The Last Real COW Meeting? Power Grab Looms While Freeport Demands Answers

June 07, 2025

This June 9 Committee of the Whole meeting could mark the final opportunity for Freeport’s City Council to engage in open, unrestricted discussion before Mayor Jodi Miller locks down total control of the legislative process. A proposed amendment to the Rules of Council seeks to give the mayor—and her loyalists—the power to dictate what issues can and can’t be discussed in public meetings.

By this time next month, Freeport's government could be functioning under unilateral control, where transparency is optional and dissent is silenced by process and fines.

That’s why the few remaining alderpersons who still believe in checks and balances are expected to come prepared. There are questions that demand answers:

  • What happened to the grants Mayor Miller promised during her campaign?

  • Where is the continued progress and proven results? Why does everything feel more stalled than ever?

  • Why hasn’t the 2025 Street Program started, despite repeated assurances that it would be funded by the Miller-added 1% Sales Tax?

  • And while we’re on that topic... Shouldn’t the estimated $3 to $3.5 million from that tax already be sitting in the account—ready to be used? Ready to get to work?

We'll let that sit for today, but let’s just say: Somebody should advise the mayor to stop digging before she has no choice but to prove her opponents right by attempting to pass another tax increase.

For now, the people of Freeport should pay close attention. When the council speaks on Monday, it might be the last time you hear from them unfiltered. And if Mayor Miller gets her way, it may be the final moment of real public governance before a new era of carefully controlled silence replaces hard questions and honest debate.

Stay tuned.

-Fighting4Freeport