The man who recruited me became the man who tried to destroy me.

He knew my record before he ever offered me the job.
He needed my competence enough to hand me the seat.
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Then my competence became the thing he could not forgive.

The Catalyst Perspective

Before I sat in a Village Manager's chair, I had already built a national profile in public leadership. I served on the Board of Directors of the National League of Cities, representing small cities and towns across the country.

A newly elected mayor personally recruited me for the manager seat in his village, citing everything I had built. I trusted that recruitment. I did not know how deep the dysfunction ran, or how many managers had walked through that same door before me and walked back out.

I did the job I was hired to do.
I built structure where there was none.
I held people accountable.
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​I never once received a written reprimand.

He attacked me publicly in City Council meetings. He emailed me demanding unreasonable timeframes, criticizing my work, and copying my own municipal directors, the very people I supervised. It was designed to embarrass and humiliate me in front of the staff who reported to me. He commissioned a report designed to damage my reputation and worked to unravel, in public, the professional standing I had spent a career building.

Three women held me steady through that season.

Robin Weaver, a senior advisor to ILCMA, became the ear and the shoulder I needed.

Joan Walls, one of the few Black women serving as an assistant manager in this profession, helped me redefine who I was outside that organization, and later became one of the first clients of my own company.

Ghida Neukirch, a seasoned city manager with decades of experience, stood behind me long after that season ended, including writing a recommendation for me when I moved on. Finding three women like this in the same chapter of my life was not luck. It was the ecosystem I had already built long before I needed it.

Then the mayor was arrested for driving under the influence, found asleep behind the wheel with his vehicle blocking traffic on the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago. Chicago Police and Chicago Fire responded to the scene.

Within hours, a media outlet arrived at Village Hall. I told the press he had the right to tell his own story, and that I was there to work with my staff and take care of the community.
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​Nothing more.

Robin saw the quote in the paper and reached out. She told me I had handled it like a true professional. Coming from a woman who had advised managers through nearly every kind of crisis this profession produces, those words stayed with me.

Here is the detail most people never expect. The investigation that ended my time in that seat was never opened against me. I requested it myself, based on his conduct. No prior write-ups.
No documented concerns about my performance.
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​The paperwork against me appeared only after I raised concerns of my own.

The people who recruit you are not permanently bound to protect you.
Politics shifts. Alliances shift.
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The same person who once needed your competence enough to hire you can decide, once that competence starts exposing what they would rather leave buried, that you have become the problem.

Naming this is preparation. Pretending it will not happen to you is a blind spot.

The SCALE™ Framework For Public Sector Leadership™

S — Strengths-Based Leadership™ - I entered that seat with a national record and years of proof behind me. Your own documented strengths are the thing an attacker cannot successfully erase, no matter how hard they try.

C — Confidence and Cognitive Reframing™ - I chose composure in front of the press and my staff. That composure let my conduct speak instead of letting his crisis become my story.
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​A — Aligned Values and Boundary Negotiation™ - Naming violations of the council-manager form of government was alignment with the structure I was hired to protect. Holding that line triggered the retaliation. It was still the right call.

L — Leadership Longevity™ - Robin Weaver did not remove the difficulty of that season. She extended my capacity to survive it with my integrity intact. Longevity depends on who stands beside you before the pressure arrives.

E — Emboldened Ecosystem Building™ - The network I built long before that recruitment, through NLC, ILCMA, and relationships with women like Robin, Joan, and Ghida, is what caught me when the organization I served did not. Build that ecosystem before you need it.

Take Action Now

Who around you right now was never bound by loyalty, only by convenience? You do not need an answer today. Start asking the question before the moment forces it on you.

If this issue named something you are living through, a shift in support you did not see coming, an accusation with no prior record behind it, know you do not have to navigate it alone. The Catalyst Strategic Advisory Retainer™ was built for this season, private, one-on-one, grounded in the SCALE™ Framework. Reply to this email if that resonates.

If you know a woman in public leadership who needs to read this, forward it to her today. If someone forwarded this to you, subscribe here so the next issue lands in your inbox: http://bit.ly/4fMSOBI. Confirm your subscription and check your spam folder so you do not miss what comes next.

Final Thoughts

I did not lose that seat because I was unqualified. I lost it because I refused to stay quiet about what I saw. If you are ever forced to choose between comfort and integrity in a room that once championed you, choose integrity. The seat was never the point. What mattered was who you remained while holding it.

In two weeks, Part 3 asks a different question.
​What happens when the job quietly doubles, and your paycheck never finds out?

In partnership and purpose,