Melanie McDade-Dickens, a former campaign worker for Inglewood Mayor James Butts Jr. who later secured a city job paying $342,000 in salary and benefits, was escorted out of City Hall in July and has not returned, according to her attorney.

McDade-Dickens, who has served as Butts’ aide for the past eight years, was one of the city’s highest paid employees in 2018, according to publicly released figures. But her contact information has been removed from a staff directory on the city’s website and her job now appears to be in limbo.

Her ejection from City Hall was first reported by the blog 2UrbanGirls. Though she hasn’t returned to her office, McDade-Dickens hasn’t been fired either, according to her attorney, Carl Douglas, who was a member of the defense team on the O.J. Simpson murder case.

“Given the issues surrounding her employment, she saw the need to hire competent counsel,” Douglas said in a phone interview. Douglas previously represented the family of a man who was killed and two others who were wounded when Inglewood police officers opened fire on their car. The city settled for $2.45 million in 2010.

McDade-Dickens has not filed a claim against the city and Douglas, who was hired in late August, was still in the process of collecting records from her previous attorneys when he was interviewed Aug. 26.

“I am very confident the documents will assist in the telling of the story of McDade’s relationship with the city of Inglewood,” he said. “When you hear the whole story, there is no doubt in my mind that you will understand completely why she felt the need to hire lawyers.”

Douglas would not say why McDade-Dickens was escorted out of City Hall or explain her grievances. He would only confirm that her exit was against her will and that a chaperone watched over her while she was leaving.

“I think it was wrong, but that’s my personal opinion,” Douglas said. “It certainly was unexpected and it wasn’t her choice.”

In emails and phone calls, city officials repeatedly said they wanted to share the city’s side of the story about McDade, but then decided not to answer any questions about her after a week of delays. A spokeswoman for Butts and City Manager Artie Fields deferred questions to an outside attorney, who declined to comment.

“The city is legally prohibited from discussing personnel matters,” said Mira Hashmall, an attorney representing the city.

Relationship questioned in court

In February, attorneys for The Madison Square Garden Co., which owns the Forum, asked a judge to compel Butts and McDade-Dickens to answer several questions they had refused during depositions, including whether they were in a romantic relationship, according to the L.A. Times.

In a redacted filing, the attorneys argued that an extramarital relationship would be relevant to determining if a witness is biased. Butts is married, but lives separately from his wife, according to the Times.

The attorneys offered no evidence that a relationship exists and Butts refused to respond during the deposition based on the advice of his own attorney.

It’s unclear if the mayor and McDade were asked about the alleged relationship again. The court records are sealed and attorneys for MSG would not discuss the case.

This week, Butts and a city representative again refused to address the question.

Douglas, McDade-Dickens’ attorney, also declined. “I am not prepared at this point to respond to that question,” he said.

Compensation soared

McDade-Dickens was hired as Butts’ assistant in 2011. She also worked on and was paid by Butts’ campaigns in 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2016, according to financial disclosures.

At City Hall, her pay jumped from $73,850 in 2013 to $289,864 in 2018, according to salary data from Transparent California. Her compensation included $115,816 in extra pay, more than double what other employees received.

For comparison, the city’s assistant city manager and chief financial officer, David Esparza, was paid $281,065 with $22,569 in extra pay. Other assistants in the city’s administration made less than $150,000 in salary.

Though McDade-Dickens’ title changed from senior assistant to executive assistant in 2016, her job responsibilities in recent years were more akin to an assistant city manager, city officials have said previously. Her pay jumped when she was put in charge of the city’s parking and emergency management programs, they said.

Last year, an online job description for executive assistant still listed qualifications and experience for a secretarial position. The duties included managing calendars, screening communications and greeting visitors. Hours after the city was contacted about McDade-Dickens’ pay, a new job description was uploaded to the website, according to the document’s metadata.

The revised job description, reportedly from October 2017, included new duties, such as overseeing the city’s parking program and coordinating its annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, among others. The job required a bachelor’s degree, five years of experience supporting elected officials and a driver’s license.

Earlier this year, the city gave her even more responsibilities by making her the interim manager of Inglewood’s housing program, according to public records. She was replaced in that position by a new hire in July, according to meeting minutes.