Hogsett signs order mandating harassment training for city-council employees

Mayor Joe Hogsett speaks during a press conference Nov. 5, 2021, at Tarkington Park to announce the Mid-North neighborhood as the city’s next Lift Indy neighborhood. (Photo/Tyler Fenwick) Mayor Joe Hogsett signed an executive order Monday mandating all city-county employees complete annual harassment training or face termination. This comes after two former staffers, Lauren Roberts and Caroline Ellert, alleged Hogsett’s former chief of staff, Thomas Cook, sexually harassed them. At an explosive city-council meeting Aug. 12, Hogsett addressed Roberts and Ellert directly: “No one could possibly understand the pain that you have been enduring, but know that your decision to speak out for changes to better protect the women and men of this city has not been in vain.” As he spoke, Roberts held a sign that read “2017 investigation? Prove it,” a narrative that Hogsett maintains is true and that Cook was indeed reprimanded in 2017 before he resigned in 2020. No records have been released regarding the investigation. Following his message to the former staffers at the budget proposal, Hogsett announced a shift in the sexual harassment courses required for city-council employees, more sweeping policy changes and a national firm to review the city handbook. The executive order...