City Hall insider … 5/22/26

By Charles Sercombe
The city council met on May 22 in a special meeting, and all councilmembers were in attendance.
During public comment, Ahmed Sharaf Aldeen complained about Councilmember Nayeem Choudhury, saying he’s been disrespectful, and that he has filed a police complaint against him.
He requested the council take action to reprimand Choudhury, or threatened that he would contact the media.
Aldeen did not specify what Choudhury had allegedly done. However, in an email, Aldeen, speaking as the publisher of YUC news outlet, accused Councilmember Choudhury of paying more attention to his cellphone than to a presentation during a seminar hosted by the Michigan Municipal League.
Choudhury called that accusation a lie, and said that Aldeen had no business attending the seminar, and accused him of benefitting from city money to be at the seminar.
Councilmember Mohammed Hassan later denied that any city money was used to have Aldeen attend the event.
Councilmember Choudhury said, “I have no idea what Mr. Ahmed (Aldeen) is talking about.” He accused Aldeen of defaming him and posting an image of him as a clown on social media.
“You guys know how respectful I am. How much I care about the city and (how) much I respect our mayor, our city councilmembers – everybody,” Choudhury said.
“But Mr. Ahmed (Aldeen) is making it difficult and miserable and (creating) division in our community.”
Former Councilmember Khalil Refai urged the council to support a resolution to rescind the censure of Councilmember Saed. He also urged the council to permanently hire the new acting police chief, Hussein Farhat.
In new business, the council OK’d joining a legal challenge regarding the quality of drinking water provided to Hamtramck.
In another matter, the council agreed to be a part of a summer youth employment program sponsored by the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network (DWIHN).
The third item of council business involved rescinding the censure vote against Councilmember Yousuf Saed.
As to the council’s past action to censure fellow Councilmember Yousuf Saed for a comment he made on social media about a couple of councilmembers, Saed said accountability “should be applied equally.”
Back in February, all but one councilmember, Nayeem Choudhury, voted to censure Saed for an apparent disparaging comment he made on his Facebook page about some other councilmembers.
Just exactly what he said has never been made clear, but at the time it was suggested Saed had called some colleagues “clowns.”
Councilmember Mohammed Alsomiri appeared to be the primary target of Saed’s comments.
Saed has insisted that what he said what not a putdown, and that his post, written in Arabic, was misinterpreted.
Saed said his comment “was not directed to anyone or insulting anyone. Today is not about me. It’s about fairness and common sense and doing the right thing.”
Councilmember Choudhury was critical of his colleagues.
“He did not deserve that censure for your personal reasons,” he said. “Don’t mix up your personal things with city official business.”
As for Alsomiri, he appeared to have smoothed out his relationship with Saed.
“I work with him many times,” Alsomiri said.
But then things took an unexpected turn, with Alsomiri lashing out: “I make a lot of bullsh-t from the people. A lot they talking a lot, bad word.”
The resolution to rescind the censure was passed.
In his report, Councilmember Choudhury said he had been a “respectful person in the community for 30 years.”
He criticized those who defame him in social media.
(What is our City Council up to these days? We have the highlights of the latest council meeting.)
Posted July 17, 2026