In our Opinion … Councilmembers need to be held accountable for votes

There’s one annoying – and growing – habit we’ve noticed among city councilmembers.
And that’s the lame way some of them avoid making difficult, or unpopular, decisions by abstaining from a vote.
The use of the abstention option is supposed to be narrowly limited.
While it’s the right for anyone sitting on a public body to abstain from any vote, the conventional rule is that it’s done only when one has a conflict of interest in a particular matter.
Abstaining from a vote is also sometimes done when an elected official lacks the information to make an informed vote, or when there’s an ethical conflict of interest.
The most recent egregious example of the abuse of voting abstention is when five (of six) councilmembers were in attendance at a meeting, and two of them abstained as to whether Hamtramck taxpayers should foot the mayor’s $200,000 legal bills.
Mayor Adam Alharbi is trying to prevent the inclusion of 37 uncounted absentee ballots from being counted in last November’s election, in which he squeaked to victory by an 11-vote margin.
Including the ballots in the election tally could overturn the results, and the mayor could find himself no longer in his position. He started this legal action on his own, without any prior city council authorization.
In other words, this is a personal matter – although the mayor argues it should be a concern for the city as well.
The vote to approve paying his legal bill was passed by two paltry “yes” votes, against one single “no” vote (with the two abstentions as well).
A mere two councilmembers making a huge financial decision like this for the city’s taxpayers is wrong on so many levels.
And the fact that two councilmembers, Nayeem Choudhury and Muhtasin Sadman, chickened out from voting on this matter is inexcusable.
Unfortunately, there’s no penalty for councilmembers who take the easy way out and abstain from a vote.
But voters should keep score on who steps up to do their job and who shirks their duty for no good reason.
Posted Aug. 14, 2026