Latest 'Undercover Boss': Gary, Ind.'s Mayor
(CBS) – On Wednesday's episode of "Undercover Boss," the mayor of Gary, Ind. dons a disguise and rolls up her sleeves.
CBS 2's Jim Williams reports.
For five years now, Karen Freeman-Wilson has been the mayor of Gary and seems to know everyone. So you have to wonder, how could she pull off being in the CBS show, in which CEOs famously disguise themselves and rub elbows with the rank-and-file.
It started with a physical transformation: new makeup. Glasses gone, wig on.
This Undercover Boss also changed her voice when she became "Sheila, from Nashville."
She did many tasks, working at the sewage plant and learning first-hand how dangerous a police officer's job can be.
All the while, Mayor Freeman-Wilson fooled the citizens of her town -- even her husband late one night.
The Mayor's perception after being the Undercover Boss?
"The thing that struck me," she says of city employees, "was not just their commitment to the job, but their commitment to the well-being on their co-workers."
Back when Mayor Freeman-Wilson attended Harvard Law School, she made a friend, who died last year. Her friend's name? Sheila; hence her identity in the TV episode.