City clerk’s handling of his job raises the bar
City Clerk August Gitschlag is leaving Hamtramck for a new job, and we wish him the best.
Hamtramck’s loss is the City of Clawson’s gain – which is where Mr. Gitschlag is going, to be that city’s new clerk.
Under his watch for the past seven years, he has streamlined, and upgraded our city elections, and made them run more smoothly.
The last presidential election proved to be a true challenge, because of the historical outturn of voters. Gitschlag’s office was overwhelmed by over 9,000 voters, many of them voting by absentee ballot, but he and his elections workers rose to the challenge.
Mr. Gitschlag has also been even-handed and fair-minded in handling candidates and their inquiries.
It’s not an easy thing to do when you are getting multiple demands and requests, but through it all Mr. Gitschlag has handled himself professionally.
And, often, he has maintained a sense of humor.
We look forward to working with his replacement, Rana N. Faraj, who is the city’s first Arab-American to hold this position.
Her hiring is no accident. This administration has reached out to make the city’s work force more representative of those who reside in the community.
We wish good luck to Mr. Gitschlag, and good luck to Ms. Faraj.
Posted May 21, 2021
5 Responses to City clerk’s handling of his job raises the bar
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Mark M Koroi
June 9, 2021 at 12:18 am
What about the Voting Rights Act lawsuit that was recently filed against the Cit of Hamtramck.
Augie is mentioned in an article:
http://www.newsindiatimes.com/south-asian-voters-sue-hamtramck-mi-for-alleged-voting-rights-violations/
The action was filed by the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Fatema Hossain
June 9, 2021 at 11:46 am
This is huge news in the Bangladeshi-American community.
Why hasn’t the Review done a story on it?
Have city leaders commented on the suit?
csercombe
June 9, 2021 at 12:49 pm
the lawsuit was filed June 3rd, unbeknown to us. the city has not been served yet. even when the city is served it is customary these days for those being sued to not comment — so don’t expect much there. The Review will be doing a story on it. Just so you know, state election officials take care of translations — not the city.
cs
Fatema Hossain
June 12, 2021 at 2:36 pm
CAIR officials were aware of the issues but a separate civil rights group decided to actually file suit against the City of Hamtramck.
According to a CAIR official I communicated with, the legal action involves, at least partially, a dispute with the city about which dialect is dominant among residents in the city.
Mark M. Koroi
June 12, 2021 at 6:15 pm
Here is a link to an article addressing some of the issues involved in the lawsuit and mentions former city Clerk August Gitschlag:
http://www.detourdetroiter.com/michigan-voting-other-languages-access/
In the past, the City of Hamtramck has been in litigation with the United States Department of Justice resulting in the imposition of a consent decree:
http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/crt/legacy/2010/12/15/hamtramck_cd03.pdf