Good old Mayor Park Cities. He talks about inclusion and working as a team during his campaign and gives this really sappy inauguration speech where he says "we must bring all our people together … and understand that our interests and goals are intertwined" and then does the exact opposite when he names committee chairs for the new council. Angela Hunt is the only council member who wasn’t named a chair or a vice chair.

This is pretty silly, and once again shows how out of touch the city’s elite is with the upcoming Trinity referendum that Hunt is ramrodding. Snubbing Hunt will do nothing but galvanize the masses. What Leppert should have done, what any savvy politician would have done, was to name Hunt a chair, but of a less important committee, and then emphasize the point that they can still work together even though they disagree on the Trinity. But, apparently, he isn’t that savvy.

Sign up for our newsletter!

* indicates required

Even Donna Blumer, the former city council member who could throw a good punch, was baffled by Leppert’s decision. Blumer, who supports the referendum, called it petty and said Leppert is "trying to limit her influence, and it reflects poorly on him."

We’ll hear a lot about teamwork and working together from the pro-toll road side during this campaign, so keep this in mind. The most important lesson I learned about teamwork came from Jamie Dimon, who was then running Bank One and today is the CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase. I interviewed him for a story for the Southwest Airlines magazine, and asked him why he didnt like the concept, which is a big corporate buzzword:

"That’s because teamwork in corporate America very often means get on board, act like me, sound like me, don’t complain, be a good guy. That’s not teamwork. That’s the opposite of teamwork. Real teamwork is that you do complain, you do speak up, you demand more from your partners. If we’re supposed to be a team, and you’re not doing your share, you need to do more. And if you don’t, that’s just not bad for me, that’s bad for you."

Sound familiar?