Councilmen on notice over attendance

City councilmembers have so far not excused the ongoing absences of Councilmembers Khalil Refai and Muhtasin Sadman. Both councilmembers are overseas taking care of family matters.

By Charles Sercombe
The clock is ticking for City Councilmembers Khalil Refai and Muhtasin Sadman, who have now missed seven consecutive council meetings each.
A few weeks ago, their council colleagues agreed, with some apparent reluctance, to officially excuse their first five absences, but, going forward, councilmembers agreed that their absences would not be excused.
And, so far, councilmembers have held their ground and not granted two resolutions to excuse their ongoing absences. The council did that by taking no action on the resolutions to excuse Refai and Sadman.
Refai is in Saudi Arabia, trying to straighten out his wife’s immigration issues, while Sadman is in Bangladesh dealing with his father’s death.
Both submitted letters to the council months ago, informing their colleagues they would be absent for indefinite periods of time.
But, unless an absence is officially excused by the city council, it is considered unexcused.
According to the city charter, if any councilmember racks up five consecutive unexcused absences, their seat on council is vacated.
Also, if any councilmember has 10 unexcused absences in a year, their seat is also vacated.
Councilmember Mohammed Hassan has been the most outspoken about his colleagues’ ongoing absences, saying that it puts a strain on those who do attend because, if one of them can’t make a meeting, there won’t be a quorum.
This means that, unless the four remaining councilmembers all show up, there can’t be a meeting, and thus city business cannot be conducted.
“It cannot be unlimited,” Hassan said about their ongoing absences. “We are suffering.”
Serving on council, Hassan added, “is a promise” to the community “to serve as best (we) can.”
This is not the first time Refai has missed a series of meetings. Last year, he was also overseas for about five months. This is Sadman’s first year in his term.
On social media, some critics have responded to the councilmembers continued missed meetings.
Former City Councilmember Phill Kwik was the most critical.
“These guys never work and they are excused for months. Shows you the great lengths the council will go through to not have a woman, Lynn Blasey, in leadership. Misogyny lives in Hamtramck,” Kwik said on the Facebook page “Hamtramck Square.”
Blasey would be the next in line to replace any councilmember whose seat is vacated or who resigns.
Another former city councilmember, Joe Strzalka, who is retired from the U.S. Foreign Service, where he dealt with immigration issues in foreign countries, said Refai may be doing more harm than good by staying.
“I acknowledge it’s hard when your spouse is overseas waiting on an immigrant visa, however I’m unaware of any legal requirement where the sponsoring spouse must be present for months at a time,” Strzalka also said on “Hamtramck Square.”
“In fact, I would think the adjudicating officer would start questioning the veracity of the supporting income documents if the spouse is overseas and not home working.”
Posted Aug. 2, 2024