School Boardmember is fighting back to regain his seat

Former School Boardmember Mohammad Huda is not going away quietly. He has filed a lawsuit against the School Board after the Board declared his seat vacant. The Board made that decision because it believes Huda does not live in the city.

 
By Charles Sercombe
In an expected move, former Hamtramck School Boardmember Mohammad Huda is suing the public school district to get his job back.
Huda was elected to the board in 2014, but was removed several weeks ago after a majority on the board agreed that he does not live in the city. Based on an opinion by the state Attorney General’s Office, if the board believed there was evidence to support that claim, Huda’s seat was then automatically vacated.
Last week the board voted to replace Huda with Salah Hadwan, who will fill the seat for one year until the next election is held.
In his lawsuit, Huda insists he is a resident and that the board overstepped its authority to remove him.
Huda is seeking reinstatement as well as reimbursement for attorney fees and “disbursement” to himself.
Huda did not return calls for comment. But his attorney, Mark Brewer, the former Chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, called the board’s action a “coup-d’état.”
“The School Board has no authority to remove somebody,” Brewer said. “Mr. Huda was voted in by the people.”
School Superintendent Tom Niczay declined to comment, saying it’s “premature” at this point while school attorneys are still reviewing the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed last Friday, Feb. 12.
The school board began investigating Huda’s residency status last summer following a Review story about him claiming a 100-percent Homestead property exemption for a house in Warren.
The district hired a private investigator to look into the matter. Among the findings was that the Hamtramck house Huda claimed to live in was without water service for several weeks.
The investigator also encountered Huda’s brother at the Warren house where he claimed a Homestead exemption, who — in the presence of a Warren police officer — admitted Huda lived in the house.
At the time of the encounter the investigator saw Huda drive by but did not stop.
In the lawsuit, Brewer points out that the Secretary of State office, the Hamtramck City Clerk and the Governor’s Office declined to take action on removing Huda from office.
But the governor’s response was a little more nuanced. It said that based on an opinion by the state Attorney General, there was need no for the governor to remove Huda.
Instead, the state said that if the board believed there was enough evidence that indicated Huda was not a resident, all it had to do was to declare his seat vacant.
During the period of the investigation, Huda did not talk about his residency nor put up a defense. He was not present at the board meeting when his seat was declared vacant.
Brewer said it was not Huda’s “responsibility to defend himself.”
Brewer added that there might be an issue with Huda being a Bengali and a Muslim.
“If the lawsuit goes forward we will investigate that,” Brewer said.
There is one other Bengali on the board and there has been a Yemeni-American who served a partial term before resigning voluntarily.
The boardmember appointed to fill Huda’s seat is a Yemeni-American.
The issue comes at a time when the school district is seeking a millage renewal for the Recreation Department. That election is on May 3.