By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.
The Truth Contributor
I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it. – Maya Angelou
One thing was clear before the votes were ever counted on Tuesday night—Toledo City Council will look very different in the months ahead, and one absence already looms large.
That absence belongs to Carrie Hartman.
Just days after resigning from her seat as Toledo City Council President and withdrawing from her re-election bid to accept a prominent post at the University of Toledo, the university rescinded its offer —leaving Hartman jobless, campaignless and, for the moment, voiceless.
Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz called it a terrible situation that “set back university-and-city relations significantly.” Others were straight up, calling it “a public burning at the stake.”
No matter how you describe it, the incident is one of the most unsettling personal and civic disruptions that we have seen in a long time, and simultaneously a testament to the pressures faced by a public servant of Hartman’s caliber.
Caught Between Politics and Perception:
Far from inexperienced, Hartman’s résumé has navigated the complexities of government and public administration for years. She was very close with the well-networked civic strategist Alan Bannister, and rose through the ranks, skillfully navigating between City Hall, state politics and grassroots organizing—from the office of former Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson as Public Information Officer (PIO) to the Toledo City Council, the Ohio Democratic Party and Tim Ryan’s U.S. Senate campaign.
She developed the city’s Employee Engagement Program, chaired the Census 2020 Complete Count Committee and assisted in modernizing the city’s public communications infrastructure. Effective leadership is measured by action, not rhetoric, and Hartman has done the work, leading with energy and competence — and unlike many who merely talk about public service without delivering.
How does a leader with this background end up unemployed over a “conditional offer”?
Those close to the situation say the politics of Ohio Senate Bill 1, which “shifts control over university policy and governance away from traditional institutional autonomy toward state oversight,” has restricted how Ohio public universities can engage with topics deemed controversial. As a result, UT President James Holloway’s administration, already wary of culture-war scrutiny from Columbus, apparently “got cold feet.” Translated, it means UT leadership was “spooked about hiring a high-profile Democrat from the progressive wing of the Party.”
If true, it’s more than a setback — it’s revealing. In the current political climate of transactional loyalty and institutional risk aversion, “the competence and integrity of proven public servants are sometimes punished, while the cautious prosper.”
Understandably, Hartman is wounded and “pretty well broken right now.” Who wouldn’t be? A promising opportunity was snatched away from an incredibly talented person who, after following the university’s own direction to resign and withdraw from the ballot, brings the pain of betrayal, not bureaucracy.
Yet Hartman has navigated difficult losses before. She’s also part of a progressive current in local politics that’s, in my opinion, younger, more collaborative, and more grounded in equity and public accountability than the old guard.
The question now isn’t whether the resilient Hartman will re-emerge — it’s how and where.
Paths forward
If she is willing to stay in public life, she’d make a strong fit in city or county government — down the road as a commissioner or mayor and currently as senior policy director — where her administrative and strategic skills could shine without the daily performative grind of city council politics.
If she pivots, she has the credentials for statewide or national campaign management — or to found her own consulting or advocacy practice focused on engagement, policy innovation, or women’s leadership.
And if she steps back to heal, reflect, and recalibrate — no shame there either. This community owes her grace, not gossip.
Yet, while the dust settles, the deeper story of Hartman’s experience is not simply about a rescinded job offer – it’s about how the current political climate rewards caution over competence, and optics over integrity.
UT lost a gifted asset. The City of Toledo has lost a bridge builder. The community lost an example of integrity in a cynical time.
Carrie Hartman’s public chapter may have closed abruptly — but Toledo has seen enough of her work to know this isn’t the end. The question isn’t if she’ll rise again. It’s where she’ll choose to land.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, PhD, at drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org