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Fired City Admin. Says She Was Wrongfully Terminated
posted (May 9, 2018)
City Administrator Candice Miller was terminated yesterday. It's one more chapter of what may have been a firing foretold. That's because ever since Miller signed a new four year contract in September 2017 - she has been at the center of political controversy.

Her contract became part of the PUP's campaign to "clean up" city hall - so much so, that when they were elected - there was enormous pressure to send her home - along with that much talked about contract.

And, so it has been done. But, that's far from the end of the story. Miller granted us an interview this evening saying, and giving us documents to prove, that she was wrongfully terminated. She told us that there's no validity to the three grounds given for her dismissal because she operated by the books:

Candice Miller- Fired as City Admin
"I am not surprised because this is what I see the trend leading to. I mean it is devastating, I have two children, I have bills to pay. I was not paid anything with the exception of whatever vacation days I had due and I felt appalled because the grounds that the mayor used for the dismissal are none-existent."

Jules Vasquez- Reporter
"Now, you intend to challenge this, I don't even have to ask."

Candice Miller
"Of course. I am challenging the suspension which I never got to answer to. And, 'why challenge a suspension when you are paid?' because of the slander to my character. I need to find a job Jules, I want to clear my name. I operated by the books and for them to be slandering me it is damaging my character, it is damaging my ability to go out there and look for another job. I need to clear my name."

Jules Vasquez
"And also money is owed to you; significant amount."

Candice Miller
"Which I would have willingly worked for; I would have willingly worked under the new administration. I am a UDP, I mean, I cannot deny that. But, it has never interfered with my job, it has never interfered with my personal relationships, I am a UDP on election-day. I just need to live, you know Jules, I need to pay my bills. I have two children and you know my children's father died in an accident. I need to live and I need to pay my bills. I would have settled because you know what, you don't want to work with me. So, let's amicably settle this. But, then you go ahead, you ignore my request and then you slander me. I am in the newspaper every week. I am the topic of discussion on Facebook. Someone was asking if I have a direct line to Jesus Christ because I get $6,000 a month in telephone allowance; I wish I did. But, the reality is that you are terminating me because you are upset that I have a contract. It is not that I did something to derelict my duties; I never did."

Jules Vasquez
"You have been hoisted as a symbol of UDP sloth, UDP grotesquery, 'look at how they overspent, look at this big contract they gave.' It has to, at some level, the public humiliation that they put you through."

Candice Miller
"Jules, I have two children, two teenagers and it hurts me everyday for them to see what is in the media, for them to see what is on facebook and the only reason I came and I even offered to do an interview is because, for the most part I ignore; I figured that in my position you get a thick-skin and ignore what they have to say about you but when somebody is, what I see as, maliciously trying to slander me, then I have to respond. And I am telling you, what they are putting out there is completely false."

But what is not false are the published details of her September 2017 contract - and we're not talking about what has been posted on Facebook which has little credibility. Its ninety thousand dollars a year, for the life of the current council, with six thousand dollars annually in allowances. We asked her to defend that:

Jules Vasquez - Reporter
"It was increased from 70 to 90 I believe."

Candice Miller - Fired City Admin
"Even that, Jules, what they looked at was a contract from three years. They were, I think, comparing my salary from, I think, 2014 to 2017. I did not get a onetime fell swoop increase. My contract gives an annual increment. So, the 2014 contract that they had showed the whatever-salary they quoted first. In 2015 I got an increase, 2016 I got an increase, 2017 I got an increase and that is how it accumulated to that $11,000, it was not a one-time fell swoop as it was kind of indicated in the Amandala."

Jules Vasquez
"So your salary went up to $90,000 and the allowance went up from $3,600 to $6,000 per year."

Candice Miller
"Per year, again, because Facebook is saying that I get $6,000 per month."

Miller had much more to say about the context in which it was signed - and you'll hear that later this week. But, we also asked her about that pricey cocktail at the Biltmore - where she signed for a thousand dollar bar tab, plus a hundred dollar tip - on the council's dime. Here's the back and forth on that:

Jules Vasquez - Reporter
"Now, explain to me, much has been made of the Biltmore bistro that you signed for $100 tip. You signed for three bottles of this expensive looking wine- Menage a Trois, that sounds like something you do and not something you drink."

Candice Miller
"It is something you drink. Jules, that bill, if I am not mistaking is the 8th of February, correct? The 7th and the 8th of February we had a CEMO symposium which is something we do annually. After the symposium there was a small cocktail. And the bill, if I am not mistaking, also includes a couple of breakfasts and lunch. Those are for some of the runners who were coming back and forth, bringing things to the symposium. We had a very small cocktail and a $100 tip is not even, I don't remember the exact bill."

Jules Vasquez
"It was $977."

Candice Miller
"It was roughly a 10% tip."

Jules Vasquez
"So, when one looks at this, in the context it was presented, you have three light house, four Menage a Trois midnight, one Menage a Trois white, one Menage a Trois red blend; it looks like you all were living high off the municipal hog."

Candice Miller
"That is not the case. It was a small cocktail, a very small cocktail after the CEMO symposium. Jules, if you know the amount of work that goes into planning those events, for you to reward staff like that, and $1,000, to me, was wholly authorized."

But there's a whole lot more she did say - and tomorrow we'll have a fuller accounting of her remarks and her documentary defense of the allegations of gross dereliction made against her - including that alleged 6 thousand dollar bar tab she is accused of paying for the former mayor's dad.

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