Mayor kicks former mayor off DDA

Former Mayor Karen Majewski

By Charles Sercombe
The bad blood between former Mayor Karen Majewski and current Mayor Amer Ghalib continues to boil.
In the latest development, at last night’s city council meeting, Ghalib asked for the council to fire Majewski from her position on the city’s Downtown Development Authority.
Ghalib appointed her to the DDA Board of Directors when he took office in 2022, but since then their relationship has increasingly become strained as Majewski criticized a number of decisions he and the city council have made during the past several months.
Of particular concern – and maybe the breaking point – for Majewski was the mayor’s and council’s decision to ban the display of pride flags on city property – namely city flagpoles.
When the city council was about to consider a resolution to prohibit pride flags in the name of remaining “neutral” in the issue, Majewski posted on her Facebook page this comment:
“I hope our governor’s new LGBTQ Task Force will take a look at this, and take it into consideration as the State of Michigan makes decisions about grants and other funding.”
Below that comment was a copy of the council’s resolution to ban the display of pride flags, as well as other flags other than the U.S., state, city and POW flags.
Ghalib said that her encouraging the state to cut funding was “crazy.”
He also said that he removed Majewski because she is “being a divisive member of the community.”
Ghalib also said that her ongoing criticism of him has taken a toll.
“How can I get along with people who work against me?” he said.
Ghalib makes the appointments to the DDA board, and it is his right, with council permission, to remove an appointee.
Asked to comment on her removal, Majewski told The Review:
“The choice to remove me from the DDA board had nothing to do with the quality of my service in that organization.”
Posted Sept. 15, 2023