Council vacancy stirs up deep divide between city officials

Just who fills the seat of City Councilmember Titus Walters, who recently died, has caused deadlock on the council. A majority of councilmembers refused to follow the city charter and declare a vacancy that would start the process of naming a new councilmember.

Just who fills the seat of City Councilmember Titus Walters, who recently died, has caused deadlock on the council. A majority of councilmembers refused to follow the city charter and declare a vacancy that would start the process of naming a new councilmember.

 

By Charles Sercombe
At a special meeting last Friday the city council had one job to do, as required by the city charter.
And that was to officially declare the council seat formerly held by Titus Walters vacant. Walters had died a week earlier, thus creating the vacancy.
Mayor Pro Tem Andrea Karpinski made a motion to get the vote rolling, but no other councilmember would support it.
That left Mayor Karen Majewski exasperated and she called for an adjournment to the meeting, but not getting any support for that either, both she and Karpinski walked out of the meeting.
“The state will be very interested in this,” Majewski said before she left in regard to the council not acting on the vacancy resolution.
Just why Councilmembers Anam Miah, Robert Zwolak, Abu Musa and Mohammed Hassan refused to acknowledge the vacancy then became apparent.
They were opposed to who the city administration planned on tapping for the job, even though the city charter gives no authority to the council to get involved in that process.
The issue had been brewing days before the meeting was held. It comes down to how one interprets the city charter on who should take a council seat when a vacancy comes up.
The charter simply says it’s the candidate who comes in fourth place in the last general election, and if that candidate can’t take the position, then it goes to the fifth and then lastly the sixth. After that, it’s up to the council to make an appointment.
But the charter does not make a distinction when there is more than one council term in a race. In the case of Walters, he ran for a four-year term while there were several other candidates who ran separately for a vacant seat with two years left in its term.
The councilmembers who held up the vacancy vote believe that the next person to take the seat should have been selected from the term Walters ran for. Using that reason, they believed it should be Rashad Almasmari.
But complicating the matter was a similar occurrence in 2007 when a vacancy came up because of a councilmember’s death. That councilmember, Rob Cedar, had two years left in his four-year term.
Cedar was elected in 2005 where there were two separate council races, one for a four-year term and another for two years. That situation was an oddity since it was the first election for council since a new city charter had been adopted.
That first election had two different terms in order to stagger future council elections. The thinking was after that election all elections for council seats would be four-year terms.
When Cedar died in 2007, a question came up about who was the fourth-place finisher to fill his seat. The City Attorney at the time, James Allen, was asked to clarify the situation.
He submitted a written opinion that basically said when there is a split term race, to find out who came in fourth and so on, you combine the results of both elections.
The council at that time did just that, which then set legal precedent.
Using that formula, the city administration, with the advice of City Attorney Travis Mihelick, determined the person to take Walters’ seat is Ian Perrotta, who came in second for the term with two years left in the last general election.
The councilmembers who think it’s Almasmari’s seat weren’t alone Friday evening. There were about 20 others in attendance who mostly agreed and during the public comment portion urged the council to appoint Almasmari.
Those saying it should be Almasmari included the candidate himself.
Although Almasmari said the seat should be his, he also added: “I’m not hungry for this position. I’m very busy.”
The only one in the audience who spoke in favor of the Perrotta equation was Susan Dunn, who also happens to be running for council in the upcoming November General Election.
She said there was no such thing as a race for a two-year term in the last general election. She said it was an election for the remainder of a four-year term seat.
“It’s very clear,” she said of the charter, “the next highest number takes the seat. It’s a matter of law.”
The remaining councilmembers continued the meeting after the mayor and Karpinski had left. Miah was appointed by his colleagues to chair the meeting. A vote was eventually taken to ask for the state Attorney General’s Office to determine who should take Walters’ seat.
During the meeting there was a heated discussion between the council and city attorney Mihelick.
So, where does this leave the council?
City Manager Katrina Powell said she will talk with state officials on Thursday, the day The Review went to press, to determine what step to take next.
Hamtramck is still under state supervision since emerging from its financial crisis when Emergency Manager Cathy Square left last December. The management of the city is now back in the hands of a city manager.
But a state-appointed board continues to overlook all financial decisions. The board could conceivably cancel a purchase, contract or any other decision made by the city manager and council.
Powell said it’s likely that the council will be given a second chance to declare a vacancy at its next regular meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 13. In the meantime, Powell said she is seeking another legal opinion on the matter from the city’s current law firm.
As for the four councilmembers’ decision to not vote on the vacancy issue, Powell said she was “embarrassed” over how they acted and how that makes the city look in the eyes of the state.
There was also talk that the four councilmembers who continued the meeting after the mayor and Karpinski left violated the state’s Open Meeting Act by voting on resolutions not on the agenda and possibly violating the charter for failing to declare a vacancy.
One former councilmember, Scott Klein, has already taken action. On his Facebook page he asked for an attorney to step forward and file an Open Meetings Act violation against the four councilmembers.
At press time, Klein said he has not received any replies to his request.

 

10 Responses to Council vacancy stirs up deep divide between city officials

  1. Mark K

    October 12, 2015 at 3:48 pm

    Can’t we all just get along? This is not good for any of the residents of Hamtramick.

  2. Allam

    October 12, 2015 at 5:49 pm

    The problem with Jim Allen decisions and any other city attorney decision is that they are highly influenced by “some” city government officials. A decision by Michigan’s Attorney General is the best way to resolve this issue.
    Even though I wonder why would someone wants to be a councilmember seeing that they are dying left and right and that their psychology gets damaged by that position.

  3. Mark K

    October 12, 2015 at 8:38 pm

    There will be many more papers served in the near future.

  4. Resident

    October 13, 2015 at 9:42 am

    If I were Rashad Almasmari and if I were denied the council seat, I’ll have a strong winning case at 3rd circuit court of the state of Michigan.

    Election results were not combined then to pick winners and must not be combined now to pick a loser.

  5. Guest

    October 13, 2015 at 11:08 pm

    How this city is being run is beyond amazing. Selecting a candidate to fill a position he has not run for just out of the fear of the “Muslims”.
    Hopefully Mr.Proetta is ethical enough not to participate in this shameful mess.

  6. Michelle

    October 13, 2015 at 11:08 pm

    If Almasmari isn’t “hungry” for the seat and is too busy for the position, then what’s the problem? And th council meeting today was just like most others, temper tantrums and an embarrassment to the city.

  7. Allam

    October 14, 2015 at 3:15 pm

    It’s not about who’s “hungry” or “too busy”. It’s about running the city ethically and taking the right decisions regardless of religion or race.

  8. Moh

    October 15, 2015 at 1:05 pm

    If vacancy DID happen it should be automatically declared (a change to the next charter)

    They are using this loophole to stop the city from appointing someone.

    NOW .. it is Girls Vs. Boys ….

    and I am cheering for the ladies. 🙂

  9. neighbor

    October 16, 2015 at 10:48 pm

    what if the court case drags until the term Perrota ran for is over, would he still be selected to finish Titus’s term?
    This defies logic.

  10. Roadman

    October 19, 2015 at 4:30 am

    One Hamtramck LLC leader Bill Meier has issued a written statement denouncing the city administration’s actions in this debacle.

    He also spoke before City Council Tuesday.

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