It’s take two for CM hiring

City Treasurer John Gabor (right) talks with City Councilmember Saad Almasmari (left) after he was appointed as acting city manager.

City Treasurer John Gabor (right) talks with City Councilmember Saad Almasmari (left) after he was appointed as acting city manager.

 

Breaking news … As The Review went to press Thursday afternoon City Manager Katrina Powell announced that she was exercising her city charter duty and appointed Police Chief Anne Moise as Acting City Manager.
City Attorney John Clark also said that the city council’s appointment of Treasurer John Gabor as acting city manager made earlier in the week was invalid. He said it was the city’s manager’s job to appoint the acting city manager.
The city council, however, has the authority to reject Moise’s appointment and make their own. The council’s action must also be approved by the state-appointed Receivership Transition Advisory Board, which next meets on July 25.
Clark also said that Lieutenant Steven Smiscik will serve as acting chief of police while Moise is acting city manager.
Powell’s employment contract with the city expires at midnight, June 30. Powell did not tell councilmembers whether she planned to appoint an acting city manager.
According to Mayor Pro Tem Anam Miah, police officers have been instructed to not allow Gabor to enter the city manager’s office. Miah told The Review that as far as he’s concerned, Gabor is the legitimate acting city manager.
Miah acts in place of the mayor during her absence. Mayor Karen Majewski is in Poland.

By Charles Sercombe
Following the rejection of one interim city manager, the city council took another stab at making an appointment.
And once again the candidate is no stranger to the city.
City Treasurer John Gabor was tapped at Tuesday’s city council meeting to be the acting city manager starting this Saturday, July 1.
City Manager Katrina Powell’s employment contract expires after June 30. A bare majority on city council, Anam Miah, Abu Musa, Saad Almasmari and Mohammed Hassan, rejected extending her contract.
Powell has served here for the past two-and-a-half years.
The issues of extending her contract and filling her position have become heated and contentious for the past few months. The council has been divided on the issue 4-2, with Mayor Karen Majewski siding with Councilmembers Andrea Karpinski and Ian Perrotta in favor of keeping Powell.
The majority of four councilmembers initially appointed Kyle Tertzag as interim city manager, but that appointment was struck down on Tuesday by the state-appointed Receivership Transition Advisory Board.
The board said without explanation that Tertzag was not qualified to hold the position despite his past history of being an acting city manager in Hamtramck for over a year and a city administrator for the downriver community Woodhaven prior to that.
Gabor’s appointment still has to be approved by the RTAB, but that board doesn’t meet until July 25.
Gabor was placed on paid leave by Powell three weeks ago after he spoke out suddenly and critically during a budget work session with council and Powell.
Powell also has the power by city charter to appoint an acting city manager to take over after she leaves the job – subject to council approval. As of Thursday, when The Review went to press, she did not present an appointment.
The Review emailed Powell about whether she planned to make that appointment but she did not respond.
Gabor’s appointment was not smooth. The bare majority who voted for him had to suspend procedural rules in the council meeting to make the appointment. That suspension of rules may be subject to review and reversal.
Councilmember Perrotta said he was not against Gabor’s appointment but thought it would be better to do so in a special meeting to avoid violating any rule on the proceeding.
Councilmember Karpinski demanded to see Gabor’s resume. He was in the pool of candidates for the city manager’s job that was presented over two years ago. It was the same pool of candidates that included Powell.
The emergency manager at the time hired both – Powell as city manager, and Gabor as treasurer.
Gabor’s contract as Treasurer also expires with Powell’s on June 30.
Sources in city hall said the relationship between Powell and Gabor was distant at best.
The road to appointing an acting city manager has been rocky to say the least. Tertzag’s appointment came in a special meeting that was thrown together at the last minute and ignited a backlash from residents.
Reached by telephone, Gabor told The Review: “My intent is to go in as planned until someone tells me otherwise.”
The resolution hiring Gabor did not include a salary or for what length of time. Gabor told the council, however, he can be here three to four months.

 

3 Responses to It’s take two for CM hiring

  1. Roadman

    July 1, 2017 at 11:30 pm

    “City Attorney John Clark also said that the City council’s appointment of John Gabor was invalid….”

    What happened to J. Travis Mihelick?

    Mihelick had been described as the “City Attorney” of Hamtramck in prior issues of the Hamtramck Review and who typically has attended the Hamtramck City Council meetings the last few years as legal counsel alongside either Katrina Powell or the City Clerk.

    Mihelick – who had been several months ago promoted to partner at the Giarmarco Mullins Horton law firm – was present several weeks ago at the City Council meeting when an agenda item to offer Katrina Powell a new City Manager contract failed by a 4-3 vote. The next day a City Council meeting was held to appoint Kyle Tertzag as Acting City Manager and GMH attorney Steve Hitchcock appeared at that meeting – and at the last City Council meeting on Tuesday GMH associate Michael Bosnic appeared.

    There has been no announcement as to Mihelick’s current status or why he has not been seen at City Hall since his last appearance at the City Council meeting when Powell’s contract extension got voted down.

  2. Stan Zelmanski

    July 2, 2017 at 10:55 pm

    @Roadman:

    Checked a number of online sources regarding J. Travis Mihelick. This is what I found:

    (1)Mihelick is still listed as the City Attorney of Hamtramck on the State Bar of Michigan 2017 website directory edition;

    (2)per online Pacer federal court dockets, he filed notices of attorney withdrawal on June 19th in several federal cases in which the City of Hamtramck was a defendant and which he was a defense counsel of record;

    (3)per the Wayne County website, he filed notices of attorney withdrawal around the same time in several state circuit cases in Wayne County in which he was defending either the City of Highland Park or the City of Hamtramck – the City of Highland Park case he had been defending the City of Highland Park against civil rights violation allegations which also named P.O. Ronald Dupuis as a defendant.

    Mihelick’s unexplained departure has prompted speculation as to why he appears to have stopped representing the City of Hamtramck in various legal matters and if he will continue servicing the city in some capacity in the future.

  3. Stan Zelmanski

    July 13, 2017 at 5:56 pm

    Moise was rejected by City Council and Kathy Angerer was put forth and accepted by a majority vote of City Council.

    Angerer will now have to be approved by the RTAB to become the “Acting City Manager” until a full-time regular City Manager can be located and approved.

    Detractors have pointed out that Angerer cannot be expected to remain in her current job AND simultaneously perform duties as Acting City Manager as it would be too onerous.

    Expect loud voices to be heard during public commentary at the next RTAB meeting to contend that Angerer lacks the qualifications for being appointed.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *