Councilmembers sued over Conant property sale

By Charles Sercombe
Two councilmembers are saying “Not so fast” to the city’s recent sale of three Conant properties.
Councilmembers Yousuf Saed and Mohammed Alsomiri filed a lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit Court against fellow councilmembers Muhtasin Sadman and Abu Musa for voting to approve the sale of the city-owned properties.
Saed and Alsomiri accuse the pair of being related to one of the buyers, and also of failing to disclose their conflict of interest.
The councilmembers are seeking to prevent the transfer of the properties, and also accuse Sadman and Musa of violating the city’s ethics ordinance.
The Conant properties include the former Kabob House restaurant. The properties were sold to former owners Musammat Begum, Shaker Uddin Sadeak and Nehar Begum Nessa.
The name of which former owner who is allegedly related was not disclosed.
The former owners lost their properties due to delinquent property taxes.
Saed and Alsomiri are also contending that the councilmembers sold the properties at far below their true market values. Some critics of the sale say the three properties are worth a total of $400,000. The former owners were charged $100,000 total.
“Under Michigan law,” says attorney Mark Wasvary in the lawsuit, “a public officer who has a direct or indirect personal, familial or financial interest in a matter before a public body may not vote on that matter, and government action adopted through the vote(s) of a conflicted official is voidable at the instance of an interested party.”
Musa and Sadman were joined in approving the sale by Councilmembers Nayeem Choudhury and Mohammed Hassan, while Councilmembers Saed and Alsomiri were opposed.
Mayor Adam Alharbi was not required to vote on the resolution approving the sale.
Without the support of Musa and Sadman, the sale would have failed.
The Review reached out to Musa and Sadman, via Facebook Messenger, for comment but they did not respond.
The lawsuit is part of an apparent ongoing political and ethnic division in the all-male, all-Muslim council.
Councilmember Alsomiri previously filed an ethics violation against Mayor Alharbi, accusing him of orchestrating a voting maneuver to have council authorize taxpayers to pay his $200,000 legal bill.
That legal bill stems from an unsuccessful attempt to prevent 37 uncounted ballots from being counted in last November’s city election.
Mayor Alharbi dismissed Alsomiri’s allegation as “baseless,” and questioned his motives.
The council has also voted recently to censure Councilmembers Hassan and Choudhury, but those resolutions were later rescinded.
All these back-and-forth actions underscore the arguments and squabbling among councilmembers during council meetings and, reportedly, in closed sessions as well.
On top of all this, Hamtramck may soon have a new mayor. That’s because, after a months-long legal dispute between Mayor Alharbi and his mayoral challenger, former councilmember Muhith Mahmood, from last November’s city election, the Michigan Court of Appeals has cleared the way for 37 uncounted ballots from that election to now be counted.
That could result in Mahmood being named the actual winner in that election. Alharbi has been in office for just eight months.
Alharbi is also suing the council over its decision to fire former city manager Adel Al-Adlani.
Al-Adlani has, himself, also filed a lawsuit against the city over his firing.
Nor is he alone in suing the city. Former city manager Max Garbarino and former police investigator David Adamczyk are also suing the city after they, too, were fired by a previous version of the city council.
Posted Sept. 11, 2026