Wayne County Circuit Court rejects former city clerk’s lawsuit

By Charles Sercombe
Former city clerk Rana Allen (formerly Faraj) was dealt a setback in her lawsuit against the city seeking financial damages after being fired from her job.
Recently, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Adel Harb dismissed her lawsuit.
According to City Attorney Odey Meroueh, if Allen wants to pursue her complaint, then she will have to go through arbitration. Any decisions by arbitrators are binding, he said.
Allen declined to comment, and referred questions to her attorney, Jonathon Marko. The Review reached out to Marko for comment but he did not return a call.
Shortly after being placed on leave by the city, Allen filed her lawsuit, which specifically named former mayor Amer Ghalib, the city council, and former acting city manager Alex Lagrou. She was seeking compensatory damages, attorney fees, and for the court to “grant such other relief as justice and equity require.”
Allen was also seeking to be reinstated in her job, and for the defendants to “cease and desist from all retaliation.”
In her lawsuit, she said that, prior to the election, some councilmembers — and one in particular who is not named in her lawsuit — have been “trying to find something to hold against her” after she informed the state attorney general’s office about ballot harvesting.
“This individual has a long, documented history of obstructing the election process, intimidating election workers, and openly ignoring procedures for his own benefit,” Allen said in her lawsuit. “Throughout the 2023 city council election, he consistently undermined my office’s efforts to carry out a fair election.”
In her lawsuit, Allen also accused the city of violating the Michigan Whistleblowers’ Protection Act.
Allen was placed on paid suspension after last year’s November election, when 37 absentee ballots were discovered in her office that had not been counted.
Allen said that, after discovering them, she submitted the ballots to Wayne County election officials.
Another reason cited for Allen’s firing was that she had a punching bag in her office with the face of former city councilmember Muhith Mahmood on it.
Mahmood was a candidate for mayor in that November election, but he lost to Mayor Adam Alharbi by 11 votes.
The Wayne County Board of Canvassers deadlocked in a 2-2 vote on whether to allow the uncounted ballots to be included in the vote tally. The tie vote meant that, by existing law, the ballots could not be counted.
Since her departure, one more uncounted ballot from the November election was discovered, bringing the total to 38.
Those ballots became a point of contention in the mayoral race. After losing the election, former city councilmember Mahmood went to court to have those ballots included in the tally.
He was initially denied by a Wayne County Circuit Court judge, but he later won in the appeals court. Mayor Alharbi has been appealing the court’s decision to have the ballots counted.
It appears Alharbi may have run out of options to block the counting of the absentee ballots.
According to sources, there is a good chance those ballots will be cleared for being counted in the coming weeks. If they are counted, there is a strong likelihood of Mahmood being named the winner of that election.
The uncounted ballots came from a precinct that is heavily populated by Bengalis. Mahmood is also Bengali.
Mayor Alharbi has now been in office for seven months.
Allen has followed two other city employees, former city manager Max Garbarino and police investigator David Adamczyk, in filing lawsuits against the city after being fired.
Both Garbarino’s and Adamczyk’s lawsuit results are still pending.
Posted July 31, 2026