{"id":17676,"date":"2025-11-06T16:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T16:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=17676"},"modified":"2025-11-06T16:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T16:27:09","slug":"pivot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/06\/pivot\/","title":{"rendered":"Pivot Points: City, University, and a Career in Flux"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Donald Perryman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/p>\n

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it. <\/em>\u2013 Maya Angelou<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One thing was clear before the votes were ever counted on Tuesday night\u2014Toledo City Council will look very different in the months ahead, and one absence already looms large.<\/p>\n

That absence belongs to Carrie Hartman.<\/p>\n

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and withdrawing from her re-election bid to accept a prominent post at the University of Toledo, the university rescinded its offer \u2014leaving Hartman jobless, campaignless and, for the moment, voiceless.<\/p>\n

Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz called it a terrible situation that \u201cset back university-and-city relations significantly.\u201d Others were straight up, calling it \u201ca public burning at the stake.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s caliber.<\/p>\n

Caught Between Politics and Perception:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Far from inexperienced, Hartman\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 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\u2014from 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\u2019s U.S. Senate campaign.<\/p>\n

She developed the city\u2019s Employee Engagement Program, chaired the Census 2020 Complete Count Committee and assisted in modernizing the city\u2019s public communications infrastructure. Effective leadership is measured by action, not rhetoric, and Hartman has done the work, leading with energy and competence \u2014 and unlike many who\u00a0merely talk<\/em>\u00a0about public service without delivering.<\/p>\n

How does a leader with this background end up unemployed over a \u201cconditional offer\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those close to the situation say the politics of Ohio Senate Bill 1, which \u201cshifts control over university policy and governance away from traditional institutional autonomy toward state oversight,\u201d has restricted how Ohio public universities can engage with topics deemed controversial. As a result, UT President James Holloway\u2019s administration, already wary of culture-war scrutiny from Columbus, apparently \u201cgot cold feet.\u201d Translated, it means UT leadership was \u201cspooked about hiring a high-profile Democrat from the progressive wing of the Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

If true, it\u2019s more than a setback \u2014 it\u2019s revealing. In the current political climate of transactional loyalty and institutional risk aversion, \u201cthe competence and integrity of proven public servants are sometimes punished, while the cautious prosper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Understandably, Hartman is wounded and \u201cpretty well broken right now.\u201d Who wouldn\u2019t be? A promising opportunity was snatched away from an incredibly talented person who, after following the university\u2019s own direction to resign and withdraw from the ballot, brings the pain of betrayal, not bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

Yet Hartman has navigated difficult losses before. She\u2019s also part of a progressive current in local politics that\u2019s, in my opinion, younger, more collaborative, and more grounded in equity and public accountability than the old guard.<\/p>\n

The question now isn\u2019t whether the resilient Hartman will re-emerge \u2014 it\u2019s how<\/u> and where<\/u>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Paths forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

If she is willing to stay in public life, she\u2019d make a strong fit in city or county government\u00a0\u2014 down the road as a commissioner or mayor and currently as senior policy director \u2014 where her administrative and strategic skills could shine without the daily performative grind of city council politics.<\/p>\n

If she pivots, she has the credentials for\u00a0statewide or national campaign management\u00a0\u2014 or to found her own consulting or advocacy practice focused on engagement, policy innovation, or women\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

And if she steps back to heal, reflect, and recalibrate \u2014 no shame there either. This community owes her grace, not gossip.<\/p>\n

Yet, while the dust settles, the deeper story of Hartman\u2019s experience is not simply about a rescinded job offer \u2013 it\u2019s about how the current political climate rewards caution over competence, and optics over integrity.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Carrie Hartman\u2019s public chapter may have closed abruptly \u2014 but Toledo has seen enough of her work to know this isn\u2019t the end. The question isn\u2019t if<\/em> she\u2019ll rise again. It\u2019s where<\/em> she\u2019ll choose to land.<\/p>\n

Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, PhD, at <\/em>drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. \u2013 Maya Angelou   One thing was clear before the votes were ever counted on Tuesday night\u2014Toledo City Council will look very different in the months ahead, and one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,252],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[319],"class_list":["post-17676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-opinion","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17677,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17676\/revisions\/17677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17676"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=17676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}