Mayor floats idea of being city boss

Mayor Amer Ghalib

By Charles Sercombe
Mayor Amer Ghalib is taking another poll on his Facebook page.
This time, it’s not about whether he should seek another term as mayor, but instead it’s about whether to eliminate the city manager’s position and have a full-time mayor run the city.
Prior to the year 2005, the city charter called for a full-time mayor to oversee daily business, and the city council to serve as checks and balances.
That was Hamtramck’s form of government since it incorporated as a city in 1922.
Despite the charter being out of date for decades, for the most part, the city managed to survive, but by the late 1990s there was deep political division between the mayor and the then-city council that resulted in a deadlock over producing a city budget.
Eventually the governor of the state declared a financial emergency and appointed an emergency financial manager, in 2000, to take over control of the city.
It was during this time that a city charter revision commission was established, and, with voter approval, the city changed to a government with a city manager in charge, and gave the mayor and city council largely ceremonial roles.
So why the call for a possible charter revision?
Mayor Ghalib, who is seeking another term, was challenged by a resident at Tuesday’s council meeting over his motive for doing the poll. He said it was merely “on the table for discussion.”
Here is what the mayor posted on his Facebook page in introducing the poll, and we print his statement verbatim, with grammatical and spelling mistakes included:
“What do you think about changing the mayoral system in Hamtramck to go back to the previous system, a strong full time mayor, rather than city manager system?
“We can work on putting it on the ballot if the majority of our residents supports this proposal! That way the mayor can utilize his skills and most of his time to serve the city.
“What do you think if we changed the vertical system in Hamtramk back to normal, full time mayor and scrapping the city manager?
“Thus the mayor can harness all his means and time to serve the city. It needs to be held in the elections to be approved by the residents of the city.”
Here’s a sample of some of the comments on Ghalib’s Facebook page (so far, about 100 people responded, and the opinions seem to be swinging in favor of reverting back to having the mayor be in charge):
Moe Algumaei: “It would great idea and I don’t know why city manager exists anyway.”

Sanad Almadrahi: “I fully support this vision for Hamtramck. A strong, full-time mayor will provide dedicated leadership, direct accountability, and a clear vision for the city’s future. …”
However, there have been others who have questioned the move:

Saleh Sharhon: “This sounds like a power grab. Explain it.”

Fares Alhalemi: “This model needs a video to explain in detail.
But if the city manager has to go through the mayor and take orders from him, then it’s best to keep the situation as it is. …”

In 2005, former Hamtramck Emergency Financial Manager Louis Schimmel wrote in the conservative publication Michigan Privatization Report about the pitfalls in the city’s past of having untrained elected officials in charge.
“Because of the absence of professional management, past Hamtramck mayors and councils have given the city labor unions excessive pension, healthcare, days off, and numerous other benefits that are far beyond the city’s ability to pay. In addition, the lack of good management has cost the city millions of dollars in lawsuits,” Schimmel said.
Changing the city’s charter can be a complicated process.
If Hamtramck were to seek a fundamental change in the charter, such as going with a strong mayoral system, state law requires a charter revision commission to be formed.
The proposed revision would then need the approval of the governor before going to voters for their consideration.
According to the state, there are almost 300 cities in Michigan, and out of those 200 have what’s called a council-manager form of government.
The Michigan Municipal League defines that form of government as “the elected council appoints a professionally trained and experienced manager to administer day-to-day operations and make recommendations to the city council.”
Posted Feb. 28, 2025