Freeport’s Decade of Decline:
How a City Lost Its Way—and What It Will Take to Recover
FREEPORT, IL – October 21, 2025
Over the past decade, Freeport has endured what can only be described as a slow civic collapse — a “decade of decline” marked by population loss, weak leadership, and public disengagement. Since 2015, the city’s population has fallen from roughly 25,000 to just over 23,000, a net loss of about 1,500 residents, or an average of 150 people leaving the city every single year.
For a community of Freeport’s size, that’s catastrophic. Every hundred residents lost means fewer taxpayers to fund services, fewer students to sustain schools, and fewer customers for small businesses already struggling to stay afloat. The result is a slow-motion hollowing of the city’s core — one that everyone can see but few in power seem willing to confront.
A City in Denial
Freeport’s decline didn’t happen overnight, and it wasn’t inevitable. It was the product of decisions made — and not made — by leaders more comfortable with photo ops than performance. When shots were fired in our neighborhoods, leadership put in earplugs instead of taking action. When residents pleaded for economic growth, City Hall responded with studies, slogans, and the occasional consultant presentation.
Over time, nearly every civic problem in Freeport — housing, safety, economic development, even communication — has been outsourced. Another consultant, another study, another “block party” meant to distract rather than deliver. Events replaced execution. Public relations replaced results.
Meanwhile, neighboring communities such as Rochelle, Sterling–Rock Falls, and Dubuque, Iowa faced similar crossroads and chose to fight their way back. They built clear goals, measured outcomes, and invited public scrutiny. Freeport’s leadership, by contrast, has chosen silence and total control.
The Accountability Vacuum
The single most telling example of Freeport’s dysfunction lies in its City Manager system — a structure meant to bring professional administration and consistency to city government. Under the City Manager’s contract, the City Council is required to conduct an annual performance review, complete with goal setting — a standard practice in virtually every city that uses this form of government.
In Freeport, that review has happened zero times in eight years.
Eight years of governance. Eight years of budgets. Eight years of promises — and not one formal evaluation of the city’s top administrator. No benchmarks, no written goals, no transparent record of progress or failure.
That’s not leadership. That’s neglect.
Visible accountability means outcomes, not the occasional Facebook post. It means publishing data on crime, code enforcement, housing starts, job creation, and permitting timelines. It means leadership that reports to the people — not just to itself.
The Apathy That Enables It
Yet unaccountable leadership doesn’t survive in a vacuum — it survives because the public stops demanding better. Freeport’s residents have been worn down by years of inaction, broken promises, and performative politics. City council meetings go unattended. Voter turnout remains anemic. Public debate has been replaced by prayers, Facebook comments and eight years of excuses.
But apathy is a policy choice. A community that stops showing up for itself should not be surprised when its leaders stop showing up, too.
When Other Cities Fought Back
Communities across the Midwest have proven that population decline isn’t destiny. Sterling–Rock Falls reimagined its industrial base. Rochelle turned city-owned utilities into a growth catalyst. Dubuque rebuilt its riverfront, repopulated its downtown, and created public dashboards that track everything from crime rates to housing permits in real time.
Each of those cities made the same decision Freeport has refused to make: they measured results and held their leaders accountable for them. They treated governance as a profession, not a parade.
The Road to Recovery
If Freeport wants to change course, it must first acknowledge the failure. The City Council must finally conduct the performance reviews required under the City Manager’s contract — publicly, and based on measurable metrics. Residents should be able to see what goals were set, which were achieved, and which were not.
The city must publish a monthly public performance dashboard, allowing residents to track the most important data in real time — population change, code enforcement actions, police response times, building permits, and infrastructure progress. Accountability cannot survive in darkness.
And most importantly, Freeport must stop substituting pageantry for progress. Roadwork cut in half does not equal roadwork completed. It equals broken promises. Block parties don’t fill storefronts. Ribbon cuttings don’t repair trust. The next decade must be about execution, not excuses — outcomes, not optics.
The Final Measure
Over the past decade, Freeport has lost not just 1,500 people, but much of its faith in competent governance. The choice ahead is simple: continue drifting under unmeasured leadership, or demand results from those in power.
Eight years. Zero performance reviews. A city that’s lost 150 people a year.
Eight years under Mayor Jodi Miller, with 4 more to go. But only 2 years until the next City Council elections (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and At-Large).
