(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
SALEM LAKES, Wis. – A controversial agenda item is expected to pass at Monday night’s Village Board meeting in Salem Lakes, where a new liberal majority is poised to approve a $5,000 “leadership workshop” focused on “psychological safety” and “purpose-driven leadership.” The training will be conducted by Danny Langloss, a former Illinois police chief turned consultant, whose rate is over $600 per hour when factoring in travel and prep costs.
The resolution to hire Langloss Consulting, LLC was introduced by Village Administrator Cassandra Hiller, a former Illinois bureaucrat, and has strong support from trustees Hopkins, Faber, Gandt, and Brooks—who now form a controlling liberal bloc on the board.
The proposed one-day workshop is titled “Built to Win: Creating a Championship Culture Through Psychological Safety and Purpose-Driven Leadership.” According to the proposal, the session is designed to “reduce conflict,” create “shared values,” and promote “psychological safety” within the Village’s leadership team. Participants would include elected board members and department heads such as the fire chief and public works director.
Critics within Village Hall are calling the effort “performative” and “woke,” noting that Village employees have been repeatedly instructed not to speak directly with elected officials—an unwritten policy that some argue violates their constitutional rights, especially since many employees are also Salem Lakes residents.
“It’s ironic and infuriating,” said one village insider who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation. “They’re spending thousands to hold a ‘feelings workshop’ while telling workers they can’t even talk to their own representatives. That’s not psychological safety. That’s control.”
Hiller has defended the resolution by claiming it uses grant funding, not local property tax dollars. But some residents have pushed back, pointing out that federal and state grants are still funded by taxpayers. “That’s our money, no matter how you slice it,” said one resident. “We’re paying a consultant from Illinois to teach our leaders how to feel better while silencing employees.”
The grant funding source has not been clearly disclosed in public documents, and the workshop proposal itself includes travel expenses that will be billed on top of the $5,000 flat fee.
Langloss, the proposed facilitator, gained national attention for helping the City of Dixon, Illinois, recover from the $54 million Rita Crundwell embezzlement scandal. But his recent work has focused on team-building and “cultural transformation” through trainings for municipal governments.
The vote is expected to fall along party lines, with the board’s liberal majority likely to approve the measure. Whether the workshop has any tangible impact—or merely creates more division—remains to be seen.
The board meeting is scheduled for Monday night at Village Hall.
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19 Responses
Salem Lakes residents will be paying double for this, then, because their county property tax dollars have been paying for this kind of sh*t for years. Tappa & Kerkman buy into this nonsense and have been sending even mid-level managers to this kind of BS training for years.
Welcome to another PLEASANT PRAIRIE! I hope that town gets a hold of all this before it gets out if hand for them like the last group di!
The stink of unpleasant prairie is creeping west they have seen what they can do and they follow the stench so much for positive government
Sorry to burst the bubble, but even at its worst Pleasant Prairie was still run fairly to very well. Whatever its warts were — and, yes, they were there and sometimes ignored — it’s nothing compared to the boneheaded goof after goof after goof that these clowns made.
As for the Prairie, Steinbrink, jr. may have been a jerk. He may have been shady. He may have had his hand in the till and did things that he shouldn’t have done and for which he was arrested, prosecuted and punished. But guess what? Apart from that he won awards for how he did the rest of his job. That’s NOT to praise him — he should have been kicked a long time ago — but rather to illustrate the difference. These jokers in Salem Lake aren’t just shady, they’s also not competent.
That said, maybe they need to spend money to help the beleaguered employees who have to put up with this crap figure out how to keep their sanity until voters can clean house — again.
Employees have learned to stay silent or be fired and be labeled “the opposition,” a cute little nickname given to ex-employees by Hiller and Bucur. Such sweethearts running our Village.
The entire creation of “Salem Lakes” was nothing but
a scam. Every town is worse off now, than when they were separate entities.
But a hand full of individuals made/keep making the money though.
Sounds familiar…..
“Every town”? There were two municipalities involved in the creation of the Village of Salem Lakes — the Town of Salem and the Village of Silver Lake.
Your words show u r stupid. Shush.
U have the right thought but don’t have knowledge of village town structure. Shush.
Salem Lakes is truly getting the kind of government that they voted for. 😥
No, the old board bamboozled the new board, say good bye to the fabric of your community.
Either push back or get ready for a circus.
A democrat is a person who likes to waste other people’s money !
Is there any possibility that the grant could be used for wetland restoration instead???
That form was too confusing for our administrator.
Ron Gadnt surely isn’t a democrat!
I believe you should judge these folks based on their action not what they profess. Action far more important than words.
What a bunch of HOOEY! I work for the state of Wisconsin and we had one of these workshops and it is a total waste of money.You are not going to get so many different personalities to not have some kind of conflict. Its human effing nature!!!
Exactly. I can help them in less than five minutes and for free. Here’s what the administrator and chair need to know. It’s from Jack Miller, founder of the Quill Corporation.
Jack said his first rule is that he does NOT put his customers first. He puts his EMPLOYEES first and then THEY will put the customers first.
Jack also said that, “If a customer has to come to the CEO of a company because of a customer service problem it’s an even bigger problem.” That means empowering everyone in the organization to fix problems they encounter and assume personal responsibility and leadership.
It ain’t rocket science, folks.
Next up on liberal Hiller’s agenda: How to Process White Guilt.
Woke af, just like we warned. This is ABSOLUTELY NOT wanted in Salem. Rita, take note.
RIta hired this clown. Time to put up a new slate of representatives who actually would – ahem “represent” their constituents.
Signed – the opposition.