A city official in Mentor, Ohio, hurled a racist slur, along with a few other choice profanities, at her Black neighbor over the placement of yard markers, video shows.
Kathy Miller, 70, a former Trump campaign manager and a member of Mentor’s Board of Building and Zoning Appeals, tore into the man as she removed stakes from his front yard.
Visibly agitated and wearing what appeared to be slippers and pajamas, she yelled, “You can go f*ck yourself, you G-d-d f*cking-ass n*gger,” then stormed off.
“Mentor police are going to love this. You know that, right? You’re in their files,” responded the resident as he filmed her returning to her property. “That’s rich. You’re real mature. You’re going a lot of places.”
As the implications of his words sank in, Miller stopped short before reaching her front door and returned to the man, ordering him to delete the video. He didn’t listen. The embarrassing footage circulated across social media and made its way to city hall.
Miller offered her resignation on May 4, after holding the city-appointed volunteer position since May 16, 2023.
Despite her volunteering, Miller did receive some compensation for each meeting attended. She’s now lost that, too.
According to an investigation by local station WKYC3, Miller received 31 payments totaling $1,550 in gross pay through April 2026.
In a statement provided to the station, the City of Mentor called her actions “indefensible.”
“This is a volunteer, non-elected position whose members do not speak on behalf of, or represent in any way, the views of the city. Her behavior does not reflect the values of our community and is indefensible under any and all circumstances. As such, Mentor City Council will act on her swift removal.”
Rumors have been swirling in comments online that this was not a one-off incident, with several neighbors accusing her of using racist slurs in the past, even alleging that this was her “baseline.”
Miller served as the Mahoning County campaign chair for Donald Trump in 2016, and an interview with The Guardian from that time seems to support this claim. In the resurfaced video, she blamed racism in the U.S. on then-President Barack Obama.
“I don’t think there was racism until Obama got elected. We never had problems like this,” she said. “Now with the people with guns, and shootin’ up neighborhoods and not being responsible citizens, that’s a big change, and that’s the philosophy Obama has perpetuated on America.”
She continued: “If you’re Black, and you haven’t been successful in the past 50 years, it’s your own fault… we have three generations of having unwed babies, kids that don’t go through high school, I mean, when do they all take responsibility for how they live?” She also called the Black Lives Matter movement “a stupid waste of time.” Her remarks caused a national uproar, and Miller resigned in the aftermath.
Now she has another forced resignation under her belt.
On the city of Mentor’s official Facebook page, one person wrote, “Volunteer or not, it was still repping Mentor. Not a good look.” Others praised the city, where 90 percent of residents are white, for its swift action. “It’s 2026. There is no room for that type of hate – we simply can’t allow it.”
This is not the city of Mentor’s first brush with controversy.
In September 2024, former city councilman Scott Marn called a Black man a racist slur in a parking lot dispute, prompting him to hit Marn and knock him unconscious. After pleading guilty to felony assault, the man was sentenced to 4 to 6 years in prison. Meanwhile, Marn refused to step down for using the slur, despite a formal request from the city council.
Though Miller’s spot on the Board of Building and Zoning Appeals was volunteer, WKYC3 obtained public records showing that she signed employee policies — including a harassment policy — and was paid $50 for every meeting she attended, totaling $1,550 in gross pay over the nearly three years she served.
