Hell hath no fury like a fired police chief...

When a city manager fires an employee — there can be second and third order consequences. For example, they might decide to run for a seat on the council. Such is the case for one city manager in Texas who fired his police chief.

A city says it will cost a local businessman $30,000 to fulfill his public records request. And a council and staff retreat that cost $17,000 has some residents fuming at their council.

All that and more news after the job postings.

It is free to post all of your senior and executive level recruitments over at the AAME job board. If you would like to include them in this newsletter, select the $199 option.

Richwood City Manager Eric Foerster recently fired his police chief, Stephen Mayer. Mayer responded by taking out papers to run for a city council seat a few days later. The incumbent decided not to run again and it looks like Mayer may run unopposed.

In this case, had Foerster held off on firing the chief a couple of weeks until the candidate registration window had passed he may have saved himself some future grief. Now it looks like the chief may be a thorn in his side. This isn’t the first time a city manager has had to deal with the consequences of a firing an employee who then decided to run for council — and it won’t be the last.

A person submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information on Glenn Sexton, who serves as assistant city manager and chief building official for Roseville.

But Roseville wants $30K to fulfill it and 50% up front. The requestor says the amount is egregious and is threatening to sue for damages and attorney costs.

“Every project we have is not hitting deadlines…and I’m so frustrated,” said Mayor Mike Snyder.

Hutto is looking to crack down on construction delays and City Manager James Earp is recommending that future contracts include time-based milestones that would trigger a review if missed and council approval of a change order if more time is going to be needed, the same as is required for cost increases.

I am intentionally leaving this correction in for a second mention.

Last week, I shared a story about the West Milton, Ohio village manager waking up to find that an ad for his job had been posted online. An anonymous source sent me a message to correct the record and I regret the error.

Here is the link to a December 2025 commission meeting whereby the manager was informed that his contract was not being renewed. My apologies to you the reader and to the elected officials in West Milton for passing along incorrect information.