June 05, 2025

The mask slipped again Monday night at the June 2, 2025 Freeport City Council meeting. In a calculated move that reeked of political cowardice and blatant self-interest, Mayor Jodi Miller’s administration quietly stuffed Resolution #R-2025-57—a permit request for the Tutty Baker Fest—into the consent agenda, effectively dodging public discussion and shielding the mayor from scrutiny.

Why hide it? Because the event in question isn’t some community-run festival. It’s a taxpayer-funded cash cow run by Freeport Festivals Inc., a private organization founded and operated by Mayor Miller herself.

For months, residents have raised alarms about the misuse of city staff, equipment, and resources to support this multi-day event—believing it was a city-sponsored economic driver. Now, they’re learning the truth: the only one benefitting appears to be the Mayor’s own organization. While Freeport families see declining services, potholed roads, and rising taxes, Miller is using city workers as her personal event staff.

Instead of having the backbone to address the controversy head-on, the administration shoved this self-serving resolution into a rubber-stamp bundle with mundane items like board minutes and payroll—hoping no one would notice. Every other resolution request (8 in total) on the agenda got a separate vote. Not this one. Why? Because it would have forced a public conversation Miller and her allies clearly didn’t want to have.

“This wasn’t just shady—it was strategic,” said Joshua Atkinson of Fighting4Freeport. “They knew residents were watching. They knew this resolution would raise serious ethical questions. So they buried it. That’s not leadership. That’s manipulation.”

The maneuver is more than just a procedural slight—it’s yet another reminder of the deep contempt this administration has for transparency, accountability, and the very people it was elected to serve. If Miller is willing to quietly authorize taxpayer support for her own private festival behind closed doors, what else is being hidden from the public eye?

The people of Freeport deserve to know why their tax dollars are being used to prop up the Mayor’s side project. They deserve to know why taxpayers aren’t being reimbursed for public works, fire and police staff assigned to the event. And they deserve to know how much city labor, equipment, and time has been diverted from actual city needs to serve one woman’s brand.

At minimum, the Council should immediately revisit this resolution, launch an investigation into the city’s financial involvement with Freeport Festivals Inc., and audit all public resources used for Tutty Baker Fest. Anything less is complicity.

Mayor Miller may have thought hiding this resolution would protect her from backlash. But the residents of Freeport are watching. And they’re not buying the cover-up.

-Fighting4Freeport