City Hall Insider … 6/24/25

By Charles Sercombe
The city council met on June 24, and all councilmembers were in attendance.
City Clerk Rana Faraj gave an update on changes in voting precincts. The city recently reduced the total number of precincts, from seven to five.
There is now one less precinct in the Community Center and one less precinct in the Senior Plaza.
All registered voters have received updated voter cards, and voters who have been voting in the Community Center and the Senior Plaza will continue to do so.
A lengthy discussion was held on whether to continue a contract with the company that operates the city’s parking meters in the central business district.
The president of Yemerican PAC, Alhassan Ashabi, said the meters have been a “source of frustration for many residents and business owners.”
He said that, at the very least, the city should reduce the cost to the public of using the meters.
Jonathon Marko, an attorney for police investigator Dave Adamczyk, demanded the mayor issue a public apology for saying his client has a criminal conviction.
Mayor Ghalib, he said, has “on repeated occasions publicly labeled officer Adamczyk a criminal despite the undisputed fact that he has never been charged with, let alone convicted of, a crime.”
Attorney Marko went on to say that the mayor continued to make that accusation out of “malice.” The accusation, he said, has “already damaged officer Adamczyk’s personal and professional reputation, and lacks any factual legal foundation.”
Marko demanded the mayor issue a public apology both verbally at the next council meeting, and posted on the city’s website.
(To date, the mayor has not done either.)
City Attorney Odey Meroueh said the city “denies those allegations, and we will deal with them in due time.”
Mayor Ghalib had earlier criticized Adamczyk for conducting an investigation into some of the actions of the police chief. He said only the council “has the authority to OK investigations – especially into elected officials.”
He added: “For outsiders to come and absorb our resources in the city, that’s unacceptable, especially those with criminal backgrounds.”

Regarding the parking meters, a man said he collected 200 hundred signatures from business owners and residents “whom have expressed deep dissatisfaction with the system.”
Former Councilmember Nayeem Choudhury, who is a candidate for council in the upcoming Aug. 5 primary election, urged the council not to renew its contract with the parking meter company.
Later in the meeting, after a lengthy discussion, the council agreed not to renew the contract. Councilmember Mohammed Hassan said some business owners told him that they would donate money to the city to help make up the loss of $200,000 a year in meter revenue.
Hassan said he will personally visit the businesses to collect the donations.
Councilmember Khalil Refai said:
“The company came here to make money. They (MPS) don’t care about business owners. We’ve been getting complaints like crazy. It’s time to say ‘adios.’”
Mayor Ghalib, who was also in favor of eliminating the meters, said the city will have to come up with a new metering system in order to offset the loss of $200,000 a year in revenue.
He said that eliminating the meters will have a positive impact for potential business growth in the city’s main business district on Jos. Campau, where most of the meters are located.
“More visitors will come; more investments will come to the main street, and hopefully there would be benefits and revenues for the city when this happens,” he said. “Hopefully, we can make up for the loss. … We don’t need to punish people to make money.”

In new business, the council agreed to spend $94,639 to reconstruct the roof of a building that will house police reserve vehicles. Funding will come from the city’s general fund.
Hennessey Engineers gave a recap of the infrastructure work performed in the city last year, saying that over 700 water service lines had been replaced throughout the community, and that the city had received $44 million in infrastructure grants.
In 2025, the company said over 1,000 water lines will be replaced, and the city received $3.5 million in infrastructure grants for alley repaving and repaving a parking lot in Veterans Park.
Councilmember Refai questioned why it’s taking so long to open Jos. Campau from Holbrook down to Veterans Park. That part of the street has been torn up to replace water and sewer lines, as well as getting repaved.
Hennessey Engineers, which is overseeing the project, said Wayne County has held up the project. Jos. Campau is owned and controlled by the county.
Mayor Ghalib questioned when street potholes are going to be filled. John DeAngelis, the director of Public Works, said potholes are being filled, but the fill material is easily washed out in rains and by road wear. He said the city has already spent $50,000 this year filling the potholes.

In his report, Mayor Ghalib said the city has made significant improvements with construction projects, such as repaving alleys.
“The city hasn’t been under so much improvements in the past, and the city is gaining more residents,” he said.
Ghalib said “it’s not true when you hear some newspaper saying that people want to leave Hamtramck. That is not true, even though you can hear negative publicity in the media, but that’s being weaponized against our community and it’s not true.”
Ghalib did not identify which newspapers have said this.
As for the upcoming election on Aug. 5, Ghalib said he doesn’t want voters “to be intimidated and not to go out and vote because of the negative publicity about voting in the city.”
While advising voters to vote in “legal ways,” he said: “Don’t panic and stay home and decide not to go out and vote. … Because that’s what some people try to intimidate you, not to go out and vote.”
Ghalib also encouraged residents to “be involved in the city issues, to educate yourself. We want people to have institutional knowledge of the city so they can work in the city when we need people to apply for positions in the city.”

Councilmember Muhith Mahmood said the council and mayor “are for you – not for us. This is what makes us benefit and make us happy because we come to service you, and not our own purpose.”
Mahmood also said that, without parking meter revenue, the city collects enough money through taxes from businesses to make up for the loss.
“We don’t even have to look for alternate or anything, they make for the city,” he said. “So we don’t have to rush. Let’s get in another year at least to see how things goes, and if we need to find alternate things. … They can move forward with some good idea and of course the president can input their own ideas as well.”

Councilmember Hassan said he will donate his next council paycheck back to the city in light of the loss of $200,000 a year in parking meter revenue.
He said the public should appreciate the work that councilmembers do because they are not paid much.. But, he conceded that, “We choose ourselves to be a public servant. That’s why we never complain about the money.”
Hassan also asked the media to wait for the results of the various investigations happening involving elected officials and some city employees.
“Please be patient,” he said. “The truth will come out.”
He said his reputation has been destroyed with the various accusations he may be facing.
“There’s an opportunity we can sue them who disclose, who discuss us wrongfully. We are coming after them, too.”

Mayor Ghalib said the council should look into what the governor is currently being paid to make sure they are getting the correct amount in compensation for serving on council.
The council’s yearly stipend is based on 2 percent of the governor’s salary, according to the city charter.
The mayor is paid 4 percent of the governor’s salary, and the mayor pro tem receives 3 percent.
The governor receives a yearly salary of $159,300. That translates to councilmembers receiving $3,186 per year, the mayor pro tem (Councilmember Refai) $4,779, and the mayor $6,372.
During public comment, Bill Meyer said council meetings could be shortened if the council, mayor and city manager do not give their reports of what they did.
“This was never on the agenda originally,” Meyer said.
As for deciding not to renew the city’s contract with the company that operates city parking meters, Meyer said: “What took you so long?”
To the mayor, Meyer said he “more or less campaigned, ‘We’re going to get rid of the meters’, and how long has it been now?”
“So thank you for doing it, but it took too long,” Meyer said.
As for the city’s local newspaper “rag,” Meyer said the “writer” of the paper “went after our mayor once again in the editorial, saying he doesn’t know Robert’s Rules, and he was way out of order. … The paper is not working on our side.”
(Editor’s note: The Review did not say that the mayor doesn’t know Robert’s Rules of Order. The paper did criticize him for likely violating the state’s Open Meetings Act (OMA) for demanding that City Manager Max Garbarino leave a recent council meeting because he felt “intimidated” by him. The city manager, who is on paid suspension, attended a council meeting as a member of the public and did not speak out or act up. The state OMA does not provide an elected official feeling intimidated as grounds to exclude a member of the public from attending a council meeting.)
Posted July 18, 2025