Mayor says he lived up to his campaign promises, and more

Mayor Amer Ghalib

By Charles Sercombe
Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib took a few minutes – 11 or so, to be exact – to address the community on the highlights of last year.
Ghalib has just finished the first year of his four-year term, and he talked to the community via his Facebook page.
He pointed out that he was able to deliver on his campaign promises.
“Some people thought I could not fulfill my duties,” he said, because of his work schedule as a “health care professional.” Ghalib is a licensed nurse.
“I actually proved them wrong,” he said. “I was able to continue serving people in the healthcare field” and fulfill his duties as mayor, which included attending every meeting, and representing the city in events held outside of Hamtramck.
Ghalib also said that this schedule came at a personal sacrifice of time away from his family, and said that he is also taking a 25-30 percent income reduction.
“But that’s OK,” Ghalib said. “It was expected. … The only thing not accepted is to fail in performing my duties and responsibilities … toward the community.”
He pointed out that, during the past year, the city hall workforce has become more culturally and racially diverse, as has the makeup of city commissions.
Ghalib also boasted that under his leadership “Only in Hamtramck can you see the mayor appoint his (political) opponents to boards and commissions.”
His example of this spirit of cooperation included appointing former Hamtramck mayor Karen Majewski, who he defeated in the 2021 election, to the Downtown Development Authority, and Kamal Rahman to the Hamtramck Housing Commission.
Rahman also ran for mayor in 2021, but did not survive the primary election to move on to the runoff between Majewski and Ghalib in the general election.
Ghalib said that Rahman became one of his advisors.
Under his leadership, Ghalib said, there’s been a string of investments into the city from the opening of large and small businesses.
One of the key investments, he said, is the e-commerce company, Xbox, which is redeveloping the former Missant plant site on Conant. That project will cost $19 million, and promises to being in 75 new jobs, the mayor said.
The city is also involved in development with the ongoing sale of city lots. For the past couple of years, the city has been selling lots to would-be developers, who are then required to build housing units on them.
That, in turn, will bring in more residents and more property taxes, he said.
The state also gave Hamtramck a financial helping hand by granting about $17 million to shore up its pension fund. That influx of money will take the fund to 60 percent of being fully funded.
That payment is expected this coming summer.
Recently, it was announced, by former U.S. Representative Brenda Lawrence, that Hamtramck will receive $300,000 to continue the replacement of lead water lines leading into residences.
The city also secured almost $1 million to build that last three housing units the city was required to construct in order to settle a longstanding housing discrimination case.
Ghalib pointed out that, with the completion of that housing, the city will also save what has amounted to millions of dollars for attorney fees for the past 40 years while this lawsuit dragged out.
Other highlights include:
o Ongoing grant money to upgrade and repair Veterans Park and the historic baseball stadium.
o Hosting a major international soccer match at Keyworth Stadium.
o A better deal on the city parking meters with the company that controls them – by shortening the hours of operation, and increasing the grace time to pay the meters for those wishing to quickly rush into a store to purchase something.
o Election ballots are now printed in Arabic as well and Bengali and English.
“These are just some of the accomplishments of our team,” Ghalib said in conclusion.
Posted Jan. 13, 2023