City Hall Insider … 6/25/24

What is our City Council up to these days? We have the highlights of the latest council meeting.

By Charles Sercombe
The city council met on June 25, and all councilmembers, except for Khalil Refai and Muhtasin Sadman, were in attendance.
City Clerk Rana Faraj announced that those who applied to receive absentee ballots for the upcoming August Primary election were sent out earlier in the month.
During public comment, Habeb Aljawfi, speaking in Arabic, and later translated by Mayor Amer Ghalib, complained about drivers who speed. He said the city needs to “increase the penalties” for speeding and for those driving recklessly.
He added that the city should give the “police more authority to punish them.”
In another matter, a man started out saying that “I’m not a whistleblower. I don’t want to be a whistleblower,” and went on to say that there was a business illegally slaughtering lambs and goats during Eid.
He said the business is not zoned for such a procedure.
If the business is allowed to continue to slaughter animals, he said, the mayor, city council and code enforcement officials will “look bad.”
“The city will go underwater,” he added.
He said that building officials should not allow family members to get away with this practice.

Moving on to new business, the council approved a contract to hire Hennessey Engineers to oversee the repairs of alleys that were added on to a list of those to be repaved.
Hennessy will be paid $47,498 to oversee the additional work, which will include:
o East Jos. Campau between Caniff and Casmere
o East Jos. Campau between Casmere and Commor
o North Caniff between Jos. Campau and Mitchell
o East Jos. Campau between Roosevelt and Goodson

In another contractual matter, the council approved extending, by 12 months, their existing contract with SAFEbuilt Michigan to provide consulting services for: Building, plumbing, mechanical, electrical, planning and zoning.
In return for their services, the company receives 80 percent of the city’s fees it charges the public.
City Manager Max Garbarino said this is the only company “in a real position to take this task on, at this point.”
The council agreed to accept a $20,000 grant from Wayne County to pay for the city’s code enforcement.
In a note to council, the administration said this funding will free up the Community and Economic Development Department to “spend a greater portion of the workday educating residents about Hamtramck codes, and work with businesses, both commercial and industrial, to bring their properties into compliance, especially on large vacant industrial properties.”

In more alley repair developments, the council agreed to dip into the city’s budget surplus and spend over $300,000 to repave the alley just south of Caniff, from Gallagher going west to the Jos. Campau alley.
Mayor Ghalib said this is part of the plan to repave the alleys serving the commercial district.
This led to a discussion on the delay to the reconstruction of Caniff Ave. itself, from Jos. Campau to Conant.
John Hennessey, of Hennessy Engineers, said the delay is being caused by the state’s Historic Preservation Office. This stretch of Caniff, he said, has historic buildings along it, and the Preservation Office has to make sure those won’t be affected by the reconstruction.
He said that office has also held up other projects in other communities.
It could be that the project, which had been scheduled to start in June, will be delayed until fall, or even possibly next spring.
“The State of Michigan has completely roadblocked us, and it’s out of our control,” Hennessy said.
He added that “we’ll do everything we can, and see if we can’t push them along. … But it might be better to start the project in the spring.”
Mayor Ghalib said city officials must urge the state to speed up the project.
“Based on what they told us, we had informed our residents, and now they change the timeline, which makes us look like we lied,” Ghalib said.
Hennessey replied: “We understand the priority of it.”

Moving on, the council OK’d having part of Pulaski St., from Jos. Campau to the west Campau alley, to be a no parking zone, as well as to allow two-way traffic.
The request for this change came from a business that is about to open at 11815 Jos. Campau; to allow better traffic flow to a parking lot there.
In a note from the city administration, it was said: “This will also improve the safety of their customers by easing access to the secured parking lot.”

In a major development, the city is going forward with replacing the sewer line running under Goodson from Jos. Campau to Lumpkin, thanks to $12 million in grants.
John Hennessey, the city’s engineer, said his company has been working on this grant “for a very, very long time.”
“This is a major step in the reduction of flooding of the southend of Hamtramck,” Hennessey said.

In another matter, the council discussed what it should do about Councilmembers Khalil Refai and Muhtasin Sadman. At this point, they have missed, unexcused, four consecutive council meetings.
According to the city charter, any councilmember who is absent for five consecutive meetings unexcused is automatically kicked off the council.
Councilmember Mohammed Hassan said there has to be a limit on absences.
“It cannot be unlimited,” he said.
Hassan noted that the council did not give the two absent councilmembers permission to be absent. Both councilmembers are out of the country attending to family matters.
Hassan noted that their absence puts additional pressure on the other councilmembers not to miss meetings, because that would prevent a quorum and therefore the council’s ability to conduct city business.
“We are suffering,” Hassan said.
Serving on council, he said, “is a promise” to the community “to serve as best (we) can.”
Councilmember Muhith Mahmood agreed, saying that there should be a limit to the number of absences.
Councilmember Abu Musa said there is “nothing personal” about this issue, and that councilmembers “have to follow the rules. It’s a tight situation.”
Councilmember Hassan proposed to officially excuse both councilmembers for five meetings, but that going forward, their absences won’t be excused.
The council agreed with him.

Speaking on the matter of when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made a surprise visit to a Juneteenth celebration held at the city’s historic baseball stadium, Mayor Amer Ghalib said he was not informed about the visit beforehand, and thus missed the event.
Ghalib said he understands that some people don’t want to take a photo with him because “they think I’m a troublemaker.”
He did not explain what he meant by that comment.
Ghalib noted that Hamtramck is “my city,” and that anyone coming from outside Hamtramck has to notify him beforehand if they want to be “received” by him.
“This disconnect has to be solved,” Ghalib said.
Councilmember Mahmood said “we love our governor. She’s doing a great job for the state of Michigan.” However, he, too, feels “insulted” by the governor for not informing city officials of her visit.
“We still love you (Whitmer), and we want to welcome you in our great city of Hamtramck,” Mahmood said.
Mahmood said he hopes the governor’s apparent snub “is not a political game to punish us.”
He did not explain what he meant by that comment.
Councilmember Hassan said that state Rep. Abraham Aiyash, who lives in Hamtramck, should have notified city officials. Aiyash was at the Juneteenth event with the governor.
“Nobody is going to believe that he doesn’t know. … He neglected us,” Hassan said.