Greedy Bastards: One City’s Texas-Size Struggle to Avoid a Financial Crisis

by Sheryl Sculley

When Sheryl Sculley was recruited to serve as San Antonio’s new city manager in 2005, the organization she inherited was a disorganized mess. City infrastructure was crumbling, strong financial policies and systems were nonexistent, many executive positions were vacant, public satisfaction was low, ethical standards were weak, and public safety union salaries and benefits were outpacing revenues, crowding out other essential city services. Simply San Antonio was on the verge of collapse. Greedy Bastards tells the story of Sheryl and her new team’s uphill battle to turn around San Antonio city government. She takes you behind closed doors to share the hard changes she made and the strategies she used to create mutually beneficial solutions to the city’s biggest problems. Many of the issues Sheryl found in San Antonio are present in cities across the US. Packed with wins and losses, lessons learned, and pitfalls encountered, Greedy Bastards is a guidebook for any city official tasked with turning around a struggling city.

Genres: Politics, Leadership, Memoir, Nonfiction, Urban

216 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 11, 2020

Reviews

[Misty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was well put-together and gave me a much better idea of how San Antonio's government operates. I'm also glad I got to know Sheryl Sculley's side of the police/fire union benefits campaign, which seems to be a better reflection of what actually happened. I was definitely under informed at the time of the vote, and also unclear on what a city manager actually did. I'm glad Sheryl Sculley was able to do such wonderful things for San Antonio and am sad that she had to endure a gross smear campaign. San Antonio flourished under her leadership.

[Carey Calvert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great companion piece to Greedy Bastards, One City's Texas-Size Struggle To Avoid A Financial Crisis, is A Conversation With Former City Manager, Sheryl Sculley, moderated by Rey Saldana (former 4 term City Council member), an event presented by the San Antonio Book Festival.

It can be found on YouTube under the same and is about an hour and 15 minutes.

When I heard this book was coming out, I preorderd a signed copy almost immediately. My fascination with Sculley began during her recruitment in 2005.

"Wow, San Antonio is really hiring an outsider for City Manager."

According to the flap, she inherited a disorganized mess.

City infrastructure? Crumbling. Strong financial policies and systems? Nonexistent. "Many executive positions were vacant, public satisfaction was low, and ethical standards weak. Simply put: San Antonio was on the verge of collapse."

I didn't know this. Did you?

What most of the city did come to find out is she would run into a brick wall known as the police and fire department unions.

And when she was hired this wasn't even on her agenda.

Apparently, "public safety union salaries and benefits were outpacing revenues and crowding out other essential services."

Says Sculley, "When taxpayers learned the whole story, I heard exclamations like, "Gosh, did they really have free healthcare all these years? Did we pay for his divorce?" Wait, he got his law degree paid for by the city?" Who let this go on for all these years?"

For this uphill battle alone, Greedy Bastards is worth it. If you lived here during that time, you remember the commercials - the unions were "killing" (maligning) her.

Ok, about the title, a great one at that - isn't one that she coined. "It's borrowed from the president of the San Antonio Police Officers Association, who uttered it in a video to accuse her of portraying the association's membership as such."

"The city manager and her team has [sic] done everything she possibly could to make us look like we're a bunch of greedy bastards trying to break the city of San Antonio."

Sculley also laments her "first woman to..." announcements: "... I was dismayed to see that other women often took a swipe at whomever had just put a chip in the glass ceiling, rather than cheering her accomplishment."

"I watched it happen again and again: women working against other women. It was hard enough to deal with men who were unsupportive of women in management."

Just writing about this makes me want to read this lessons-learned-pitfalls-encountered (what Sculley hopes to be a) guidebook for any city official tasked with turning around a struggling city ...

Again.

[Rick Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The rare good book I wish was longer had with more detail. So much of nonfiction nowadays feels like writing to hit a page count. an author has a couple good ideas and then fills whole portions of their book with empty examples and worthless meandering. This is not that. This is a unique perspective told well.

The author writes clearly and succinctly about her time as San Antonio city manager. Wrestling with unions, repairing potholes, kissing babies, the whole 9 yards. The crux of the book is her negotiation with the police and fire unions. However, the details are fairly short beyond the most generic of overviews. when you have the perspective that this author does, I would typically hope for more details. We get the broad strokes, but for a fairly short book, it seemed like we could’ve had more and given how clearly the author writes, and the sort of unique subject matter covered, I would’ve welcomed more.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a San Antonio resident who moved here right around the time Sheryl Sculley did I watched this saga unfold. It was unbelievable as it was happening but this book provided a detailed look behind the scenes that leaves me even more shocked than the smear campaigns did and even more appreciative of the strength of leadership shown by Ms Sculley and her team. This was a quick and engaging read.

[Gloria Hatcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone interested in city management or local government in general will like this book. It covers all the bases. Contract negotiations, employee issues, grievances, citizen complaints, parks and rec development, etc. Sculley outlines her entire tenure as the city manager of San Antonio. The only thing I will say is she never really gives herself and criticism - it makes me wonder, how one-sided is this story? To read Sculley's version, she was always right and she made no mistakes. This is just not realistic. I loved this book, but would trust it more if she admitted fault a little more often.

[Rebecca Ventrella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was required reading for a class I’m in and it is the most interesting required reading book I’ve ever read. So much insight, useful tidbits and lessons learned. Thank you Sheryl for your 45 years of public service and helping out those just getting started!

I laughed, I cried, and also shared some shock and frustration!

[Berlynn]

An inside look into the dynamics at play when you mix over-funded unions and the need for financial stability in a failing system adding the pressure of a brand new city manager. I didn’t love the writing style but the story was interesting and educational. I’m glad to know Sheryl’s unique perceptive versus what the media was portraying her as.

[Jordan Munn · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a former employee in Texas city government and as a current employee of New York City government, I thoroughly enjoyed City Manager Sculley's account of contract negotiations in San Antonio. In particular, I appreciated the invaluable lessons and nuggets of advice she embeds throughout the book.

[Shelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting recent piece of history about San Antonio and their almost financial disaster. I did listen to the audiobook on this, which Ms. Sculley was very precise and to the point.

[Rohit · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mostly self-congratulatory book by a former City Manager of San Antonio. For nerds of city governance or those interested in the finer details of recent San Antonio politics, it has enough interesting tidbits to be worthwhile to read, as long as you know how to read between the lines, and have enough background context on some of the characters and conflicts to know how to get more info.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

We were extraordinarily fortunate that our outstanding mayor at the time, Phil Hardberger, persuaded Ms. Sculley to take the helm as SA's city manager. She was worth far more than she was paid.

[Aaron Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a truism that while most public attention in American politics is focused on the national level, what happens at the state and especially local level is really more important to your daily life. Unfortunately, even though municipal government is incredibly important, it's also extremely boring, so it generally flies under the public radar. Until there's a crisis! Sculley was the city manager of San Antonio from 2005 to 2019 and this is her memoir of what that was like, with the title referring to her extended fight with the city's police and fire unions over excessively generous benefit contracts. San Antonio is one of many cities in Texas, including my hometown Austin, that are governed by a council-manager system, which involves a formal division of authority between the city's elected representatives - the mayor and city council - and the appointed city manager, who directly oversees the departmental staff who are in charge of the day-to-day work of picking up the garbage, fixing potholes, etc. The theoretical rationale for this separation of politics and administration, which dates from the Progressive era, is that it insulates the professional staff from the volatile whims of the electorate. However, the flip side of this remove is a lack of direct accountability and thus potential for corruption. This might be exacerbated by 2 more factors that increase dependence on the civil service: first, that the mayor and city council members serve short terms and thus are reliant on staff for institutional knowledge; and second, the unusual custom that municipal elections are also generally non-partisan, which deprives the electorate of the benefits of parties taking clear opposing stances on issues, which empowers lobbying groups such as… police and fire unions.

I don't think there is such a thing as a single perfect form of municipal governance, as for every city like San Antonio (or Chicago, etc) with problematic civil service relations there are countless other cities where the same setup is working perfectly well, so I wouldn't necessarily blame the formal institutional mechanisms San Antonio had for its issues, though there are libraries of public choice literature on this subject. Pensions in particular have been a major policy question for many years in both the public and private sector (see James Lowenstein's While America Aged for illuminating case studies of the trouble that pension issues caused for the city of San Diego, New York City's subway system, and General Motors), and a fast-growing but medium-income city like San Antonio might be operating about as well as you could expect, especially in a state like Texas which constrains municipal finances in important ways and allows harmful arrangements like cops and firefighters living in suburbs instead of the cities they actually work in. But Sculley's detailed account of how hard it was to take on the police and fire unions over their almost comically evil benefits package - in addition to their pensions putting the city on a direct path to bankruptcy, their protections against prosecution for misconduct will make your jaw drop - clearly underscores both the powerful incentives for elected officials to cut insider deals which will be Somebody Else's Problem long after they've retired, and how rare this kind of political bravery is. As shows like Yes, Minister have illustrated, leaders may come and go, but bureaucrats - and interest groups - are there forever.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many times when people think of government, they think of the politics surrounding the elected leaders of the federal government. In reality, governments are organizations at the federal, state, and municipal level that help to make their communities run - be that fixing roads, putting out fires, or approving permits. To make that happen, the organizations need to be run well by competent managers and staff.

Greedy Bastards tells the story of that work happening in San Antonio, TX. While the major issue City Manager Sheryl Sculley focuses on in the book is police and fire union contracts, she also talks about taking on challenges, building support, and ultimately implementing change related to everything from reinvigorating the marathon in San Antonio to structuring half billion dollar bonds to improve the infrastructure of the City.

This book was interesting for me for a few reasons. After working for the City of Syracuse where there is an elected mayor but no City Manager, reading about Sculley's career as a City Manager was great. City Managers help to maintain operations of a city even when there is a mayoral change. Sculley also talked about a few issues that were very similar to the ones I worked on - specifically infrastructure maintenance. She made changes in the ways roads were maintained in a similar way to how we recommended. Most importantly, Sculley focuses on the value of public employees. So may times, government staff are viewed skeptically (both by people in and out of government). Sculley details her attempts to improve training and leadership opportunities, to build more trust, and also to put in place policies that make clear what is and is not allowed on the job.

All of this culminates in her taking on the police and fire unions, whose contracts were on track to crowd out all other municipal spending. While going great lengths to reiterate her respect for the work public safety staff do, she also makes the point that other municipal services are important, too. The inside-baseball level of detail she offers about how contracts are structured, why that is important, and also the amount of difficulty to make a change to these contracts was fascinating. It reminded me of when I sat in a Common Council meeting with only a few other people and they voted on measures that committed millions of public dollars to a program - really important decisions get made, often in public, but without much attention. I appreciate the level of detail in the book that brings attention to these kinds of issues. Having a strong and empathetic leader who knows how to identify challenging problems and then is willing to take them on is critical, and reading about it was inspiring.

I hope others will read this book as well to learn about the story in San Antonio, but also get a glimpse into what life is like in city government.

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does have it's share of self-congratulation and management bromides, but it's one of the better out there on what a modern city manager does. Sheryl Sculley was deputy city manager in Phoenix, the largest American city with manager form of government, when San Antonio mayor Phil Hardberger called and asked her to be manager of San Antonio, the second largest city with such a government.

From 2005 to 2019 Sculley effectively led the city of San Antonio. She describes how she prepared for 5 year bond cycles each worth hundreds of millions of dollars (she had found out that one of the reason the mayor and city council wanted her was because of her help with successful bond issues in Phoenix). She describes how she took the 15 page "management letter" that accompanied the Consolidtated Annual Financial Report and shortened it to a bear minimum, taking the dozen plus financial issues that needed to be addressed each year down to zero. She reformed the Development Services Department that dealt with new construction and turned it from a revenue source for the rest of government into a self-funding organization that also stopped regular bribe-taking.

But the biggest issue Sculley took on, and about half of the book, is her negotiations with the police and firefights unions. As she points out, the legendary 1988 city agreements with the unions became a model for unions everywhere, especially because it gave unlimited health benefits at no cost sharing, supported a legal fund that protected employees against their wives and the city itself, unlimited tuition reimbursement for anything, triple-and-half pay for holidays and a 10 year continuance clause after the contract rode out. She did minimal fights at first but by 2016 she got the police union to share cost savings in healthcare, and in 2019 forced the fire union into arbitration that ended up giving them an even worse deal than the police. Together these saved the city hundreds of millions of dollars for the police and fire departments, which together constituted about 2/3s of the city general fund.

So if you want to know what a city manager does, this book is a good place to go and learn. Although I didn't agree with every policy Sculley champions here, on the whole it's obvious she was a great manager.

[Tim Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in the late 80's the San Antonio Police Officer's Association built a political machine with the clout necessary to get a contract loaded with benefits that became the envy of of other police unions around the country. https://sanantonioreport.org/missing-....

Unfortunately, those city leaders didn't know how inflated those expenses would become over time. These included a free legal defense fund for everything from divorces to DUIs, tuition reimbursement for any class you'd want to take, triple holiday pay, free medical care not only for the officer but also for their families. It also purportedly includes several clauses that make it difficult to punish officers who abuse their position (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBTiI...).

I got to experience the events depicted in Mrs. Sculley's book in a very different way than most citizens of San Antonio and even different from that of many other San Antonio employees. For one thing, my tenure within city government began just before Mrs. Sculley came on board. So I was around just long enough to hear some of the stories of the unprofessional behavior that was happening before her arrival. I can tell you without a doubt that her administration immediately made a positive impact and elevated the professionalism of the entire organization. She is a hard person to work for because she gets things done.

Second, for a time, my department was caught between the tug of war happening between the Fire Union and the City. It was not a fun place to be.

If you work in government at any level this book will help you understand some of the bigger picture issues that are part and parcel for a high level administrator's day. Make no mistake, there are many great people working for the fire and police department. But it would be fiscally irresponsible to allow their benefits to continue to expand to the point of bankrupting the city, crowding out other city services, and further burdening tax payers.

As to the assertion that Mrs. Sculley was overpaid? I feel like she did a tremendous job. The current City Manager is doing an equally admirable job guiding the city through another challenge. And once we get past covid-19, it will be time to negotiate union contracts again.

[José Angel Hernández · Rating 5 out of 5]

My brother gave me a copy of this book after he went through his copy in about a day. Like my father and grandfather, my brother is a union man and also a Master Electrician that is very much attuned to local and national politics. We discuss politics often, and I always feel like I've learned something new after our long dialogues, especially from another angle. So when he gave me my own copy of this book, I was obviously intrigued and immediately interested.

Although it took me considerably longer than one day to read, once you get started, the memoir was very easy to finish and go through. The writing style is journalistic in nature, but the perspective is that of an insider. Sheryl Sculley, as the book jacket states, and the book details, was recruited from Arizona to serve as San Antonio's new city manager in 2005. She was obviously well qualified for the position and had a track record of improving city budgets and managing large organizations. This book is an autobiographical assessment of her tenure as City Manager of San Antonio over the course of 15 years, including the many trials and tribulations that she encountered in her new position, especially her encounters with the city's Police and Fire Unions.

The book, however, is not only an insider's perspective on the author's struggles with local and union politics, but also a guide for other city managers. As she details the many challenges posed by the city's political undercurrents, Sculley offers sound and rational advice to potential managers about how to gently navigate the messy waters of local governance. Advice on avoiding confrontations and soothing political egos are also covered, including sage guidance on improving social relations with city employees, politicians, and of course, city councils.

The book is divided into 8 chapters, including an Introduction, Conclusion, and a foreword by ex-Mayor Phil Hardberger. The memoir begins with the author detailing recruitment efforts by the city of San Antonio; however, the narrative moves quickly to the first challenges encountered (and fixed) quickly to the crux of the title, which are the financial challenges posed by the Police and Fire Union contracts that threatened to put the city's budget under water in the coming years. Hence the subtitle: "One City's Texas-Size Struggle to Avoid a Financial Crisis." The content and conclusion of Sculley's book is therefore quite clear: San Antonio avoided a financial crisis by renegotiating the contracts of the city's Police and Fire Departments.

The contracts that were approved in 1988 do not bode very well for the Mayor of San Antonio that negotiated these particulars back then, which is Mayor Henry Cisneros. These days, Cisneros is best known as Clinton's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development between 1993-1997. According to the Foreword, "the 1988 Contract cost the city more and more as the medical and drug costs skyrocketed." "It became a famous union contract, the envy of unions everywhere," according to ex-Mayor Hardberger. He continues by pointing out that the contract even provided legal reimbursements for many "infractions of the law or civil actions, such as DWI's, divorces, spousal and child abuse, child custody battles, etc." To add insult to injury, these contracts also stipulated that the city would pay these fees "regardless of the right or wrong of the situation."

Cisneros and the initial negotiations seemingly escape scrutiny in the narrative because much of it starts from the date of arrival, which was in 2005. As Sculley immediately got to work, she found that much of the city was in disarray, not very well organized in several key areas, and that employees were also not duly compensated. Throughout the book she also details improvements to parks, technology, stray dogs, discussions with local politicians, workers watching porn at work, petty graft, investigations, audits, and especially the budget. Indeed, more than half the book is dedicated to her struggles with the two large unions mentioned.

In reading the book it is difficult to overlook the question of local politics that Sculley endured, but also the rationale for publishing this memoir. Sculley paints a picture of a disinterested City Manager intent on avoiding politics, but nonetheless forcibly dragged into the quagmire by powerful union interests intent on keeping their benefits and privileges. Throughout the text, the author notes several instances where she was surprised by the brutal public campaigns against her and the negative publicity that usually comes along with being in the public eye. But Sculley also astutely emplots her book as a guide for other city managers without ever losing sight of the story at hand, or at the potential political fallout that could ensue with its publication.

In one part of the book the author cites a political consultant's observations about her vis-a-vis the powerful union interests in the following manner: she's playing three dimensional chess while everybody else is playing checkers." It is hard not to appreciate that observation after reading this book because, in effect, its publication constitutes another move upon the political chessboard. Sculley not only begins and ends the book by narrating "one city's Texas-sized struggle to avoid a financial crisis," but she provides the numbers that substantiate her case. She handles the pawns, rooks, and knights early on in her memoir, and then takes up the bishops in the run up to the election. The king falls in the last chapter. One could say that this book is checkmate because now Sculley has essentially seized the narrative by writing the book, framed the debate accordingly, and written the first history of these encounters...

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a resident of San Antonio, I want to thank Sheryl Sculley for sharing these details of a difficult period in our city’s political and economic growth. The conflicts with the establishment were also a tutorial in the challenges for women working in an aggressive male environment - very informative and inspiring. Many women who end up in management positions do not have formal training in that role, so I would recommend this book as an example of how to work cooperatively within dysfunctional systems to bring about change.

[Cassandra Ottmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subject matter is particularly interesting to me and it opened my eyes to a new perspective, so four stars! I’m walking away with a new appreciation for the work of Sheryl and her team, and, more importantly, fresh eyes for the progress that’s taken place in my city over the last two decades.

The organization of the book had me a little thrown off, and a skilled editor could have made some of the author’s anecdotes more compelling by integrating them skillfully into the storyline.

Overall, I’m glad I read it!

[Mary Lothery · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read!!

First of all, thank you Sheryl for a well written book that calmly and truthfully explains your many strategies and successes as San Antonio’s City Manager. I wish every San Antonio citizen would read this book so they can comprehend your success here. I also recommend it to anyone seeking a career in the Government areas of Public Administration. Thanks for a job well done.

[Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an interesting review of Sculley's time in San Antonio, and I enjoyed it. It's a quick read. However, at the end you really wished for more details of the back and forth struggle. Instead years of struggle are boiled down to a few chapters of double spaced paragraphs. Nevertheless, it is entirely worthwhile to read for anyone interested in a case study in hard choices and making the right decisions.

[Jes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a recommendation from my Economic Development Prof and it was one of the books someone from my grad program recommended me that I actually liked! A Lot!

Sheryl Sculley was ahead of her time and still made her mark in San Antonio. Her book can be used as a guidebook of sorts that relate the challenges of being a woman in public admin dealing with lots of male egos and a public smear campaign. She triumphs with good sense and a persistent commitment to her job.

[Geremy Landin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally sat down to read this book. It is well worth it if you are a San Antonian, interested in city management, active in politics, and for so many other reasons. Sheryl gives a great deal of insight into a job very few understand. It’s a quick read and easy to read for a general and educated audience.

[Tanner Powell · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title and description sounded much more exciting than the book actually was imo. Then again, it probably would have been much more interesting to me if I had anything to do with city management. All things considered, it was interesting to see behind the curtain of someone dealing with being both right and on the wrong side of public opinion, while still managing to get things done.

[Larry Watts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read and interesting title

An excellent 'insider's view' from management perspective on public safety labor negotiations. Also, as a bonus, a broader look at big city management issues well beyond the union contracts.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read

As someone who lives in San Antonio I was interested in this behind the scenes look and it did not disappoint. It's well written and shows how much hard work Sculley poured in to this city. Thank you!

[janice a brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. A lesson for all of us who may work or live in a city. Thanks to Sheryl

Great book. A lesson for all who live and work in a city. I live in San Antonio and remember lots of this. Thanks to Sheryl Sculley for her honesty and preserve
rance.

[Caroline Rush · Rating 5 out of 5]

I woke for the City of San Antonio during part of the Sheryl Sculley was the CM and LOVED hearing her account of what was going on from a management level. Highly recommend for city employees and public service enthusiasts.

[Sunny Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sheryl Sculley's no nonsense, fact driven approach to complex issues is refreshing. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and recommend it to anyone wants a better understanding of all the challenges municipalities face in this ever changing world.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent quick read for any Mayor, City Council member, City Administrator, Department Head or someone interested in Public Administration. Good view of leadership, crisis management, change management and negotiations. Doing the right thing for long-term viability.

[Julia Gitis · Rating 4 out of 5]

My only criticism of this book is I wish it were longer. It’s almost too concise in the story telling. Sheryl is so impressive. Wow.