INDIANAPOLIS — The committee formed to investigate Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration and its handling of sexual harassment allegations held its first official meeting Tuesday night.
The main focus was on the city’s current human resources system which lacks a way for employees to anonymously report a complaint.
“That’s why we’re here today,” the city’s Director of Human Resources Twana Ellis said. “Because we would’ve had these things in place years ago if I had the foresight to see it years ago.”
There was universal agreement that not having an anonymous process is a problem that needs to be fixed sooner rather than later.
In the wake of allegations against top staffers in the Hogsett administration, the city cobbled together its own temporary system. However, that system is still handled internally with no guarantee of anonymity.
“Right now what we have in place is just a temporary measure that does require you to log in,” Ellis said. “It does require you to put your password in in order to access the form.”
The city soon plans to hire an outside firm that will handle all of its HR complaints.
“Myself and other colleagues have sat alongside the people making those selections and fully endorsed the vendor that was selected and encouraged the Hogsett administration to get that contract signed as soon as possible,” committee chairwoman Crista Carlino said.
This all comes after two women came forward publicly and accused Mayor Hogsett’s former chief of staff Thomas Cook of sexually harassing and assaulting them when they worked for Hogsett.
They claim they reported the allegations to Hogsett but he continued to keep Cook around.
Since then, more victims have come forward which led to the firing of another top staffer last month while at least six others are under investigation.
The committee also reviewed several proposals from out-of-state law firms that will conduct the formal investigation into Hogsett’s handling of those harassment allegations. The firm will make recommendations on how to move forward.
“At the end of the day, this is a human issue, a people issue and we want to make sure that that is exactly what the expertise of the firm that we contract with has,” Carlino said.
The committee will meet again next week to choose the firm.
Carlino said they have two more meetings scheduled for later in the year but also made a point to say they will not rush the process.
