Mayor begins changes

Mayor Ameer Ghalib

By Charles Sercombe
Mayor Ameer Ghalib is living up to a campaign promise to make the city’s various boards and commissions more ethnically and racially diverse.
Recently, he notified three Hamtramck Public Housing Commissioners, Tom Stackpoole, Richard Hyska and Isaac Reeves, that they are being replaced.
Stackpoole and Hyska are white, and Reeves is an African-American.
Ghalib also noted in his campaign that he would be replacing various board and commission members who have spotty attendance records, which Reeves apparently has.
The new appointees are: Kamal Rahman, Motahar Fadhel and Frances Ann-Tyler Sims.
Rahman ran for mayor in the last election, and has unsuccessfully run for the same position in previous elections. He is also a former President of the Hamtramck NAACP.
Fadhel is a local business owner, and Sims is a tenant in the Col. Hamtramck apartments, which is under the control of the commission.
Stackpoole, who has been on the commission for five years, told The Review that he told the mayor “I am disappointed we’ve never met or spoken.”
But he told The Review that he accepts the mayor’s action, and that he will advise Ghalib on matters concerning the commission.
Neither Hyska nor Reeves could be reached for comment.
Ghalib said that some people had questioned his authority to make the changes without cause, and in his weekly address to the community on Facebook, he cited the city charter, chapter 5, section H, where it gives him that authority.
The mayor makes all appointments to the housing commission while, on some other commissions and boards, he shares appointment duties with the city council.
Housing Commission Executive Director Kevin Kondrat said he accepts the mayor’s decision.
“We’ve worked with new commissioners before, and we will work to be our best,” he said.
The commission has come a long way since Kondrat was hired.
The housing commission now enjoys a “high performance” rating with the federal agency HUD, which oversees all public housing commissions.
Kondrat is hired by the commission, and has a five-year employment contract.
The commission operates both the Col. Hamtramck apartment complex on Dequindre St. and the Hamtramck Senior Plaza on Holbrook Ave.
In all, there 954 housing tenants – 797 in the Col. Hamtramck housing, and 157 at the Senior Plaza.
Posted April 8, 2022