Councilmember is not a ‘defaulter’

Anam Miah

Anam Miah

 

By Charles Sercombe
Councilmember Anam Miah won’t get kicked off the city council.
That’s the verdict from City Attorney John Clark in answer to an accusation made by a resident that Miah was a defaulter at the time he was elected to office in 2015.
Carrie Beth Lasley, a government watchdog, recently submitted documentation to the city showing that in 2015 Miah lost property he owned in Detroit to foreclosure after failing to keep on top of property tax payments.
According to the City Charter, any public official who falls behind on bills owed to Hamtramck or any other government agency is a “defaulter” and thus disqualified from holding office.
In a letter to Lasley, which Lasley shared with The Review, Clark looked past the city charter and referred to the definition of a defaulter in Black’s Law Dictionary.
According to that definition, Miah was past being in default at the time of his election, and thus not guilty of being in default to the city.
But Lasley pointed out that the city charter’s reference to being a defaulter does not have a time limit.
Furthermore, Lasley said the charter requires a hearing on the matter, which was not conducted.
“This is the outcome I had anticipated and why it was important to abide by the Charter, which proscribed a public hearing for such matters,” Lasley said in an email to The Review. “However, our city attorney, like many of our city officials, doesn’t feel obliged to follow laws that they do not like.”
Lasley said she is considering whether to pursue the matter in court. Ultimately, she said, she hopes when Miah is up for re-election in two years voters will remember this issue.
“It was never important to me to unseat Councilman Miah. I would prefer to see him rejected by his peers at the ballot box so that he cannot point to me and the color of my skin and claim to be a victim, which he has become apt to do,” said Lasley, who is white.
Miah is a Bangladesh-American and has accused critics in the past of being biased against him because of the color of his skin and him being a Muslim.
The issue of city officials being in default to the city is not new. In the past few years it came to light that a few elected officials had fallen far behind in water bills.
One elected official, Councilmember Mohammed Hassan, even had his water turned off for non-payment of his bills.
At the time that issue arose, the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager who refused to follow up on the matter.

Published October 20,2017

5 Responses to Councilmember is not a ‘defaulter’

  1. Uncle Cooter

    October 22, 2017 at 2:26 pm

    “Miah is a Bangladeshi-American and has accused critics in the past of being biased against him because of the color of his skin and him being a Muslim.”

    This is absurd! I would like to know the name of one Bangladeshi-American or other Muslim in Hamtramck who believes this.

    Carrie Beth Lasley should be commended for her work in seeking the removal of any elected official who do not pay their obligations.

    Some residents are making hay over the fact she is a friend of Mayor Majewski and feel that Karen is hind this – more poppycock!

    I hope Carrie Beth pursues this matter in court. John Clark needs to become aggressive in pursuing these matters with city officials.

  2. Neighbor

    October 24, 2017 at 1:56 pm

    Discrimination against Muslims in Hamtramck is alive and well. Hopefully it will go away in the future when more Muslims are allowed into city’s administration.

  3. Stan Zelmanski

    October 25, 2017 at 8:48 pm

    “Discrimination against Muslims in Hamtramck is alive and well……”

    Nayeem Choudhury, candidate for City Council, announced at a recent council meeting that his dad was arrested by police while campaigning; Mr. Chouhdury himself claimed he was also detained at the police station while trying to see his father.

    Mr. Choudhury vowed, at that City Council meeting, a federal lawsuit would be filed by him in response.

  4. Guest

    October 26, 2017 at 1:55 am

    It’s amazing how only Muslim candidates get investigated based on rumors while others are ignored.

  5. Stan Zelmanski

    October 26, 2017 at 11:26 pm

    “It’s amazing how only Muslim candidates get investigated based on rumors…….”

    Several points:

    (1) When have you ever seen MSP impound a car during an election law violation investigation?

    (2) why would MSP detain a City Council candidate and his father without any declared or apparent probable cause that they had committed any crime?

    (3) which judicial officer signed the the search warrants that resulted in the raids – was it a judge or magistrate out of the Hamtramck District Court?

    (4) why would MSP NOT place a higher priority within Hamtramck during the preceding two months on investigating such pressing matters as: (a)the spate of speeding, reckless, and hit-and-run drivers that have resulted in serious injury; (b) the abductions and assaults of young women on bicycles; (b) the recent shootings at the White Star Night Club?

    (5) MSP Director Kirste Kibbey Etue recently had her pay docked for five days by Governor Snyder for posting an article on her Facebook site labeling kneeling NFL players “anti-American degenerates” – a post criticized by the Michigan NAACP and the ACLU of Michigan;

    (6) why would the MSP plan on “wrapping up” their probe and issuing a public statement of their findings at the conclusion of such an “investigation” coincidentally just prior to Election Day – it kind of smells like an “October Surprise” akin to 2013 when hundreds of residents had their water shut off the day of the August primary election;

    (7) how much “support” did the Hamtramck P.D. give to the MSP investigators and how was the MSP probe initiated – did, for example, the City Clerk play a role in making initial reports to the MSP?

    (8) why no media coverage of the recent developments in federal court litigation involving local police officials – such as Judge Paul Borman scheduling a jury trial in the civil rights action by auto dealer Sam Habib naming Anne Moise and other local police officers – as well as the city – as defendants arising out of the operation of the COBRA auto insurance fraud investigation unit?

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