Melanie McDade-Dickens, the Inglewood mayor’s highly paid assistant and former girlfriend of eight years, allegedly committed fraud by forging a fake bonus check and improperly changing her tax exemptions to appear more financially stable to a lender for her purchase of a home, according to a termination notice.

Two notices sent to McDade-Dickens before her firing late last year were released to the Southern California News Group through a public records request. Until now, the city would not provide the specific reasons for firing the longtime employee due to privacy laws.

On Dec. 30, city officials notified McDade-Dickens they planned to fire her based on an investigation by an outside law firm. The allegations against McDade-Dickens suggest she was struggling to qualify for a home loan with her nearly $300,000-a-year salary and leaned on other employees for assistance, allegedly in violation of city policies, regulations and potentially the law.

City Manager Artie Fields wrote in a notice of termination that he found that McDade-Dickens had proven herself “unfit for continued employment in the city of Inglewood.”

Actions ‘dishonest’

“I have given significant thought and time to my decision, taking into consideration that you have been with the city for eight years, and the good work that you have performed,” Fields said. “However, given the dishonest nature of your actions, the effect that your conduct has had on your subordinates, your employment must be terminated.”

The city alleged McDade-Dickens promised, as the city’s interim housing manager, to provide assistance to an employee’s family if the employee co-signed a home loan. She also asked an employee to open a line of credit for her personal use and to falsify a copy of a check that would make it appear as if McDade-Dickens had received a second bonus that year, according to the notice.

The employee later transmitted the fake check to a lender, which the city claims constitutes an “act of loan fraud,” according to the notices.

McDade-Dickens has not been charged with any crimes.

Another allegation alleges McDade-Dickens asked an employee to repeatedly manually change her state and federal tax deductions without proper documentation. After McDade-Dickens was placed on leave, she contacted employees involved in the investigation and allegedly told one he or she would be “well taken care of” if the employee could provide information that would help McDade-Dickens’ attorney.

‘Insubordination’ frequently cited

McDade-Dickens also was accused of “insubordination” for refusing to answer questions about certain allegations. The insubordination is cited as one of the primary reasons for the firing in the notices.

In the notice, Fields stated he believed “most of the charges” were sufficient enough to warrant termination.

McDade-Dickens’ attorney, Carl Douglas, did not return a request for comment. However, he previously contested some of city’s allegations in a letter to the city manager before the final hearing in December.

Attorney defend actions

Douglas has argued that her decision not to answer questions was based on his advice and should not be used against her.

Douglas acknowledged his client did contact city employees while the investigation was ongoing, but denied she tried to influence them. Her interest was solely in understanding why she had been placed on leave, Douglas said in his letter.

McDade-Dickens received the legal notice outlining the allegations against her in November, nearly five months after she was placed on leave.

Douglas’ letter does not address the more serious allegations that she forged a copy of a bonus check, or asked her subordinate to co-sign a loan. The letter, however, notes the employee in question had years of experience with home loans form working at Chase Bank.

“By comparison, Ms. McDade had never purchased a home by herself in her life before she entered escrow on her Lakewood property,” Douglas wrote.

In the notice of termination, Fields said he considered those allegations to be “unrebutted” and “substantiated” because McDade-Dickens would not answer questions about them.

Douglas alleged the process was unfair and the outcome predetermined, in part, because the city turned over 1,500 pages of documents related to the investigation just before Thanksgiving and declined to delay the hearing until after the holidays.

‘Venomous’ statements about Butts

Fields responded in the termination notice that Douglas had nearly a month to prep and chose to use that time to “prepare a libelous 12-page single spaced letter” with “venomous, vitriolic and off-colored statements against Mayor (James T.) Butts” that had no relevance to the charges against his client.

The allegations, Douglas said, had nothing to do with McDade-Dickens’ job performance and were trumped up to justify the firing.

“There is no suggestion that Ms. McDade personally stole city funds, or personally benefited in any way to the City’s financial detriment,” Douglas argued. “She is not accused of steering any municipal funds to help a friend or family member. She has not compromised the city’s integrity for personal gain.”

One of the allegations does accuse McDade-Dickens of authorizing an overpayment of roughly $1,100 to a photographer, but Douglas said the photographer was hired through the proper channels and shot photographs at more than 16 events. The city alleges the overpayment occurred as a result of “falsified timesheets.”

Firing retaliatory, attorney claims

Douglas believes the firing was an act of retaliation for McDade-Dickens ending her romantic relationship with Butts a year earlier. Her title of acting city manager was stripped away in March 2019 after Butts learned she had purchased a home without him, Douglas wrote. The mayor is alleged to have stalked and harassed McDade-Dickens during the time frame between the break-up and the firing.

Fields confirmed the romance for the first time in his letter but said there was no evidence of “anything but a consensual relationship.” He said McDade-Dickens did not file any complaints against the mayor until after she was placed on administrative leave.

An attorney for the city declined to answer questions about whether the city investigated McDade-Dickens’ allegations against the mayor because of “potential litigation.”

Butts was married to another woman during the entirety of the relationship with McDade-Dickens. He previously told the Los Angeles Times he is separated from his wife.