For some candidates, this election will cost them extra money
By Charles Sercombe
A handful of candidates have some financial housekeeping to do if they want to be on the August Primary Election ballot.
A few of the candidates owe the city property taxes, and according to the city charter, anyone who owes the city money – or any other government agency – cannot serve on council or as mayor.
According to Section 6-08 of the Hamtramck City Charter:
“No person shall be elected or appointed to any office who is a defaulter to the City or to any board, or office, or department thereof, or to any school district, county, or other municipal corporation of the State, now or heretofore existing. All votes for the election or appointment of any such defaulter shall be void.”
In the mayor’s race, challengers Cathie Gordon and Asm (Kamal) Rahman are behind in their property taxes, according to the Wayne County Treasurer’s Office.
Gordon is listed as co-owner with her mother for their house at 2758 Norwalk. The amount due is $752.
Rahman owes over $2,600 for his house at 3096 Caniff.
Running for council, Gias Talukder is behind $664 for his house at 2388Neibel.
A few other candidates live in households, but are not the homeowners, where taxes are behind. They will not be held responsible for the delinquency and will remain on the ballot unless they owe other city departments money.
Mayoral candidate, and current City Councilmember, Mohammed Hassan may want to start looking for a new place to live. He currently resides at 2425 Neibel. It is owned by Omar Nakash who owes $3,759 and is facing foreclosure.
Nakash is a city contractor who is hired to trim and remove trees.
The issue of elected officials being behind in taxes and water bills has come up before in recent years, but no action has ever been taken to remove anyone from office.
However, this week the city issued a letter to those candidates who owe the city money to take care of the matter. It is up to the candidates to find out which city department they owe money to. That could also include incomes taxes, and also anything owed to any other government agency on the county, state and federal level.
If candidates fail to pay up by May 19, the city will remove them from the August ballot.
5 Responses to For some candidates, this election will cost them extra money
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Roadman
May 5, 2017 at 6:33 pm
Who is behind this “investigation”?
Is it the City Clerk Augie Gitschlag?
Is it the City Manager Katrina Powell?
Is the city incurring legal fees from the Giarmarco Mullins Horton firm for this “investigation” and issuance of letters?
Why isn’t Andrea Karpinski’s unpaid Water Department balance mentioned in the article? Even with her latest payment on April 13th, 2017 she still owes $8.35.
Has Mayor Karen Majewski covered unpaid sanitation charges associated with the Tekla Vintage controversy unearthed by Cathie Gordon?
It seems that many of the candidates mentioned in the article are critics of Katrina Powell or the Mayor. Is this “investigation” driven by politics?
Beverly
May 6, 2017 at 2:33 am
This is a good move by the city administration.
Candidates who owe water bills and property taxes should not be allowed to run for public office. It questions their fitness for office.
I am appalled at these allegations of defaulted obligations owed to governmental units.
What we should all hope for is that those who do not actually live in the City of Hamtramck but run for local office should be investigated and legal action taken to force their removal.
We applaud Judge Robert Colombo for finding that a school board member (Mr. Huda) gave false testimony about residing in Hamtramck when he really lived in Warren. Why has no formal investigation been taken as to Councilman Abu Musa living outside the city when the Review published an article citing strong proof he and his family were living in Warren?
Kudos to the city officials who spearheaded the criminal prosecution of the three Bengali-Americans from Hamtramck in connection with mishandled absentee ballots.
I strongly support the re-election candidacies of Mayor Majewski and Councilpersons Perrotta and Karpinski who are trying to clean up Hamtramck!
guest
May 6, 2017 at 9:11 pm
Mayor Majewski and friends had numerous years to clean and fix up Hamtramck. Times to try something new.
guest
May 9, 2017 at 9:38 am
“Mayor Majewski and friends had numerous years to clean and fix up Hamtramck. Times to try something new.”- Good point.
The city is missing “smart and professional people to serve the city. All of them are full bag of trash. The city of Hamtramck is best picture to show how they are doing their job ( the empty buildings, dirty streets and allies, speeding on streets ( in front of some schools the students have speeding race every day, and if you call police answer is simple ” sorry we don’t have car to send”, water bills are higher every month, and if you do basic count every house is now paying $500-800 more per year. And it is a lot more that going on…
Roadman
May 14, 2017 at 12:27 pm
@Guest:
Mayor Majewski did not even bother appearing at Friday’s City council meeting.
She has lost the confidence of most Hamtramck citizens to lead our city.