Philip Rodriguez was fired from his post as Brighton City Manager in a 5-4 vote late Tuesday night by a city council who had “lost faith” in him and who had questioned his ability to lead, despite the former city manager blowing the whistle on the city accumulating $70 million in water overcharges and calling for a forensic audit into those irregularities.

In a news conference following his ouster, Rodriguez said his discovery of utility fund corruption in the city “has officially turned into a council cover-up tonight.”

“When I, as a city manager, persisted with the council calling for a forensic audit, and as an individual citizen notifying state and federal law enforcement, the council chose to fire me for blowing the whistle,” he said in a prepared statement. “And yet I was told tonight, and it was on record that there was no cause for my termination.”

The former city manager told news media that ever since discovering unnecessarily high rates based “on falsehood and illegal budgeting practices,” the council had worked on thwarting his efforts in order to get to the bottom of what he called “mysteries in utilities.”

Further, Rodriguez claimed the $70 million in water overcharges wasn’t the only issue he uncovered as city manager.

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