Dearborn Mayor-elect Abdullah Hammoud (third from left) meets with the city council Dec. 28, while Amanda Bright-McClanahan (left), his new chief operating officer, Michael Kennedy (second from left), deputy finance director, who will become the city’s new finance director and Zaineb Ali Hussein (right), his new chief of staff, listen. Hammoud’s appointments are subject to city council approval.
Outgoing City Council President Susan Dabaja (left) and incoming City Council President Michael Sareini, (right) listen during a Dec. 28 meeting with Mayor-elect Abdullah Hammoud. Dabaja was the only outgoing council member in attendance, and directed more comments at Hammoud than any of the incoming council members. Dabaja lost her mayoral bid to Hammoud in the primary.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – Mayor-elect Abdullah Hammoud announced Amanda Bright-McClanahan as new chief operating officer and Zaineb Ali Hussein as new chief of staff during a Dec. 28 meeting with the incoming City Council.
Hussein is currently Deputy Chief of Staff for Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson at the Michigan Department of State, while Bright-McClanahan was the chief operating officer for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
Hammoud also announced that Michael Kennedy, who is currently the deputy finance director, will become the city’s new finance director.
All of Hammoud’s appointments are subject to city council approval.
City Assessor Scott Miller has left his position with the city, while Recreation and Parks Director Greg Orner and Public Works Director James Murray are retiring.
Abdullah said he is eliminating the director of environmental sustainability position and the director of public works position, and the public works department will be merged with the property maintenance and development department, which is currently under the directorship of Tim Hawkins.
In addition to the chief operating officer position for which Bright-McClanahan is the mayor-elect’s choice, Hammoud has proposed creating four other director positions: philanthropy and grants, constituent services, public health and chief strategy officer.
Hammoud said the there are a lot of inefficiencies in the city’s current processes and procedures, and the two new positions, chief strategy officer and chief operations officer, will provide additional support for the chief of staff.
“There is largely this scramble for your time allocation, having to worry about the day-to-day, and having to struggle to think about what we are doing one, three, five years out,” he said. “Not having too much access to the chief of staff, because in the current world, the chief of staff is a very centralized position – all key decisions come through the chief of staff in the current organizational model.”
Hammoud said he is not trying to take away from the chief of staff’s role, but is rather trying to provide them with further support, with a shift toward providing two additional staff members in the office of the mayor.
“One will focus on the day-to-day operations, on those daily efficiencies, making sure that the city is running smoothly and providing additional support to directors,” he said. “The second is the chief strategy officer, and that role provides us with more focus on some of the key strategic projects – where is Dearborn one, three, five years out?”
Hammoud said this will provide the city with a more innovative, efficient, transparent and accessible governmental system, especially within the office of the mayor.
“The three C’s that we are really focused on are communication, coordination and collaboration,” he said. “I think, with this model, we really get to achieve that.”
Hammoud said when someone like current Chief of Staff Mark Guido leaves, a lot of institutional knowledge leaves with him, which can negatively impact an organization, and the new structure will help ensure that institutional knowledge is maintained.
He said he is very cognizant of the upcoming $16 million structural deficit that must be addressed.
“My pitch to you is this is the team that I need to address that deficit, and put the city on the path to succeed in the long term,” Hammoud said. “Many of these roles exist in current personnel, but it is very fractured, and that we have personnel being pulled away in two, three different directions are actually adding to this inefficiency of policies and procedures that we have in place.”
He said the creation of a director of philanthropy and grants position will be valuable to the city.
“There is over $350 billion under the American Rescue Plan Act that is locked behind grants, and we have the county and the state that are ready to roll out the initial grant dollars, but it all has to be accessed through grant writing,” he said. “Our best grant writer right now in the city is our fire chief, and I don’t think it is the best use of his time.”
He said a specialized grant writer can identify and apply for the right grants, which sometimes means multiple smaller ones instead of just a few large ones.
Hammoud said the city’s communications should better utilize social media assets.
“For me, it is about having the city of Dearborn government be the source for people’s answers to their questions,” he said. “Also, having a stronger public facing body to work more closely with the media in order for us to really market the city of Dearborn in a much more strategic and stronger fashion.”
Hammoud said a director of constituent concerns would focus on community engagement.
“What we heard a lot, the entirety of the transition, the community survey that we put out and our various community conversations, there is a Rolodex of numbers you can call for the city, and everybody calls every single number until someone answers,” he said. “There is no centralized person that you can call, to hear your concerns.”
Hammoud said he wants to have district liaisons in different corners of the city. He said the call center for the building department has become a call center for everything.
“We are going to move the call center into the community engagement office, because it is a very public facing constituent matter, and we are also going to try to bring some innovations and technology to it,” he said. “What we tend to hear is you need a connection to get something done in the city, and I am kind of tired of hearing that.”
Hammoud said he also wants to bring someone in to focus on equity and inclusion.
“We lack diversity within the city administration, and so, we want someone to evaluate our hiring practices,” he said. “We will pursue qualified individuals who happen to be diverse.”
Hammoud said he is also concerned with the lack of representation on boards and commissions.
He also said he would like to have the zoning and planning be part of the economic development group, and all permitting will be under economic development.
Hammoud said the housing department would move out of the economic development group.
“We want to have a strong focus on economic development, and make sure that Dearborn is ready and prepared to be open for businesses,” he said. “When we say ‘economic development,’ we really mean ‘community development.’”
Hammoud said there are many issues which will fall within the city’s public health department, which will be tasked with improving residents’ quality of life.
He said there will be a full-time vaccination center that will be housed on the second floor of the Dearborn Ice Skating Center.
“The city of Dearborn was hard hit, as it pertains to our case rate, across the state of Michigan, and Wayne County,” he said. “So, we need someone who can focus on that.”
He said the city is also experiencing a surge of mental health related calls to 911 dispatch.
“In our conversations with police and fire, we know that they are not traditionally the best equipped to do the follow-ups, and so we will have a director of public health who handles this, to help put proactive measures to deal with the mental health crisis that is on our hands,” he said.
Hammoud said he also will be focusing on finding ways to make it easier to open a new business in Dearborn, to discover why the city has such a high rate of turnover of employees, especially among part time workers, and to find ways to promote Dearborn as an ideal place to work and live.