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Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett on Tuesday doubled down on his plans to serve out his term, which ends in 2028, despite calls for his resignation over his handling of sexual harassment allegations against his former chief of staff and his own after-hours texts to subordinates.
Three City-County Council members—Democrat Andy Nielsen, Democratic Socialist Jesse Brown and now Republican Josh Bain—have publicly asked the mayor to resign. Another councilor from his own party, Investigative Committee Chair Crista Carlino, a Democrat, told reporters Monday night that she is “deeply considering” doing the same.
Hogsett, however, told IBJ that he is “not at all considering” resigning. He said he understands “the nature of the concern,” but he is “quite capable” of serving out the remaining 2-1/2 years in his term.
“We still have so much yet to accomplish, which includes providing a safe work environment for every employee in the city-county enterprise. But there’s many things I want to accomplish over these next 2.5 years,” Hogsett said. “I’m excited about that.”
Hogsett took questions from reporters in one-on-one interviews Tuesday afternoon, just hours after his staff canceled a 1 p.m. event for a new homelessness initiative where the mayor was slated to speak, citing “recent events.” Here’s what he told IBJ.
On Republican impairment claim: ‘Absolutely ridiculous’
The most recent call for his resignation came in a lengthy public statement from Bain, a Republican who represents portions of Indianapolis’ south side.
He said the final report from Fisher Phillips, the law firm the council hired to investigate Hogsett’s handling of allegations against his former chief of staff, Thomas Cook, “is damning.” The Atlanta-based law firm found that Hogsett, who said he was interviewed by Fisher Phillips for five hours, and his administration broke no laws. Still, Bain wrote that the report revealed, “profound ethical failures at the highest level of city leadership,” particularly in Hogsett’s decision to retain Cook despite credible allegations.
But Bain’s concerns go beyond how Hogsett handled Cook.
He listed several incidents he said are part of a “troubling pattern” with the mayor. Among them is a meeting between the Republican caucus and Hogsett in which Bain said the mayor appeared to be stumbling and was “visibly impaired and unable to meaningfully participate.” He said at other times, including during racial justice-related riots that erupted in Indianapolis in summer 2020 and during his reelection campaign in 2023, Hogsett disappeared for days.
IBJ asked Hogsett if he has a problem with drugs or alcohol.
Hogsett called Bain’s claim “absolutely ridiculous.” He categorically denied having a problem with alcohol or any other substance. He suggested that Bain may have been “listening to too much WIBC.” Conservative-leaning hosts on the radio station regularly speculate about Hogsett’s condition and actions.
Evening texts ‘could be taken out of context’
Last week, two of the women who accused Cook of wrongdoing and were interviewed by Fisher Phillips told The Indianapolis Star that the law firm omitted key details and documents from the report, including “uncomfortable” text messages they had received from Hogsett and provided to investigators.
In the after-hours text messages, Hogsett refers to a young female campaign staffer as “feisty” and asks another former employee for her poetry preferences.
Hogsett told IBJ that the messages “could be taken out of context,” but the evening texts corresponded with the 24/7 nature of running a campaign and managing the city government. Additionally, he said that individuals working within that cycle develop “a certain familiarity and way of conversing that perhaps didn’t used to be the case.”
“It was never my intention, at any point in time, to cause anybody discomfort or to make them feel uncomfortable at all,” he said. “But in retrospect, it’s like a lesson learned. Maybe, I can see how that was taken out of context.”
On ‘fraternity atmosphere’ on the 25th floor, a spiraling ‘political football’
The report from law firm Fisher Phillips raised red flags about a workplace culture that it called “more of a fraternity or sorority … than emblematic of a business setting.” Hogsett said he takes issue with that characterization.
He said that employees in the Mayor’s Office may “wish we were not working quite as hard or having more fun,” but also acknowledged that workers in his office do “go out after hours and socialize.” That includes trips across Market Street to Tomlinson Tap at the Indianapolis City Market, where Hogsett said he would occasionally walk through on Friday nights “to remind them that I was watching.”
He referred to the swirling questions about the investigation’s report as a “political football” that is getting in the way of conversations about how to help employees going forward and measures the administration has already implemented, including anonymous reporting.
Hogsett acknowledged that he borrowed the term “political football” from a speaker the evening prior, but said he did not know who used the term. It was part of Cook accuser Lauren Roberts’ remarks in which she accused council Republicans of using the stories of survivors “as a political football, exploiting us just as much as the Democrats do to further your own agenda and accumulate power.”
Osili actions ‘very regrettable’
Roberts, who now lives in Denver, Colorado, attempted to speak before the full City-County Council on Monday evening regarding the fiscal ordinance that would fund the Fisher Phillips investigation. After she exceeded her two-minute time limit—which included tense back and forth with councilors on whether her testimony was on topic and her proclamation that she would exceed the limit—Osili ordered security to forcibly remove her. Roberts and others who were supporting her were physically forced out of the assembly room by sheriff’s deputies.
Hogsett called that action “very regrettable.”
“The two-minute rule has a purpose. I understand it, but when allegations of this nature are being made, I think that people ought to have the opportunity to say what they want to say, say it in as concise a way as they can say it, and then have it be considered,” he said.
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