Mayor Ghalib says the city has rebounded and will grow

Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib gave a recap recently at the Hamtramck Public Library of what has happened in the city for the past two years, and also what to look forward to in the coming years.

By Charles Sercombe
Hamtramck’s financial picture has made a drastic turnaround in recent years, says Mayor Amer Ghalib.
Recently, Mayor Amer Ghalib spoke at the inauguration ceremony of three city councilmembers, and gave what is basically a state of the city address.
At the event, held a few weeks ago at the Hamtramck Public Library, Ghalib gave a recap of events since he took office two years ago.
Ghalib is the city’s first Yemeni-American and Muslim mayor in Hamtramck’s over 100-year history of being predominantly a Polish enclave.
He said, prior to taking office, that the financial forecast for the city were dire, with anticipated deficit spending that would eat up the city’s budget and possibly lead to a third state-appointed emergency manager to take control of the city.
That prediction has turned around, he said.
“For the past two years, Hamtramck has achieved a lot of success,” he said. “There is so much stability in city hall. There’s prosperity, economic growth, population growth as well. And for the first time, two consecutive years of a budget surplus – something that was not in the mind of the most optimistic person.”
(In the few years leading up to Ghalib taking office, Hamtramck had a budget surplus but was in deficit spending.)
Ghalib acknowledged that Hamtramck has received $32 million in various grants since 2023. Some of those grants were in the works before Ghalib took office, and most of them were one-time only.
The mayor said that part of the city’s turnaround is based on political stability, something the city has not enjoyed for many years. Gone are the outbursts of elected officials and the combative stances some previous councilmembers exhibited.
“That used to be the norm in Hamtramck politics in the past,” Ghalib said, of Hamtramck’s rough and tumble reputation.
“We have created an environment that attracts people from all over the U.S. and also immigrants to this safe environment,” he added.
As for future development, the mayor said the city is “expecting hundreds of millions” to be invested.
And that investment, Ghalib said, means that there will be “thousands of new jobs.”
Ghalib did not explain the nature of these upcoming investments, but, last March, American Axle announced it was considering expanding its manufacturing here to an extent that would total over $400 million.
Most of the American Axle site is on the Detroit side of the Hamtramck border, but there is a sizeable chunk of land on Hamtramck’s side, which, if the development happens, would mean additional property taxes and income taxes.
Hamtramck’s ongoing infrastructure repairs, he said, will continue.
“We are repairing so much of the underground sewer system, lead (water) lines replacement,” he said.
The mayor said that some of the sewer and water line replacement has required a “slight increase” in water bills for households and businesses.
Street and alley repaving, an ongoing program that preceded Ghalib, will continue, he said.
“You will see so much construction,” he said.
Part of the city’s restructuring includes bringing more work back in-house to the Public Services Department, which had previously been relying mostly on contracted-out services.
Prior state-appointed emergency managers gutted the Public Works Department and contracted out the services. The city still has a contractor for weekly garbage collection.
Ghalib said the city has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase trucks and equipment for the department, such as street sweepers and plows for snowplowing.
He noted that, when he initially took office, he had a “secret” meeting with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who followed-up on a proposal that preceded his taking office in which the Hamtramck and Detroit fire departments would be merged.
Ghalib said he asked, point-blank, how much that would save the city financially, and was told it would be anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000.
Ghalib said that savings wasn’t enough to face “a political battle in the first month of taking office.”
Now, the plan is to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace the department’s aging fire trucks.
In city hall, things have changed as well. Ghalib said that there is now a city hall workforce made up of “people of color, people of different backgrounds.”
Ghalib said that he will continue to treat everyone “neutrally” and without discrimination. However, he said he won’t be neutral when it comes to speaking out against oppression in the world.
“We will stand against oppression and injustice forever,” he said.
In an act of solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the city council recently passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s invasion of Palestine, and then also gave Holbrook the honorific name “Palestine Ave.”
Posted Jan. 26, 2024