I did a community emergency response training with a retired firefighter in the cook county suburbs.

He told us about when he was dealing with something involving effluent into a waterway and the director of the water reclamation district (who he had not met) showed up and started giving orders he asked one of his colleagues who she was and they just said, "she's god. You do what she says."

The city's water district is atypically powerful and just kind of weird in general.