XML FeedsCity Council 01/22/08: code enforcement, public comments
City manager report
Crawford said that Paczki Day is on February 2, and the city has been asked to provide a shuttle bus from the parking lot on Holbrook to locations around the city to help with parking problems. He was corrected; Paczki Day is February 5. He said a parking holiday was also suggested because some people get parking tickets that day. Klein asked if there were any objections. No one answered. Crawford said he couldn't guarantee it would all happen, but the city would not issue parking tickets.
Crawford asked to schedule a closed session later in the week about the court case against the retirees. Klein said they should roll it into the special meeting scheduled for Monday. Crawford preferred to keep it separate due to time. Klein said he and the mayor wouldn't be available except for Monday night. Allen said the meeting about the settlement has been held up for a number of months. It was decided to discuss the settlement at the special meeting on Monday at 7:30 p.m..
Follow up:
Non agenda items
Shulgon said the streets are slippery and the city manager has to do something. He asked why we are paying high taxes if they can't get salt on the streets.
Klein asked how four code enforcement people in orientation that day were hired, and how the positions were advertised. Crawford said he didn't recall because he wasn't personally involved. Martin Ladd and "personnel" did the hiring. Crawford said they are trying to add a number of people "for various areas" and to deal with complaints.
Gordon asked if they were hiring four people. Crawford said they were hiring four part-time people. Gordon asked if they would be doing the same work the last code enforcement official did. Crawford said they would do some of that work, and also some of the business licensing work being done by the city clerk. Gordon said there is a big issue with code enforcement in town. Crawford said they would have people working non-traditional hours to catch illegal things going on.
Gordon asked if all four positions are filled. Klein said Ladd told him that four people are in process. Gordon asked why Ladd knew we hired four people and Crawford didn't. Crawford said he knew that hiring four people from a pool was the goal. Applications are kept on file for two years. Gordon said they should try to hire local people because there are qualified people who live here. Klein said they had no evidence that the four people hired are not residents. The people hired are contractors and not city employees. Allen said that is true if their employment agreements are properly drafted. He hasn't seen the agreements.
Klein said the city manager's contract prohibits the council from recommending or encouraging him to hire any city employees. Shulgon said contracts have to come before the council. Klein said it depends on whether or not the contract is covered by the purchasing ordinance. Allen agreed that services for personal service are covered by the ordinance, but contracts should come before both him and the council. He isn't confident that is happening. Klein said the purchasing ordinance allows the city manager to authorize contracts up to a certain dollar amount at his discretion.
Algazali asked if there was advertising, and said they hadn't seen any bids. Klein repeated that it is a breach of the city managers contract to recommend people.
Public comment
Teresa Smith said Crawford was supposed to call her about phones for senior citizens and never did. Crawford interrupted to say he collected a few phones and was involved through the program in other cities. Smith said she checked up on him on the internet.
Smith said the council is like children. She asked Ahmed how many meetings he missed. She has been lied to, and will work on getting rid of Solidarity. She is sick of them, and the council acts like puppets. She doesn't know who voted for Stackpoole, and asked if she's getting furniture from the Housing Commission.
Stackpoole said she is an employee of a non-profit that had $2 in the bank at the end of the year. Smith said the Housing Commission is giving the furniture for Stackpoole to sell rather than leaving it for people who live in public housing. There are a lot of people talking about it, and Smith is glad she isn't a politician. All the people the city has hired recently live in Grosse Pointe. Rob Cedar told her that people in Hamtramck are stupid, and Cedar prevented her from saying so at a previous meeting. Gordon is the only one on council who cares about the city, and the others treat her and Zwolak like dirt. They are all like children.
Klein said Smith was over the time limit. Smith asked if they intend to hire anyone from Hamtramck. The city has one of the highest tax rates in the state. Grosse Pointe used to be a part of Hamtramck, and now people there treat us like we live in a ghetto. Klein asked Shulgon if the resolution by the Housing Commission was solicited by Stackpoole. Shulgon said the things are all junk that they have to get rid of, and it was done with proper procedures. People can contact Kevin Kondrat to see the regulations and accounting.
Smith said they were giving the furniture to a councilwoman. Stackpoole said she doesn't take it home. Shulgon said Smith wants them to give things to people in Hamtramck, but complains now that they have. Stackpoole shouted that they give away emergency furniture to people in Hamtramck every day. Smith can come in to see the records. Gordon asked why Klein was allowing the discussion. Klein said he allowed it because Stackpoole was personally attacked. Stackpoole said people are referred to her and screened for income limits. Gordon was not allowed to talk.
Hedy Shulgon asked what services are considered general city services. Crawford answered fire and police services, streets, lighting, garbage, water, and sewer. Shulgon asked if those services are ever denied. She missed the discussion about profiling, but wanted to know why basic services are included in the ordinance if no one is denied. Gordon asked if she could answer her question. Klein ignored her.
Alan Ferszt was the forming Housing Code Director and code enforcement officer for the City of Hamtramck. He was shocked to hear that people were hired. Eight months ago, he was interviewed, passed a police background check, and was hired. He was then told there was no money for the position. He asked how the hiring got out of the hands of the manager and city council. He asked if the people hired are experienced. We want to keep quality people in this community, and quality of life and the participation of residents is important. Chasing people away will cause a downward spiral. Council should tread carefully and respectfully when it comes to the city managers position.
14 comments
That is a bad idea in itself because a local person will be hesistant to write up people for not being up to code on their properties. The code enforcement positions should be filled by people who have no relation to Hamtramck for the sole purpose that they issue citations equally and not by who they know. If we wanted a local person we might as well have hired someone from city hall who picked out who they wanted to issue a citation and based it on if they know them or not. You would think the city would of learned that the first time around!
Having Code Enforcement Officers that live in the city are not necessarily a bad thing; the problem lies when the officers are linked to any political figure! As far as I know the people hired do not have any political ties, and are all focused on making Hamtramck a better place to live!
Although I was not politically involved when I had that position, my father was a City Council member some years ago, and majority believed I followed his political views. That was entirely not the case. But because of what people thought I received alot of threats, and criticism, which led to me taking the new position.
I did the best job I could considering the lack of training and support I received! I tried to do Code Enforcement evenly throughout the community. Whether anyone noticed anything I did accomplish or not. I just tried to make Hamtramck a better place for all of us to live.
Good Luck to the New Code Officers, there is alot of change that needs to happen, and hopefully with the 4 of them that will happen quickly and efficiently.
To the people of Hamtramck, just remember that these people are just doing their job, and trying to make the Community better!
Haven't been on in awhile and I was interested in
getting some feed back from you on a law that was
recently passed in the city and one other topic.
The law states (not verbatim) that city employees may
not ask anyone where they were born.
I have heard that this law holds absolutley no
bearing. So why then was it even passed, let alone
brought up by the city attorney himself?
Also when the council was talking about the retiree's
lawsuit, why was Mr. Shulgon allowed to be present as
he is a party in the case?
Just looking for your opinions on these matters,
As Always,
A Friend of Truth
instead of concerntrating on the serious issues you pursued other insignificant matters.
for example: you held up many business license if they had too many words on their signs or have window signs.
many complied and look how ugly their signs are: ( Noor Tax, Asian Mart, Hanna Restaruant ( they just torn off their sign) , former Access location).
I do, however, think that saying that businesses would be "shut down" because they had an extra word on their sign is hyperbole. Which sort of makes the argument a straw man.
Was anyone actually shut down for such trivial issues?
I agree that the Zoning Ordinance needs to be revised, and has many things that are trivial, but that wasn't my job, my job was to enforce the Ordinance. There are many businesses, that did need to work on their signage, or other exterior issues, and there wasn't a way to enforce it to one business, and to overlook another business because their issues weren't that bad! We (the City) had to enforce it throughout! I don't believe any businesses were shut down just because of code issues!
I believe the city has hired four new code enforcement officials. I'm curious to see what types of things they target.
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