Freeport Council Meets Tonight: Families Demand Protection, City Hall Shrugs
FREEPORT, IL – September 02, 2025
Tonight, September 2, 2025, the Freeport City Council will gather for its first meeting since residents filled City Hall on August 18th to plead for relief from a landlord who bought up millions of dollars in homes, hiked rents, and threatened tenants with eviction if they didn’t sign new leases within a week.
When confronted with families on the brink of homelessness, Mayor Jodi Miller coldly declared:
“There is nothing we can do.”
Instead of listening, she called upon Freeport police to escort concerned citizens from the chamber. Eight alderpersons sat in silence. Not one of them moved to amend the agenda to allow residents to be heard. Freeport’s elected leaders chose order and silence over representation and compassion.
Where City Hall Failed, the Community Stepped Up
On August 25th, Fighting4Freeport hosted a Community Housing Forum at the library, giving tenants resources, guidance, and a platform to be heard.
Just one day later, Senate candidate Joshua T. Atkinson drafted and submitted a commonsense ordinance amendment requiring landlords to provide 60 days’ notice before raising rents or refusing renewals. The proposal was emailed to the mayor, city clerk, and every alderperson with a memo and fact sheet.
The response? Silence. Not one elected official agreed to place it on tonight’s agenda. Freeport families were left with the chilling realization that their city government doesn’t believe they deserve even 60 days’ warning before losing their homes.
Why Atkinson Stepped In
When asked why he got involved, Atkinson’s answer was simple:
“My phone rang.”
He explained that his involvement stems from two very real fears.
First, he has been closely watching the Council from home since July 21, 2025 — the last meeting he attended in person. He made the choice to avoid attending live in order not to become a distraction preventing progress. But what he has seen deeply troubles him.
Freeport, he said, now has a mayor who, after being re-elected to her third term, has “done nothing but mirror what we’ve seen at the national level. She is emboldened, and acts as though she has been given a mandate. She seems to feel that she is above the law, and when caught, just changes our laws. - She’s dangerous.”
Atkinson continued:
“Watching her since the election, it has become very clear that she will have someone arrested for pushing her too far — for being scared, for being angry, for questioning her, or simply telling it like it is. I can’t sit by and watch that happen without doing something.”
When Atkinson heard the mayor’s response to her own residents — “There is nothing we can do” — his heart sank. Desperate phone calls spurred him into action. He immediately began scheduling the Community Housing Forum, reaching out to anyone and everyone who was willing to listen, gathering resources and factual information, and most importantly, listening to the cries of the public.
Rather than dwelling on what local government claimed it couldn’t do, Atkinson turned the focus to what it can do — and then did it for them. He drafted an ordinance amendment requiring landlords to provide 60 days’ notice of non-renewals and rent increases, giving tenants a fair chance to adjust or find new housing before being forced out.
The second reason for his involvement is more immediate: winter is just around the corner. Atkinson warned that telling tenants to fight a losing battle or to wait only buys them time — time that could run out in the dead of winter, leaving families homeless in the cold.
“No one in this community should be okay with that,” he said.
He reminded the public that last winter Freeport’s resources were maxed out and unable to meet the needs of a growing homeless population. Atkinson’s concern is blunt: Did we learn from last year and prepare for this winter, or will there be another half-hearted attempt after the fact — just to appear saintly?
On the Ordinance Being Shut Out
When asked about his ordinance amendment not being added to tonight’s agenda, Atkinson admitted it was “sad news” — but not in the way most would expect.
“It’s the type of sadness that comes when people realize just how alone they are,” he said.
Still, Atkinson refuses to dwell on the loss. In fact, he calls it a win.
“Freeport’s city government went from the official stance of ‘there is nothing we can do — and if you talk, we’ll call the cops’ to putting on a presentation tonight. Yes, it may end up being a misdirection, focusing on what they can’t do like rent caps, confusing the council and the public — but that’s not what I asked for. The conversation itself is the win. Had I not stepped up and showed them how to do their jobs, the conversation would have ended two weeks ago.”
Atkinson has studied Mayor Miller and her inner circle for more than a year. He believes he already knows what her next move will be.
“The best play she has is to direct city staff and the city attorney to ‘review’ the rental ordinance, make changes, and come back with what appears to be a completely rewritten version. It’ll have small gives that make her look like she’s on the tenants’ side, but also carefully worded clauses that either protect bad landlords or strip away enforceability. It’ll make her look good, reduce the image that she’s in bed with slumlords — and honestly, it’s the smart play.”
Or, Atkinson warned, she could continue to do nothing. But even then, he insists, that would only strengthen the point.
“She needs a win, and I’m more than happy with that. Hell, she is the Mayor. Under her leadership, any breadcrumbs she allows the taxpayers should be celebrated. I didn’t do anything that each of our elected officials — including Mayor Jodi Miller — couldn’t have done themselves. They just didn’t know how or cared enough. I showed them how to do both. And hopefully their resentment of me will be enough to push them to do one better.”
Tonight’s Agenda: Business as Usual
Instead of debating tenant protections, tonight’s agenda is filled with routine business and financial approvals:
Nearly $1.6 million in payroll and bills
Lease renewal for property on S. Liberty Ave.
Creation of a new Special Service Area with tax levies
Amendments to police, fire, and zoning codes
Resolutions for software, servers, and equipment purchases
Tucked toward the end of the agenda:
A presentation on landlord/tenant relationships (by City Manager Rob Boyer)
A discussion about rent increases by the Pied Piper Group (requested by Alderpersons Stacy & Klemm)
Without the ordinance on the table, these items risk becoming little more than political theater and talk.
What’s Really at Stake
Freeport’s working families are staring down predatory housing practices. Their pleas were dismissed on August 18th. Their solutions were ignored on August 26th. And tonight, their voices risk being drowned out by reports, purchases, and pageantry.
The refusal to even discuss a 60-day notice ordinance makes one thing crystal clear: our elected officials are unwilling to stand between tenants and exploitation.
A Final Word from Atkinson
As he looks beyond tonight’s meeting, Atkinson offered blunt advice for the people of Freeport — and a warning to those in power.
“When our elected representatives tell you that there is nothing they can do, stand up and tell them to get the hell out of the way. There is always something that can be done. It’s not always easy or convenient — they just need to care enough to do something. Any politician that would say ‘there is nothing we can do’ needs to be reminded why they are there in the first place. No one has ever been elected by saying they couldn’t do anything.”
Atkinson added that in Mayor Jodi Miller’s re-election was based on self-proclaimed “Proven Results”:
“She got elected by lying about what she had done and making empty promises about what she would do. Now all of Freeport is paying the price — not just with our taxes, our jobs, and our safety, but with our very homes. It’s time for residents to demand actual results.”
Fighting4Freeport’s Call to Action
This isn’t about politics — it’s about people. Freeport residents deserve stability, dignity, and a government willing to fight for them.
We urge every neighbor to:
Show up tonight at 6:00 PM at City Hall, 314 W. Stephenson Street.
Use public comment to demand action on tenant protections.
Hold alderpersons accountable for refusing to place the 60-day ordinance on the agenda.
The question facing Freeport’s leaders is simple:
Will you stand with the people — or stay in the cheap seats?
