Eugene Greenstein: "This Is a Coup" - Why Secret Meetings Destroy High-Performing Teams

In this episode, I talk with Eugene Greenstein, a long-term Farmington Hills resident with extensive private sector management experience at a major automobile company. Eugene doesn't hold back - he calls what happened on December 17th exactly what it is: a coup attempt. "We just had an election where Theresa told us in glowing terms how great everything was. Then all of a sudden, we're going to get rid of the city manager under very strange circumstances." Eugene spent his career building high-performing teams by fostering trust and relationships across diverse groups of skilled professionals. He knows what happens when you destroy that foundation with secret meetings and exclusionary tactics - the work simply can't get done. Drawing on his management experience, Eugene explains why you can't be an expert in every department you oversee, but you can create a culture where experts communicate openly and challenge assumptions. When the mayor excludes council members from knowing about a termination meeting, when there's no documented performance problem, when campaign literature never mentioned management issues - "this just smells to high heaven," Eugene tells me. He makes a powerful point: if Gary Machin had been stealing money or doing something illegal, every council member would have been notified simultaneously. But that's not what happened here. This was selective communication designed to orchestrate a specific outcome. Eugene's bottom line? Everyone should be asking the mayor to resign unless she's got a good story - which she certainly hasn't told anybody.