Hamtramck City Council holds first meeting since mayor's lawsuit over city manager's firing
It has been two weeks since a contentious Hamtramck City Council meeting sparked loud controversy when the council voted to fire City Manager Adel al-Adlani.
A few days later, Hamtramck Mayor Adam Alharbi announced a lawsuit against his own city council. On Tuesday, city leaders came together at the council meeting for the first time since that lawsuit was announced.
"I think what happened was out of hand, and our focus now forward is that we work together and make sure that we focus on the issues that matter to our residents," said Alharbi.
It was a seemingly normal city council meeting in Hamtramck on Tuesday night, a far cry from the last meeting two weeks ago, when a loud argument broke out after the council voted to remove al-Adlani. Alharbi and Councilman Nayeem Choudhury say the firing went against the city charter.
"Sometimes it doesn't go the way you want it; it turns out to go some other way," Choudhury said,
CBS News Detroit attempted to speak with the city councilors who voted to fire the city manager, but none would speak. However, Hamtramck City Attorney Odey Meroueh explained why he believes what they did was legal.
"What they did is they suspended the rules of the resolution, which they have the power to do; they have the power to do it by two-thirds vote, as long as they have four votes, and they had five votes this time. Which means they're able to suspend the rules, which means they're able to add an agenda item even if normally they wouldn't be able to add an agenda item. And in this case, it was to terminate the city manager, but of course it was done by the rules and the lawsuit will bear that out," said Meroueh.
Alharbi says the lawsuit is still active, and even though Tuesday's meeting was far more cordial, residents still voiced their frustrations.
"I hope we have better candidates and people in the election next year so we can do better and move our city forward," said Motahar Fadal.
"There's been a lot of name-calling, trying to figure out what's really happening," Mohammed Alam said.
While Diane Frkan told CBS Detroit, "I wish we could have this at every council meeting, you know, respect and professionalism, it's just refreshing to see. There's no yelling, there's no screaming, and things get done."
