Playing With Fire

About the Book

It rains a lot in Trillium, Oregon, but not enough to douse the political, personal and literal fires that surround the man in the hot seat, Ben Cromarty, Trillium’s city manager.

A suburb of Portland in the shadow of the snowy Cascades, Trillium has come a long way from its sleepy days as a sawmill town. The population is bursting. High-tech businesses are moving in. And the citizens are getting cantankerous.

A proposal to reorganize the fire department quickly escalates beyond a dry policy debate. It divides the community, pitting council members against each other, the firefighters against the city, and business against business.

In the middle of it all is Ben Cromarty, struggling to keep the city from consuming itself—and to keep his job. The conflict over the fire department—and over Trillium’s future—plays itself out in political intrigue, legal wrangling, personal vendettas and sundered friendships. Before it is over, the city’s troubles are splashed across front pages, its political structure is shaken to its core, Cromarty’s family faces danger, and a self-inflicted assault on Cromarty’s marriage threatens to pull his personal life into the public crisis.

About the Author

Scott Lazenby has over twenty years experience in city management. He has degrees in physics and public management, and is the author of several nonfiction articles on government challenges. He and his wife Sandy live in the town of Sandy, Oregon, where he serves as city manager.