(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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43 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.
I agree. I know Rita cannot stand Cassandra but is to coward to say a word and we all suffer. Infuriatingly disappointing.
“Village employees have been repeatedly instructed not to speak directly with elected officials—an unwritten policy”
“They’re spending thousands to hold a ‘feelings workshop’ while telling workers they can’t even talk to their own representatives.”
This is what has happened in the past. Out of control Administrators doing as they please and threatening employees not to talk to
their own representatives when employees know the Admins are doing illegal things. Maybe for once, the SL board needs to listen to their
employees and find out why woke classes are being held to silence employees.
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.
Lmao! If words show one is stupid how about the lack of using real words?
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.
She knew exactly what she was doing/ typical Lake Co liberal.
Ron Gadnt surely isn’t a democrat!
Well,’ maybe Gandt should vote like a conservative and not a liberal. If he chooses to vote with left lunatics, then he’s a liberal or mentally challenged. I agree with whoever said judge based on actions not what he says. Sadly, this board is the Blind leading the Blind. When they realize they trusted this Liberal Administrator too much. it will already be too late. At the next election DO NOT VOTE FOR THE INCUMBENTDS!!!
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.
Yeah, it is. The Challenger.
It doesn’t work though when the board only wants to put themselves first.
I believe it to be that the board wants to put Cassandra first not the community. And what ever form of bull shit that see does they have her back because none of them have any leadership skills and it’s easier for them to let Cassandra run with here crazy bullshit. Because then they don’t have to do there job. Apart from Billy and Pete they all need to go. Asap. Cassandra here’s an idea quit doing stupid shit and there won’t be any issues. Usually if your employees are stressed it’s usually stress from the upper managements decisions that the employees don’t agree with. Better yet Cassandra why not resign. Something tells me your to ignorant to see the light so keep doing stupid shit Kevin will keep reporting and getting more hits on his awesome sight and the rest of us citizens will just be amazed at how dumb you really are. Keep in mind you google your name and most of these articles come up. Any logical person even a clown in the circus would know that might be an issue with future employment opportunities. Something tells me the paddock lake fire deal and the wetlands deal or how you handled the county fair hasn’t been added to the old resume. Please do us all the favor and resign. Then you can add your greatest accomplishment in Salem lakes was resigning.
But none of those issues were her fault. (Queue the crocodile tears.) She equally takes credit and lays blame. Remember, she’s the “fixer” she’s “fixed” every community she’s ever worked for, just ask her. She’s the first one to say she doesn’t like attention and then go on an hour long diatribe about all her so called accomplishments. Poor Salem, we have ourselves in a major pickle with this administrator and board. Elections have consequences and this one might very well ruin our Village.
It already has removed an integrity the village might of had, put a fork in it!!!
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.
Everyone needs to email the Board. They’ll listen if people get off their ass and contact them (if enough of us do). use the time you spend on here to instead reach out to them.
Between Bristol, Salem lakes, pleasant prarie, I mean it’s about time people started watching what’s really going on!
Don’t forget the county, just because the issues within Kenosha County’s most senior leadership (Kerkman, Tappa, and other directors) isn’t widely reported on, doesn’t mean it isn’t equally as messed up.
Trainings such as this have been happening for YEARS within the county- we sat through one training session from some IL consultant, where the focus of the training was how disadvantaged black people are. The two highest paid people in the room were black men- the consultant, and our Highway Commissioner. The county paid for its employees to sit through that training. The paid the consultant, and they paid employees to step away from their actual work to participate.
It’s about Hiller programming the Board and Employees. The board is being hypnotized by her BS.
She can screw up everything but convince the board she’s right. It’s Amazing, almost cult like.
Hello, I live in Emporia, Kansas, and I wanted to share my experience with Cassandra Hiller.
Cassandra reserved a room at my house for her and her son for two nights for the Unbound Gravel bike race in May. I have hosted bikers from all over the world for several years for this event, and I have never had a problem until Cassandra.
She never showed up, even after telling me she was coming. The first night, I was honestly concerned for her and her son, and I tried reaching out to make sure she was okay. She responded several hours Later, she said she wasn’t coming “today.” So I asked if she was still planning on coming tomorrow (Saturday). She said she would love to, or she could sleep in her car if she couldn’t stay in our guest room. I told her she could, of course, stay Saturday. Saturday night arrived, and she still hadn’t shown up. I messaged her, and she responded, “I’m done racing and I’m driving home.” I then told her how she had taken advantage of my hospitality; I had reserved that room for her and her son so they could have a safe place to stay. I had other people requesting that room, and I had to turn them away. I sent her my Venmo link and asked her to at least pay for one of the nights she had reserved. Cassandra responded, “I don’t have Venmo.” But she does; I found it and sent her a screenshot of her Venmo. Then she said, “I don’t remember my password.” So PayPal? Nothing but crickets from her….
Cassandra Hiller is nothing but a compulsive liar, and I was shocked when I learned she was in a political position. Actually, not too shocked. She is the perfect politician.
I’m sorry for the community who has to live around her, and I hope she gets what she deserves in this wetlands case.
OUCH, making waves everywhere she goes. That’s a kick!!
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), any new or altered public facility, including walking paths, must be accessible to individuals with disabilities. That means proper planning, grading, surfacing, and clearances must be part of the design from the outset. (Very Beginning)
If this path was constructed without a civil plan or public input, especially if it bypassed ADA compliance, it could raise serious legal and ethical concerns. The ADA isn’t just a guideline; it’s an enforceable law. As I noted, public projects are supposed to be inclusive by design, not afterthought.
The fact that this alleged path was created in a protected wetland without permits already puts the Village in hot water with the DNR. If it also sidestepped accessibility requirements, that’s another layer of liability. I wish Salem Lakes luck with Administrator Hiller. You’re going to need it if this is the effort she puts into planning public projects. She is going to get this Village into lots of legal problems, so it might be time to part ways. I can only surmise this is the surface of many other issues. The Village very well could face legal issues if a complaint is filed with the (EEOC) or (DOJ)- Civil Rights Division in WI. Public Projects are serious Business and shouldn’t be side-stepped when public funds are being used for Public Projects. Good Luck Salem Lakes.
I’d like to thank this poor victim in Kansas for sharing her story. What a shame that Cassandra would deal with a kind, well-meaning small business person in this manner. But, there is a pattern here.
Unfortunately the more you learn about Cassandra Hiller, the less there is to like about her.
Since being hired as village administrator she has repeatedly shown that she is inherently dishonest, lies about all things large and small, and has no regard for anyone but herself. Her leadership skills are anything but effective so maybe that is why she needs these expensive, stupid team-building sessions. Salem Lakes employees for the most part loath her and even though she has lied to a sworn officer of the law (recorded on tape and available to the public by the way) who was conducting an official investigation into her criminal activity, thrown public works employees under the bus, and denied even the slightest bit of culpability for her deeds, the Village Board fails to act. Zip, Nada, Nothing. Where does this (mostly) do-nothing board think this is going to end? The answer is NO GOOD.
The handwriting is on the wall for all to see:
It’s time for this board to show some guts and leadership of their own.
Fire this woman before she takes the entire village down with her!
Time for Teddy Bears, a Security Blanket, and a Box of Kleenex, good grief.
Because clearly, the only people needing therapy in this Village are the taxpayers, watching this S-show unfold in real time.
Let’s take a tour of this administrative carnival: We’ve got an Administrator whose fingerprint is on everything (but not necessarily in a good way), an Assistant Administrator, Development staff, HR, Finance Director, Public Works, Planning and Zoning, and a Village Attorney who seems to be on retainer for every sneeze and sidewalk crack. And somehow, we need all that—for what? A community that could be managed by leaders with half the titles and twice the sense, like in every other normal Village around us. Salem Lakes doesn’t have Lake County money, and at this rate, we will be taxed out of this community. Maybe it is a grant paying for this, but that’s not free money.
And leadership? If lying about wandering into protected wetlands without permission is what passes for leadership these days, we’re in real trouble. Real leaders don’t throw staff under the bus, sow chaos, and then play victim while telling employees, “I can’t do any more.” That’s not resilience; that’s negligence.
Now the Board is being steered into wasting even more resources to protect these missteps with exemptions, excuses, and therapy sessions. Just like the public was brainwashed into believing that woke was good for business. Woke, you will go broke. Either the board has stopped listening to the residents, or they’re just in it for the paycheck. Either way, the residents are footing the bill for this therapy session, and I think we deserve a refund.
So grab your teddy bear and tissues, folks—because if this wasn’t our money being wasted, it would almost be entertaining. As such, Illinois is coming to SL. Those who came from Illinois to escape the madness, better wake up before you have to move again.
The people that support this Admin must be closet LIB’s. No other explanation.
Is there a protest at Monday’s meeting?
We should all show up with a teddy bear and hold it dearly throughout the meeting
Another issue that shows that Village administrator does not work for her constituency. She does what pleases her. Even the village elected officials will not stand up to her.
Recall the Rock Lake land swap? All the discussion on it was negative- reject the swap…. Even P&Z and Parks were not in favor. But what do you think the village did? This action is so that a tax district can be formed to further fund Hiller and Faber and their ambitions. Why does the village keep this “do what I want” administrator any longer?
Of course it passed! Anything to help Cassandra navigate the murky waters SHE CREATED! WTF?! Get rid of her and see if the waters mellow. How about that idea? That woman is like the plague, infecting our Village with liberal policies, overspending and abusing employees day in and day out. Yeah, let’s take a consensus from all the department heads to see if they asked for this particular seminar! Good grief, what is wrong with Salem? Is there something in the water affecting these people’s reasoning skills?
Rita just declared she will be called liberal and voted in favor of this woke joke. Kudos to Mr. Poli standing alone against it. “Staff” is the word of the night at this clown show. Hiller said this is a prize picked out of hat and it’s free. That’s because she pays taxes in Illinois! Disgusting