City Manager fired in heated council meeting

Former City Manager Adel Al-Adlani

By Charles Sercombe
In an explosive five-hour city council meeting Tuesday night, a divided council fired City Manager Adel Al-Adlani.
Since Al-Adlani was hired back in February as an “at-will” employee, no reason was given for the firing.
His firing came at the behest of Councilmember Mohammed Hassan, who demanded the matter be included on the agenda as a last-minute add-on.
That led to a dispute with Mayor Adam Alharbi, who said Hassan has called for adding new items to the agendas too many times in the past, and was violating the state’s Open Meetings Act.
According to sources, after becoming city manager, Al-Adlani quickly became confrontational with some department heads and employees.
Al-Adlani came from Dearborn, where he had been part of that city’s administration in the Economic Development Department.
He had no prior experience as city manager, as is required by Hamtramck City Charter.
His initial hiring came under scrutiny when Hamtramck’s Director of Human Resources, Mashana Burton, accused Mayor Alharbi of trying to steer the hiring of the city manager toward Al-Adlani.
“The only person(s) being interviewed (are) the applicant you (Al-Adlani) like from Dearborn and Alex (Lagrou, the former interim city manager), who is already interim city manager,” Burton said in an email to Mayor Alharbi that was obtained by The Review through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. “Currently, we have 8 applicants with great resumes, and no sub-committee member has reviewed them.”
Alharbi responded in an email, which The Review obtained via a FOIA, saying: “I think you (Burton) should stay out of politics and follow the hiring process.”
Al-Adlani’s firing was just part of a push at Tuesday’s council meeting to also fire the city attorney and strip Councilmember Mohammed Hassan’s title as mayor pro tem.
Both of those proposals failed, with Hassan’s proposal being removed from the city council agenda at the beginning of the meeting — at Hassan’s insistence.
Tuesday’s council meeting underscores the growing political rivalry between the Bangladeshi councilmembers and Mayor Alharbi – a Yemeni-American.
Despite the ongoing friction between the two groups, in a May council meeting, Councilmember Hassan denied there was tension among elected officials.
“As elected officials, we are one team,” he said. “There is no chaos, no issue. I condemn the social media, try to split the community. It is one community, no question. We are good people. We are not doing anything for our personal interest, anything.”
Alharbi not only championed Al-Adlani, a Yemeni-American, but also the hiring of city clerk Sami Elhady, also a Yemeni-American, as city clerk despite his lack of experience as a clerk.
As for last Tuesday’s council meeting, it was one long rambling argument that kept erupting on different subjects. At times, it was nearly impossible to understand what was being said because of the heightened emotions, cross-talk and thick accents of the council members.
Also, at times, it appeared that a fight could break out. At about 30 minutes into the meeting, Mayor Alharbi continually gaveled for order and called for a recess.
At that point, the city’s live broadcast feed of the meeting cut out, and did not come back on for some time even as the meeting resumed.
The Review reached out to both Al-Adlani and Mayor Alharbi for comment, but neither responded.
Finance Director Syed Aamir Hassan is now the acting city manager.
On social media, the community did not hold back from criticizing the council and mayor.
“This is such a toxic city council meeting. Watching grown adults holler, interrupt, and scream at each other is embarrassing. The community deserves professionalism, respect, and actual problem-solving — not childish arguments,” said Maryann Nour.
Former city councilmember Joe Strzalka wondered what impact the behavior of city officials will have on attracting economic development here in town:
“I turned it on and boy that is difficult to watch. Three people speaking incoherently at once. I feel sorry for anyone who has actual city business to conduct and has to sit through that. Looking at it objectively, if the city has to float bonds, what person in their right mind would buy one?”
The meeting finally wrapped up around midnight.
Posted June 12, 2026