The Leadership Catalyst is where municipal power and women’s leadership collide. I expose how staff culture builds or breaks public trust, and why women leaders must set the standard for their teams and their communities. This is unapologetic strategy, rooted in SCALE™, for leaders who refuse to carry the weight of broken systems alone. Subscribe and join a community that’s rewriting the rules of government leadership.
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From Hoods to Handcuffs. Issue 29.
Published 16 days ago • 4 min read
The Leadership Catalyst is where municipal culture and women’s leadership collide. Each issue delivers unapologetic insights on how staff culture shapes the community's trust, how leaders set the tone for performance, and how accountability drives results in and outside city hall.
Dear Reader,
The Catalyst Perspective
I was raised to love my hometown, Kankakee, Illinois — the county seat, the heart of the region, and a community with grit and soul.
But even as a little girl, I knew something was off. When I was a child, I remember people abbreviating the city’s spelling by using “KKK.” I thought it was a cruel joke until I learned the history.
Now, decades later, that history isn’t behind us. It’s sitting inside our City Halls.
Recently, I learned that local leaders in my hometown are allowing ICE increased access to public facilities, continuing a long, profitable relationship between the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Department and federal immigration enforcement. For years, ICE has paid this county millions of dollars to detain people and separate families under the banner of “public safety.”
And that’s when it hit me: ICE isn’t just enforcing laws. ICE is rebranding the Klan.
They wear badges, not hoods. They hide behind government contracts instead of burning crosses.
And they’re being aided by local governments that look the other way — or worse, sign the agreements.
When I served as mayor, I refused to be complicit. I wouldn’t let my administration or city facilities be used to harm people.
At one point, I was even criticized by a local civic organization that highlighted the detention center along with nine other sites as “hidden gems” in Kankakee County.
They viewed the detention center as a gem because of the revenue it generated, a significant portion from ICE beds.
Think about that: they were celebrating a facility that profits off human confinement.
It was part of a fundraiser.
And when I raised my concern that the City of Kankakee is a majority-minority community, and that eight out of ten Black and Brown residents likely have a loved one who’s been detained there, I said what needed to be said:
Celebrating incarceration is insensitive and inhumane.
I refused to sell tickets for the event. And that’s when the backlash started.
The leaders of the organization didn’t like my stance.
They stripped me of my leadership role over the teen club, a group of young girls I mentored passionately to elevate the status of women.
Then came the whispers.
The rumors that I was planning to boycott the fundraiser.
Members stopped speaking to me.
I was shut out.
Even though I’ve never seen the movie “Mean Girls,” that’s exactly what it felt like --- grown adults, weaponizing social exclusion because I wouldn’t sell tickets to a fundraiser that glorified a place of trauma.
But that’s what happens when you refuse to sanitize harm. That’s what happens when you put principle over popularity.
The Power Move: Strategy & Perspective
Through the lens of my SCALE™ Framework, here’s what this moment demands from local government leaders everywhere:
S – Strengths-Based Leadership: Build communities grounded in trust and transparency, not fear and control.
C – Confidence & Cognitive Reframing: Redefine “public safety” so it includes immigrant families, not excludes them.
A – Aligned Values & Boundary Negotiation: Draw a firm line between enforcement and exploitation — and protect it, even when it’s unpopular.
L – Leadership Longevity: The easiest decisions rarely age well. History will remember who signed the contracts and who stood for humanity.
E – Ecosystem Building: The healthiest municipalities are those where residents, all residents, believe their local government exists to serve, not surveil them.
Local leaders are not powerless in the face of federal systems.
They are the first line of defense…… or the first to fold under pressure.
The Leadership Catalyst Spark
3 Ways Local Leaders Can Disrupt ICE’s Grip on Their Communities
Audit Local Agreements: Review every contract and memorandum of understanding your municipality or county has with ICE, Homeland Security, or private detention vendors.
Reclaim Public Spaces: ICE should never have unfettered access to municipal facilities or local data systems. Protect your residents by setting clear boundaries.
Model Moral Leadership: Pass resolutions that affirm human dignity. Stand with your immigrant neighbors publicly. Refuse to hide behind “it’s not our jurisdiction.”
Ally in Action: A Note for Men on This List
If you hold a title — mayor, manager, administrator, chief — neutrality is not leadership.
You can’t demand loyalty from your staff or community while staying silent about systems that harm them.
Be the man who breaks ranks when conscience demands it. Be the man who doesn’t need a headline to do the right thing. Be the man whose leadership protects people, not power.
Take Action Today
Research whether your local government has ICE contracts or provides facility access.
Raise the issue at your next council or board meeting. Ask: Who benefits from this agreement?
Partner with local advocacy organizations offering legal and housing support for immigrant families.
Leadership isn’t about playing it safe. It’s about making sure your decisions don’t make anyone else unsafe.
Support This Work
This is the last full free issue of The Leadership Catalyst. Beginning November 12, 2025, the paid edition launches; bringing deeper analysis, more tools, and exclusive resources for local government leaders and their teams.
Here’s what to expect:
Free version → up to 3 actionable strategies
Paid version → 5+ deeper strategies and insights from the books I’m reading (starting with Plantation Theory by John Graham)
$10/month or $108/year
Your subscription helps expand this movement for values-driven leadership that protects democracy at the local level.
Forward this issue. Repost the teaser on LinkedIn. Tag a mayor, city manager, or township leader who needs to read this.
Because silence doesn’t protect your community; it betrays it.
Final Words
White supremacy has never died in America. It simply evolved — through law, policy, and local governance.
The system has always worn badges. It started as slave patrols — local men deputized to protect White property and punish Black mobility.
That’s the origin story of “law and order.”
That legacy didn’t disappear. It rebranded. From slave patrols to sheriffs, from sheriffs to ICE, the same mindset still polices who belongs and who doesn’t.
And too many local leaders still confuse compliance with courage.
But we’ve been seeing it; in traffic stops that end in trauma, in budgets that criminalize poverty, in contracts that trade public trust for federal dollars.
My hometown taught me resilience; but resilience isn’t liberation. Liberation requires truth-telling, accountability, and the courage to govern differently. That’s the reckoning this moment demands from local leaders everywhere.
We’ve been seeing it. Now we’re naming it. And we will not be complicit.
Former Mayor | Former Village Manager | City Council Member | Congressional Staffer Leadership Strategist to Women in Government Leadership and Their Visionary Teams.
The Leadership Catalyst is where municipal power and women’s leadership collide. I expose how staff culture builds or breaks public trust, and why women leaders must set the standard for their teams and their communities. This is unapologetic strategy, rooted in SCALE™, for leaders who refuse to carry the weight of broken systems alone. Subscribe and join a community that’s rewriting the rules of government leadership.
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