval of her appointment after Hill defended her record and shot back at her critics who she said were trying to tarnish her character.
“I can’t help but to make this personal, as this has been a clear and strategic attempt to slander my reputation, beginning before I even accepted my offer for employment,” Hill told councilors at the March 12 committee meeting.
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Hill has been serving in the position since Hogsett’s initial appointment in August, but she hasn’t yet been confirmed by the council. She was grilled at the committee’s February meeting, an experience she now describes as “horrific and traumatizing.” At that meeting, councilors shared concerns they heard from city employees about low morale in the Office of Public Health and Safety due to Hill’s “authoritative leadership.”
After answering another slate of questions from councilors, a city employee came forward during the public comment portion of the meeting to say she has filed a harassment claim against Hill.
Carlette Duffy, chief financial officer for the Office of Public Health and Safety, said she told her supervisor and the mayor that she does not believe Hill is qualified for the position.
Duffy said her office received “multiple communications from grantees” asking for assistance from Hill when Hill was a consultant for the Indianapolis Foundation, which was tasked with administering the city’s Elevation Grant program. The program gave funding to Indianapolis nonprofits focused on crime prevention and violence reduction.
One of those grantees was Katina Washington, a business owner and founder of SHE.Xperience.
Washington submitted a two-page letter to councilors in which she accused Hill of mishandling an Elevation Grant.
Hill declined to comment on Duffy’s allegations following the meeting.
Duffy wasn’t the only Office of Public Health and Safety employee to register a complaint. The office’s former director, Martine Romy Bernard-Tucker, wrote in her resignation letter that she left her position in December because of Hill.
Mirror Indy filed an Access to Public Records Act request seeking a copy of Hill’s personnel file Jan. 23, but the Hogsett administration has not provided it.
Councilor Crista Carlino, a Democrat from northwest Indianapolis, was the sole dissenting vote against recommending Hill’s approval. Carlino declined to comment when asked by Mirror Indy to explain her vote.
Councilor Carlos Perkins, a Democrat representing Pike and Washington townships, raised employee complaints against Hill at the February meeting but voted in favor of her appointment. He declined to elaborate on his vote.
“The vote stands on its own,” Perkins told Mirror Indy.
The full council could consider Hill’s appointment at the next council meeting, which is April 7.
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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