‘Pole-dancing’ metropolis supervisor given the boot after racy video divides city

Kimberley Judge, 59, has been ousted from her role as Dayton’s city manager after a short clip of her appearing to pole dance while on a work trip did the rounds on social media

A Texas city manager has been sacked after being caught “pole-dancing” while on a work trip.

Kimberly Judge, 59, saw her role in Dayton’s top office terminated after a video clip of her appearing to dance around a pole started doing the rounds on social media. The one-second clip first surfaced two months ago and saw Judge, the first woman and Black person to serve as Dayton’s chief executive, suspended. Now she’s been officially fired after the city council voted 4-1 to end her employment.

Controversy over the case has erupted, with city members divided on how to best discipline Judge. Those who opposed the former city manager’s actions had dubbed the behaviour inappropriate, while some defended her and said the dancing had not been as outrageous as others claimed.

After the clip first emerged, Judge claimed it was part of a “low-level smear campaign”, as the week prior she had allegedly filed a racial and sex-based discrimination complaint against city leaders, which was later investigated by an independent firm, Daily Mail reports. The third-party firm found no evidence to back her allegations.

A separate third-party investigator determined Judge had in fact violated the city’s policies with her “pole-dancing” clip. But a PR firm that represents the former Dayton official stated their client was merely “dancing and enjoying herself with a group of close friends”.

Several locals present at a meeting last month spoke up in support of Judge, suggesting she might be the victim of a larger plan to oust her.

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“We are here because of the video and there is nothing that you can tell where it filmed and where,” former city councilmember Sherial Alwson said.

She added: “If there was an issue, why wasn’t it shared then? Think there are people who ran for council that are out to fire Kimberly. Is her performance being questioned? The citizens of Dayton are here to support our city manager.”

The majority vote to end Judge’s employment led to Derek Woods, the city’s head of police, being appointed on a temporary basis.