Dearborn Heights City Council candidate Nadine Jones (second from left) answers a question while Councilwoman Lisa Hicks-Clayton (left), Councilman Ray Muscat and candidate Rose Tripepi listen during the League of Women Voters Dearborn-Dearborn Heights forum July 18.
By ZEINAB NAJM
Times-Herald Newspapers
HEIGHTS — Eight of the nine candidates vying for three seats on the City Council answered important questions during a League of Women Voters Dearborn-Dearborn Heights forum at the Caroline Kennedy Library, 24590 George Ave. on July 18.
The candidates are incumbents Dave Abdallah, Lisa Hicks-Clayton, and Ray Muscat, former Councilman Ned Apigian, and newcomers Jamal Bazzi, Larry Henney, Stephen Henry, Nadine Jones and Rose Tripepi.
Bazzi was not in attendance because he was taking care of his wife who just had surgery, moderator Lorelei Muniz said as she read his opening statement.
Three seats are open on the city council, all held by the incumbents who are seeking re-election this year. Abdallah has been on the council since 2016, Hicks-Clayton since 2012 and Muscat since 2015.
The Aug. 6 primary election will narrow the nine candidates down to six and on Nov. 5 election voters will determine who fills the four-year term seats on the council.
Hicks-Clayton said she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science, taught for 21 years and has spent 30 years as a community servant. She has been on the council since 2012.
Jones earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and will be graduating with a master’s degree in public administration and public policy in December along with starting the non-profit Love a Michigan Vet Project. She also works as an airline fight attendant.
Muscat has been a resident of Dearborn Heights for over 50 years, a graduate of Crestwood High School and retired Ford Motor Co. employee of 42 years. He has been on the council since 2015.
Tripepi earned an associate’s degree, travel agent license and retired from UAW Ford of 34 years along with volunteering at the Eton Senior Recreation Center. She’s lived in Dearborn Heights since 1972.
Abdallah has worked as a real-estate agent in the area for 31 years, earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing from University of Michigan-Dearborn and served on various boards. He has been on the council since 2016.
Apigian served on the city council from 2011 to 2015. He holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture, master’s degree in urban planning degree and is licensed by the state as an architect, professional community planner, and resident builder.
Henney has worked as a Realtor for 31 years, earned a business degree at Highland Park Community College and assisted multiple cities in implementing their neighborhood stabilization programs.
Henry owns Leader Printing and Mailing in Dearborn Heights, graduated from Cherry Hill High School and worked at Crestwood High School as a football coach from 2001 to 2016.
Dearborn Heights Councilman Dave Abdallah (left) takes notes as candidates Ned Apigian and Larry Henney listen to Stephen Henry answer a question during the League of Women Voters Dearborn-Dearborn Heights forum July 18.
According to this Facebook, Bazzi is a business owner and engineer at ExxonMobil, studied at Henry Ford College and has lived in Dearborn Heights for 19 years.
During the forum, candidates had the opportunity to make an opening and closing statement while answering questions from the LWV and community — which were screened beforehand.
The seven questions asked were
• How do you plan to reach out and learn the residents’ concerns in order to act as their voice in city government?
• How will you ensure that residents in both north and south Dearborn Heights feel that they are fairly and adequately represented?
• What city services do you support for residents affected by flooding?
• How do you plan to ensure the continued delivery of city services, such as street plowing and maintenance and was management, to meet the needs of residents?
• What can the city do to attract, cultivate and establish small businesses?
• Would you support increasing revenues in support of parks and recreation services; why or why not?
• How will you prioritize the funding of city services for senior citizens?
While answering the first question asked about reaching out to residents and learning their concerns, the candidates provided a wide range of responses.
“I am pretty open, I have my own non-profit so I’m always available and always in the community,” Jones said. “I am active, so if anybody ever wants to call me, email me, want to meet for coffee — I graduate in December and will have plenty of time. Currently, I am only working eight days a month with the airlines — so being a city council member ‘I want to be here, I want to be available to you all,’ and that I hope to work alongside the rest of everyone else. I want to see something different within the council. I want everyone together and work together because it’s very important to be able to work together to be able to serve you all better.”
“I have made myself available 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Muscat said. “I am willing to bet that seven-eighths or fifteen-sixteenths of the city has my phone number on speed dial. I think my wife can attest to that. So, I’m available anytime, any place for anything. I don’t care if it’s for coffee, come to my house or go to your house, I’ve been visiting people when they call. I don’t turn anyone away for anything. It’s my job to represent you, not you represent me.”
“I would love to get out and, have the people contact me or get out in the street and see what they need,” Tripepi said. “I did want to go and have started on some of this, going to the directors of the different departments and asking, ‘What do you expect of a city council person? What do you expect if I get elected, for me to do to make it easier for you?’ That way it will trickle down into the residents and to the people that work in the city.”
“I do the same thing as I do in my real estate business with Century 21,” Abdallah said. “I am always available to all my clients at anytime just about to get a hold, whether through email, phone or office visits. It’s the same for the residents because I am really concerned about what the residents think in terms of different things that are — for their needs. So, at anytime someone can email me, phone me or, my personal favorite, I like to sit down one-on-one with a person and be able to discuss their particular situation and more than happy to go ahead and resolve it for them.
“In addition to that, I am very, very active in the local Dearborn-Dearborn Heights community with a lot of different organizations so at a lot of those events — including the League of Women Voters — I am able to run into different residents and talk to them about their concerns and work on it to try to get their situations resolved.”
“If I become a councilman again, I’m sure they’re going to find out who I am, where I am and my telephone number and my place of residence,” Apigian said. “The idea that I would be reaching out as the question indicates, who would I call? Which person? Which neighbor? I’m sure I’ll be contacted by those who are interested in contacting me. The idea that I would be just reaching out to people is not sensible to me. I was on the council before, people knew who I was and if they had an issue, they would call me. I never turned anybody away and always went to visit to see what their problem was.”
“I have been going door-to-door, talking with the residents and asking them what their concerns are and I think that’s the important part,” Henney said. “We need to listen just as much as we speak. We can’t assume people feel one way or the other. It isn’t what my opinion is, it’s what your opinion is and that’s where we have to start. So, I am going door-to-door, I am reaching out to folks, but I am also giving them my phone number, my email address. You can reach me anytime. I am a Realtor as well and I operate my business the same way that I will operate this.”
“Well, we do have a website and a Facebook page so, we’re available there,” Henry said. “I have been in this community as a business owner for a long enough time that I see people each and every day. They come in, make copies and order printing. I have a good relationship down at the (American Legion Carl E. Stitt) post with members there so I can speak with them. I am open with my neighbors, I do plan on going out door-to-door meeting people, although I think that’s somewhat ineffective way to get to know somebody. It’s not always that they’re willing, ready and able to talk when you show up at their door. I think it’s a little bit invasive.”
He added that there will be an opportunity for families to bring their children and sit down to talk about the issues they have on their mind at a park in the north end July 28. A similar event planned for Aug. 4 on the south end of the city.
“I will tell you all that I will be doing the same thing I have been doing for the eight years as your city council member,” Hicks-Clayton said. “That’s offering constituent office hours, office days, constituent service days, that includes going out and talking to our residents and hearing what’s important to you. Fight blight — we do fight blight drive-arounds. I’m available on social media, everyone pretty much knows my number and information, I’m available 24/7, that’s pretty much a true statement. I’ve had calls come in as late as 11 p.m. on a Sunday night, I will take your call because I work for you and I take it very seriously.
“I do home visits as well, we get together. My policy for you is a 24-hour return call policy, so if you call me you’re going to get a call back that day before sundown. You’re going to hear from me and we’re going to find out what you need and how to work together. I am out in the community every single day, I am in the senior centers, I am going to neighborhood meetings, I am out there rolling up my sleeves and cleaning leaves and other things for you.”
For more information on the election, candidates or proposals go to www.vote411.org or www.lwvddh.org. The forum will be available for viewing on the league’s website and on YouTube.
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected])