Councilmembers spared from being kicked off

By Charles Sercombe
The Hamtramck Board of Education isn’t the only public body having a hard time getting all its members to attend meetings.
The city council is also wrestling with the issue of two councilmembers, Khalil Refai and Muhtasin Sadman, who have been absent for over two months.
Both of them are taking care of family matters, Refai in Saudi Arabia (trying to straighten out his wife’s immigration status) and Sadman in Bangladesh (dealing with his father’s death).
While both submitted letters to the council announcing that they would be missing several meetings, their absences were never officially excused.
At a recent council meeting, Councilmember Mohammed Hassan took issue with their absences and proposed excusing them, but, going forward, no other absences by the two would be considered excused.
Hassan said there has to be a limit on absences.
“It cannot be unlimited,” he said.
Serving on council, he said, “is a promise” to the community “to serve as best (we) can.”
If the council had not taken that action, Refai and Sadman’s seats on council would have been considered vacant, as this would have been the fifth unexcused missed meeting for each.
According to the City Charter, any councilmember who is absent, without being excused by the council, for five consecutive meetings is no longer considered a member of council.
Since that time, both members have now missed five consecutive meetings, but since the council agreed to excuse them, their positions on council were spared.
But not going forward.
Which means, if they miss another five consecutive meetings, they will be kicked off council.
So, what is their status?
It’s believed that Refai will soon be wrapping up his legal matter, but there is no word on Sadman, who is serving the first year of his term.
Unlike the city council, the Hamtramck Board of Education does not have an attendance policy.
Boardmember Regan Watson has not attended a meeting for over a year, ever since the board stripped her of her position as board treasurer.
Boardmember Salah Hadwan has stopped attending meetings as well, after the board threatened to strip his title of vice president. Hadwan resigned from that position before the board could vote on the matter.
Hadwan’s term ends this year, while Watson still has two more years in her term.
Posted July 19, 2024