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.