City Hall Insider … 7/22/25

By Charles Sercombe
A city council meeting was scheduled for July 22, but not enough council members showed up for a quorum to allow a meeting to be held.
Among those absent were Mayor Amer Ghalib, and Councilmembers Mohammed Hassan, Abu Musa, and Muhtasin Sadman.
Mayor Pro Tem Khalil Refai said that there had been one member of council present before the meeting started, but that member left.
“We had a quorum for a couple of minutes, and then a member left, so my apologies,” Refai said.
He did not identify the councilmember, but it was Councilmember Musa who left.

Mayor Pro Tem Refai and Councilmembers Mohammed Alsomiri and Muhith Mahmood held an informal meeting to allow the public to speak, and for the Director of the Public Works Department, John DeAngelis, to give an update on the city’s street sweeping program.

DeAngelis said the new policy is to allow people to park their cars until 8 a.m. on the day their street is scheduled to be swept. After 8 a.m., he said, cars will be towed.
He said the city does more than just sweep and clean the streets. At the same time as the street cleanings, the city is also cleaning out sewers and catch basins, trimming trees, filling potholes and painting curbs where needed.
Residents can park on their street after the street sweeping signs are removed. Some streets, DeAngelis said, take longer to maintain because there are more trees.
Councilmember Alsomiri said the city should not tow vehicles, but instead raise ticket fees. DeAngelis said that having one car parking on the street will mean two other areas of the street will not be cleaned because the street sweeping truck cannot operate close to a vehicle.
Leaving cars on the street, he said, is unfair to the “90 percent” who obeyed the signs and moved their vehicles.

During public comment, Bill Meyer took note of the missing councilmembers, saying, “We’re missing two people who don’t do anything anyway.”
As for the recent court ruling in favor of the city’s ban on displaying a pride flag on public property, Meyer said this was an “important” victory for the city.
“That lawsuit, in the first place, was really ridiculous and frivolous,” he said.
The lawsuit was filed by two former members of the city’s Human Relations Commission, Russ Gordon and Catrina Stackpoole, who were removed from the commission by the mayor after they challenged the city’s policy banning the pride flag by raising a pride flag on a Jos. Campau flagpole in defiance.
They filed a lawsuit against the city over the ban, and also for being removed from the commission.
Meyer commended Mayor Ghalib “for making the right decision to find a solution to work with everybody. It’s very hard when you have people who don’t agree with you.”
Ghalib and the city council, who are all male and all Muslim, banned the flag as a way for the city to remain neutral on the debate over the flag in the community, which some conservative members of the city opposed because it offended them.

Meyer also said that Mayor Ghalib was right about “laying off our city manager, because it was only fair and just to keep the person that was very involved in the charges also (is) off. So what he did was totally fair and just.”
(Editor’s note: City Manager Max Garbarino was not laid off. He was placed on paid administrative leave by the council at the urging of the mayor. Garbarino was suspended after he put the police chief on paid administrative leave because of alleged wrongdoing.)
Meyer continued on the decision to suspend Garbarino, saying: “I think it’s going to prove also correct in that area because we’re dealing with fairness in the law and justice here.”
Garbarino has subsequently filed a lawsuit against the city over his paid suspension. Meyer said that “people want to file lawsuits and make some money.”

Meyer also talked about the potential fate of the Yemeni mural at Jos. Campau and Goodson, which he said may be blocked from view if a plan goes ahead to construct a building next to it.
Meyer said an effort was made for the past five years to make sure the mural would not be blocked, and there was a thought that “we had a good deal going” with the developer of a lot next to the mural.
Meyer said he hopes someone in the Yemeni community finds “a solution.” Meyer added the mural is “world class.”
“It’s easily the best mural in Hamtramck by far,” Meyer said. “To lose it would be a tragedy.”
Meyer went on to say that there is “one politician” in town “who’s an opportunist who believes that you get votes any way you can get them.”
Meyer did not name the person in question.
He continued to say about this person that they are “someone who changes their mind to benefit themselves all the time. … All candidates should be working for the people, to be consistent, and not change their positions because they want a special vote or something.”
A woman gave her “heartfelt gratitude” to councilmembers for their “dedicated service to the community.”
Bill Meyer spoke again, saying that he has attended 1,000 council meetings “at least,” and said qualifications of candidates for office should include the following:
“Know the job you’re running for and what it involves and that you’re going to attend meetings, that you’re going to stay awake at the meetings, that you are going to be active at the meetings and actually contribute and talk and be part of the conversation.”
(Editor’s note: Councilmember Musa has been accused of sleeping during council meetings, which he has denied.)
Meyer said Mayor Ghalib is “best we ever had as far as unifying people together.”
Posted Aug. 8, 2025