Recent city manager resignation raised concern among officials
The city is now seeking candidates for city manager by advertising the position on the city’s website instead of using a search firm. The mayor and city council have said they prefer to hire someone who lives here.
By Charles Sercombe
The abrupt resignations of City Manager Kathy Angerer and City Attorney James Allen recently left the mayor and some councilmembers a bit confused.
A few weeks ago, Mayor Ameer Ghalib wondered out loud whether they were resigning because of him being elected as mayor — as well as there being some new councilmembers — or if there was something he or the council did.
“It was surprising to us that you are leaving,” Ghalib said. “Nothing happened from us. We had no intention of firing anyone.”
Angerer said that the mayor and council had nothing to do with her decision to take another job.
Angerer is now working for the state Department of Agriculture as a deputy director.
` “It’s been a good 10 years. … Hamtramck is in a good spot,” she said. “I don’t think I would have resigned two years ago because I don’t think we were in that spot.”
She added: “I’m not leaving because of any one of you. Some opportunities come to you that put a smile on your face.”
Allen also stressed that city officials had nothing to do with his decision.
“I’ve had zero friction,” he said.
But Allen said he has been faced with an onslaught of criticism from some community members, and has felt like “you’re walking with a target on your back.”
Ghalib said he is confident that the city “will keep running.”
So, just what kind of a city manager do the mayor and the council want?
They all agreed that residents with the experience or the education to handle the job will get preference.
“We need to prepare people from our community to take important roles in our city,” Ghalib said.
He added that the city charter “doesn’t say he has to be white for sure.”
Bill Meyer, who campaigned for Ghalib and is a local activist for minority rights, said the next city manager, ideally, would reflect the city’s Muslim community.
He also echoed Ghalib, saying the city doesn’t “need a white person.”
Posted Aug. 19, 2022
One Response to Recent city manager resignation raised concern among officials
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Mark M. Koroi
August 20, 2022 at 1:33 am
“Our failures with city neighborhoods are, ultimately, failures in localized self-government. And our successes are successes with localized self-government.”
Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
The City of Hamtramck has been plagued with poor leadership that has resulted in multiple lawsuits and federal indictments in the last several years.
City Council needs to hire professional apolitical management to operate the city and its departments. Good department heads and other effective city leaders have historically been driven out by toxic work environments.
Same can be said of effective vendors who have had to sue the city to get paid under contracts.
Legal fees ballooned from $200,000 per year under Emergency Manager Cathy Square to $400,000 per annum when City Manager Katrina Powell took over and later went even higher to $500,000 per year. Part of this increase can be attributed to defending legal actions against the city that could have been avoided but for management deficiencies.
The departing City Manager and City Attorney had a tough job to perform, for sure.
There has historically been a palpable absence of leadership in the City of hamtramck that has caused incompetence and inefficient to flourish and to permeate various levels of government.