City Hall Insider … 3/25/25

By Charles Sercombe
The city council met on March 25, and all councilmembers were in attendance.
During the first public comment phase, Ahmed Sharaf complained about the litter and trash in Veterans Park.
Abraham Aljahim questioned what City Manager Max Garbarino has done about checking the residency of some councilmembers.
He also urged Mayor Amer Ghalib to publicly announce who he supports for mayor in the upcoming election.
(Ghalib has said he is not seeking re-election while he awaits being confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Ambassador to Kuwait. A few weeks after this meeting, Ghalib announced his support of Adam Alharbi for mayor.)
A man said that, in light of Hamtramck being the first city to pass an ordinance to allow the Muslim call to prayer, the city should also allow a Christian call to prayer, as Dearborn did.
“It’s actually something that Christians are told to do, (that) we should shout our message from the rooftops,” he said. “We want to tell the whole world, not just Christians.”
The man said he has spoken with a number of residents who are “on board with that.”
He noted that, in other majority-Muslim countries, “I would not be allowed to say this… I want to demonstrate we can have the same freedoms here that the Muslim majority does in Hamtramck.”
City Attorney Odey Meroueh said that, when the council passed the resolution regarding the call to prayer, all religious calls to prayer were included.
Hassan Aoun of Dearborn accused Councilmember Mohammed Hassan of committing a crime by threatening two men during a prior council meeting.
As for the councilmembers who may face charges of election law violations, Aoun urged them to resign.
Bill Meyer thanked councilmembers for their “calmness, sanity.”
He also said that Mayor Ghalib is being attacked by the Jewish organization, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), who has accused him of being antisemitic.
Meyer said the ADL is trying to block Ghalib’s confirmation by the U.S. Senate as ambassador to Kuwait. He said that “being against Zionism does not mean one is antisemitic.”
“So don’t be afraid of being accused of antisemitism,” Meyer said.
(In the past, Ghalib has spoken openly against Israel’s war strategy in the Gaza Strip).

A public hearing was held on reducing the number of precincts where people vote from seven to five, as state law allows.
In a note to city council about the matter, it was said:
“By consolidating precincts, the city can reduce expenditures on election equipment and operational costs. Fewer precincts will require less hardware and fewer poll workers, providing a direct fiscal benefit without compromising voter access.”

Moving on, the council OK’d the expenditure of two items for the Fire Department: a battery-powered extrication device ($29,215) and some upgrades for a new fire truck (totaling about $29,000).
The council also approved two water and sewer line projects and hired Hennessey Engineers to begin the initial planning steps. The projects involved alleviating the flooding problem on Trowbridge, and making upgrades on Evaline.
The total cost for both projects is estimated to be about $5 million, which would depend on the city getting grants.
And, in another potential upgrade, the council approved hiring Hennessey Engineers to begin planning for the repaving of a parking lot at city hall as well as to take care of ongoing issues with flooding in the building.

During the mayor’s report, Ghalib said he was invited to attend an iftar dinner at the White House, but noted that the city council wasn’t invited like it was when Biden was president.
He promised to look into the matter.
Ghalib said that this time he will pay his own travel expenses, unlike the previous time, in order that “people don’t panic.”
As for allowing the Christian call to prayer, Ghalib said it is already allowed.
“We value our co-existence in the city,” Ghalib said.
Ghalib then lashed out at some media reports about him, saying they are “very, very biased articles. You can tell when you read them. … The only thing left out is cussing me out in those articles, which is not professional, but I want to send a message to the people – you know, the radical media.”
Councilmember Hassan denied he violated election law, as alleged by the state attorney general.
“I did nothing wrong,” Hassan said. “I serve the people by the book.”
Councilmember Muhith Mahmood said America is being hypocritical when it comes to human rights for Palestinians in Gaza.
“Right now we talk about human rights,” he said. “We talk about the equality, but when Gaza people are fighting for their survival, it’s really difficult to celebrate Eid.”
Posted April 25, 2025