By Jim Bloch
If you’re having a difficult time figuring out how Port Huron City Manager James Freed feels about Mayor Anita Ashford, you’re not alone.
Nine days after issuing a public letter in which he accused Ashford hostility, incoherence, slander and failure to govern, Freed claimed he loved her, that she was doing a great job and that he and his administration would do everything possible to make sure she succeeded.
Freed made his assertions at the end of the regular meeting of the city council June 9.
Ashford was not as effusive.
“It’s in progress,” she said of their relationship, as heard on the recording of the meeting posted on the city’s website. “We’re working on it.”
Several residents spoke in support of Ashford during the public comment portion of the agenda.
Freed requested time to address the audience at the conclusion of the meeting and Ashford granted him the opportunity.
Freed’s accusations
“Social media loves division, the press loves division,” said Freed, appearing to blame residents on platforms such as Facebook and news reporters for exaggerating his fallout with the mayor. “There is no feud between the mayor and I. I love the mayor… She is doing a great job.”
But it was not residents or reporters who condemned Ashford as “hostile,” “grossly unprofessional” and “nearly incoherent.” It was Freed himself in his open letter. Freed accused her of “making false and slanderous statements” and a “failure to govern” ahead of the special meeting set for June 9 at 5 p.m. to discuss the city manager’s evaluation, which was later cancelled.
“I wish to formally express my concerns regarding your actions and conduct as Mayor,” wrote Freed, complaining about Ashford’s attempt to initiate a new evaluation of Freed’s performance nine months after his previous review.
During the May 12 meeting, Ashford had asked for a discussion about a new performance review for Freed, but none of her fellow council members moved to introduce it. Freed had left the meeting early to attend a community town hall.
Ashford asserted that the city manager controlled the agenda, which had “been staged to make me look bad.”
Freed called Ashford’s comments part of her “long history of making false and slanderous statements about myself and City staff.”
In the letter, Freed said Ashford’s action had damaged the morale of city employees.
Freed accused Ashford of “age discrimination,” which seemed delusional at best coming from a 40-year-old white man making north of $198,000. Ashford is a 74-year-old Black woman making $65 per council meeting.
On Feb. 10, 2025, “you told the public I wasn’t ‘fully grown up enough,’” Freed said.
Freed accused the mayor of several instances of slander and threatened to sue her.
Freed’s about-face
On June 9, it was as if Freed’s letter never existed.
“Throughout the weekend, Mayor Ashford and I have been texting and talking on the phone, dealing with a lot of city issues that you would normally expect the mayor and city manager to communicate (about) … and I had a phone with her today about several issues,” said Freed on June 9. “I’m sorry to disappoint … but Mayor Ashford and I have been close friends for 11 years and we have a great working relationship. I remember very vividly when my first daughter was born, we went home … and there was Ms. Ashford on my porch with a welcome basket with a blanket and a stuffy for my baby. Mayor Ashford is an honest woman, a good woman and a good friend … (T)here is no feud between the mayor and I. I love her very much. She’s doing an excellent job as mayor.”
The audience burst into applause.
“There are times when the mayor and I will have differences,” said Freed. “… I have to be held accountable. Things like evaluations, these are administrative issues, (that hinge on) simple things like scheduling. Don’t read into it. Of course I want an evaluation. If you’re doing a good job, you want a paper trail of that …”
Freed said the issue with Ashford had been blown out of proportion. Ashford was more circumspect.
“We need to find out and do what can bring us together,” said Ashford, speaking about divisions generally. “I’m not going anywhere. I was elected to the mayor of the city of Port Huron and I’m going to do my job.”
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
