Hamtramck's new mayor, Adam Alharbi, was sworn in on Sunday. 

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the potential outcome of the Michigan Supreme Court's ruling on whether to include the 37 absentee votes that were found uncounted after the November election, Alharbi is hitting the ground running.

"I'm excited; I just went into my office and looked at a few things that we can improve in the city," he said on Monday. 

Alharbi said he wants to begin work on the long-term plans for the city's growth and development. He also says there are issues that residents have discussed with him that he wants to tackle as well. 

"They're concerned about high water bills; they're concerned about the property taxes, code violations — things that I'm going to look into and try to see how to help our residents," said Alharbi. 

Part of the work early in his mayoral term will be hiring. Alharbi said multiple department heads and important positions like the city clerk and a public information officer position all need to be filled. However, all this work does have the shadow of doubt looming over it, as the Michigan Supreme Court could decide to weigh in on the 37 votes that were not counted. 

"The important thing here is count the votes, no matter who they benefit," said Mark Brewer, attorney for Muhith Mahmood, who lost the election by 11 votes. 

Brewer said if the Michigan Supreme Court decides to weigh in, the votes need to be counted, and if those votes change the outcome of the 2025 election. 

"There would be a legal requirement at that point that he would have to step aside because he did not win the election," said Brewer.

Alhabi said he doesn't think it'll come to that. 

"I don't think they'll be counted; there's no way," he said. "They violate the Michigan law, and there's no chain of command. They were found after the election, and they were found compromised, so no way they can be counted."