On March 16, 2022, all Council members received an email from a resident regarding a water issue. Council policy regarding emails addressed to all members is that Council members forward any comments they have to the Mayor. The Mayor (or their designee) will then provide a single response to the resident regarding the issue. This is done to ensure the resident receives a single, consistent, researched response to their issue and not five potentially different responses. Without having done any research, Ms. Miller completely ignored this policy and responded directly to the resident. Not only did she include a thinly veiled insult toward the Mayor in her response to the resident, but she also sent her response to all Council members, which is a potential Open Meetings Act violation (OMA) . The Open Meetings Act is enforced to ensure all deliberations regarding an issue are done in the open at a public meeting and not behind the scenes.
The Mayor responded to Ms. Miller professionally while also reminding her of the OMA rules. Ms. Miller responded by stating, “The use of the OMA is so interesting around here. You all refer to it so frequently yet you ignore it so often. Like when three council members meet after a meeting. That is very clearly a violation and I have video of it.” The City Attorney was on this email thread and immediately advised Ms. Miller that “recording a conversation that you are not a party to is a felony.”
Ms. Miller, who has repeatedly refused to go to training, does not understand the requirements of the OMA (which is why she continually violates it). Three council members can legally have a discussion; however, they are prohibited from discussing items that Council will deliberate upon. Simply having a conversation is not a violation. Her potential admission to a felony was turned over to the police. Believing that the reference Ms. Miller made was specific to a post-meeting parking lot discussion at the Southfield High School for Arts and Technology, the police reviewed video from all cameras, but were not able to locate clear video of the incident. Because of that, no charges were filed related to her admission. Details on this issue can be found here (read the email thread from the bottom to the top).