Democratic Councilwoman Elizabeth Miller Runs for Port Jervis Mayor

Elizabeth Miller holds up a lawn sign for her mayoral campaign in front of her house in Port Jervis, N.Y., on Sept. 7, 2023. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

Having served as a councilwoman in Port Jervis for about two years, Elizabeth Miller said she’s running for mayor to continue moving her home city forward.

As the finance committee chair, Ms. Miller observed the nitty-gritty of city spending and saw through a challenging budget season complicated by inflation and state-ordered sewer upgrades.

She also sits on the board of the community development agency, the city’s grant-seeking arm, which was largely credited with securing a $10 million state grant earlier this year for rebuilding downtown.

As the youngest member of the eight-member city council, Ms. Miller said she brought fresh ideas to the table and worked to carry them forward, including a credit card policy that’s in the works.

Ms. Miller will face Republican candidate Dominic Cicalese in the fall.

Longtime Democratic Mayor Kelly Decker isn’t seeking reelection.

“There are two great candidates up for mayor in the city of Port Jervis,” Ms. Miller told The Epoch Times. “But I think what I bring to the table is that I have been helping move Port Jervis forward for the last almost two years. So I have that foundation that I would like to continue to grow.”

A 9/11 Kid

Ms. Miller moved with her parents to the City of Port Jervis when she was barely 1 year old. They lived in a house on Holbrook Street in the West End neighborhood.

When she was 6, her firefighter father, Douglas Miller, died on duty during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, leaving behind Ms. Miller, her mother, and her two younger sisters.

Elizabeth Miller is held by her father, Douglas Miller, with her mother in the background in a framed picture at her house in Port Jervis, N.Y., on Sept. 7, 2023. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

“I think it was then that I saw the hearts of the people that lived here. I’d play outside or sit on the porch, and all sorts of neighbors and family friends would bring over food and check in on us,” she said.

“When somebody goes through something in this town, people arise and are there for you.”

She went on to study Arabic and the Middle East at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania and pursued a master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies at City University of New York.

“I needed to understand why 9/11 happened for my own therapy and coping. I never wanted to jump to a conclusion,” she said. “What it taught me was that it was the action of a few, not the many.”

After graduation, she moved back to Port Jervis to the same neighborhood where she grew up and started working at September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization dedicated to pursuing justice through nonviolent means.

Her years of dedication to understanding the terrorist attacks and seeking justice have led her to speak at numerous community events, meet with high-level governmental officials, work with media organizations to get messages out, and attend pretrial hearings at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station.

City Council Experience

In 2021, Ms. Miller ran for city council and won a seat in the 1st Ward.

“I was really excited about the opportunity to give back to the city that was so kind to me when I was a kid,” she said. “I just knew that if I was going to invest anywhere, it was going to be here.”

Elizabeth Miller on Main Street in the West End neighborhood in Port Jervis, N.Y., on Sept. 7, 2023. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

As the finance chair, she reports on city spending at the biweekly council meetings. She is developing a credit card policy with the city clerk to better track expenditures.

“It will help us better monitor our spending,” she said. “Our department heads don’t spend recklessly, but it is important for a city like ours to have these kinds of policies and procedures in place.”

Last fall, Ms. Miller voted for her first municipal budget, which happened to be one of the city’s most challenging budgets in recent years.

The total residential property tax levy increased by 5 percent (commercial property levy by 11 percent), while the sewer budget went up by almost half.

“There was a reason behind doing so—we were not increasing rates to increase them,” she said, citing inflation, contractual obligations, and state-ordained sewer realignment.

The sewer project was estimated to cost about $20 million with in-house labor, and after winning a $5 million grant last year, the city resolved to cover the rest with an interest-free loan from the state.

“The state wants us to build up the sewer fund to show that we have the ability to repay that loan,” she said, adding that the upgrade would solidify the city’s sewer system for another century.

The city hall of Port Jervis, New York, on Sept. 5, 2022. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

As a council member, Ms. Miller said she took it upon herself to push for changes that she felt strongly about, including the credit card policy and creating a human resources position.

“I think it is essential that city employees have access to a nonpartial individual who is not part of their departments that deals with onboarding, training, employee records, benefits, and issues that they might have in their work environment,” she said.

She also sits on the code committee and the union negotiations team as a councilwoman and is a member of the Port Jervis Free Library board.

Mayoral Campaign Platform

As a mayoral candidate, Ms. Miller said her top priority was to hold regular office hours at city hall and find more ways to communicate with residents.

“If I were to win, I would treat it more as a full-time, in-house role,” she said. “I think visibility and presence at city hall is important. If residents need me, I am there; if department heads need me, I am physically there to help them.”

She said her part-time job with September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows was mostly remote work and afforded her flexible hours.

As for communications, she said she would keep residents better informed of city hall moves and city council decisions through social media and possibly quarterly newsletters.

Ms. Miller said that those things are within a mayor’s executive power, so she could push them immediately if elected; as for most other major city matters, she must work with the city council to move the needle.

Downtown Port Jervis, N.Y., on Aug. 17, 2023. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

“I will have my ideas and want to implement and facilitate them, but I will do so as a team, working with the council members and taking their input. I think that’s important,” she said.

Ms. Miller wants to lift up a broader business community, not just the downtown area, to create a city ethics board to provide checks and balances within the city’s elected system, to improve the housing opportunities across the city for all residents, to inform more people of the resources available for drug addiction, and to manage city finances responsibly.

“I would like to see improvement and progress in the City of Port Jervis, but without breaking the back of our taxpayers,” she said. “That’s really the fine line: You want to see our city grow, but at what cost?”

Having recently advocated for lowering the city matches for the downtown revitalization grant to ease the burden on taxpayers, Ms. Miller said she wanted to keep future property tax levy increases at or below the rate passed last year and wouldn’t advocate for another sewer budget increase in the near future.

“I’m open to the constructive criticism of our residents and council members who are going to be there after the election,” she said. “I’ll take input from everyone and not just make decisions on my own.”

Ms. Miller is running on a Democratic slate that includes councilman-at-large candidate Denis Livingston, 1st Ward candidate Alex Ginella, 2nd Ward candidates Sean Addy and Keith Yennie, 3rd Ward candidates Yvette Martinez and Jackie Smith, and 4th Ward candidates Jacqueline Dennison and Stanley Siegel.