When Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett was elected in 2015, he came into the office with a reputation for public integrity.
A government accountability group even awarded him the title “Mr. Clean” for his work increasing government corruption prosecutions as a U.S. attorney.
But an IndyStar/Mirror Indy investigation found repeated instances where Hogsett ignored conflicts of interest and allowed millions of public dollars to flow to his allies with little to no public scrutiny.
Please see the following articles, photographs and videos for more.
Part 1: Hogsett ignored Thomas Cook’s secret relationship as money flowed to developers
Hogsett pledged on the campaign trail to crack down on public employees who use their position for personal gain, but allowed Cook, his former chief of staff, to cut deals involving millions of dollars of city incentives with a top city official with whom Cook had a romantic relationship. Read the story.
Part 2: Joe Hogsett allies routinely benefit from no-bid city contracts
On the campaign trail a decade ago, Hogsett said no-bid contracts should “never be the default,” but his administration routinely awards such contracts, including at least $6.5 million to the mayor’s former staffers and top campaign contributors. Read the story.
Part 3: Hogsett vowed to fight insiders. His campaign privately advanced their interests
Despite his pledge to “take on downtown insiders,” Hogsett’s campaign acted behind closed doors to advance the interests of the insiders who bankrolled his mayoral bids. That includes arranging for wish lists of donors’ preferred city contracts to be hand-delivered to the city’s public works chief at the time. It’s just one of the ways Hogsett’s campaign machine has infiltrated public’s business at City-County Building. Read the story.
Other stories in this series
Hear from the mayor: Hogsett denied the existence of city contract wish lists from his donors. Read that here.
New job for Dan Parker: A month after leaving top city role, a former Hogsett deputy took a job at a major city contractor. Find out more.
Hogsett’s top donors: Many do business with the city. See who they are.
Search the donations: Hogsett’s campaign contributions weren’t searchable. We changed that. For the first time ever, Hogsett’s campaign donors are now searchable. Visit the database.
Disclose Indy: Hogsett said he would create “one-stop shop” ethics portal. Ten years later, it doesn’t exist. Read the story.
Look up ethics records: Hogsett hasn’t delivered a ‘Disclose Indy’ ethics portal. So we built one. Visit the portal.
Continuing coverage
About this series
When Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett first took office, he promised to prioritize government transparency and integrity. Ten years into his administration, IndyStar and Mirror Indy are partnering to examine whether he kept his promises.
This series grew out of the outlets’ separate 2024 investigations of Thomas Cook, who three women accused of sexual misconduct. A report commissioned by the City-County Council to investigate Hogsett’s handling of those allegations raised concerns that Cook may have violated ethics rules when he left city employment for a job with a law firm and represented both public agencies and private developers.
Lingering questions about the mayor’s role in the scandal led the two outlets to partner for an investigation that culminated in this series.
In previous installments, we’ve detailed how Hogsett ignored Cook’s secret relationship as public dollars flowed to developers he represented. After being forced to resign from the city over a prohibited relationship, Cook negotiated more than $80 million in city incentives for his clients while in a relationship with Scarlett Andrews, who at the time was head of the department that oversaw those incentives.
Reporters also found that Hogsett allies routinely benefited from no-bid city contracts, despite the mayor’s campaign pledge to pursue a competitive process wherever feasible. The city and public agencies over which Hogsett has influence have awarded contracts worth up to at least $6.5 million to his former staffers and top campaign contributors.
For our latest story, we spoke with more than a dozen current and former staffers and reviewed emails and city contracting records. We also talked to legal and ethics experts. And we digitized more than 10 years of Hogsett’s campaign finance data, which we’ve made available to the public.
Sources sometimes asked to remain anonymous due to fears over facing retaliation for speaking publicly. In those cases, we relied on the accounts of multiple people or reviewed documents to corroborate their allegations.
If you have more to share, you can reach us at the contact information below.
Meet the team
Reporting: Tony Cook, Emily Hopkins, Peter Blanchard, Jordan Smith, Hayleigh Colombo, Ryan Martin
Photos, videos, illustrations: Kelly Wilkinson, Brett Phelps, Brittany Fukushima, Austin Baechle, Max Gersh, Christine Tannous, Jenna Watson
Editing: Kaitlin Lange and Tony Cook
Design, social media, engagement and promotion: Joe Mutascio, Evan Frank, Gwen Ragno, Ibby Ahmed, Madyson Crane
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Mr. Clean: An IndyStar/Mirror Indy investigation
Reporting by Tony Cook, Evan Frank and Hayleigh Colombo, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tony Cook, Evan Frank and Hayleigh Colombo, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
