Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud (right) strongly asserts that his administration always will be transparent, and took issue with an email from City Councilmember Robert Abraham (left) to Chief Operating Officer Amanda Bright McClanahan implying that the mayor was not honoring that commitment, and that the COO’s use of a city car should have been mentioned in the compensation package the city council approved, as Councilmembers Kamal Alsawafy, Erin Byrnes, Michael Sareini, Ken Paris and Mustapha Hammoud listen.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – Mayor Abdullah Hammoud took issue Feb. 3 with a council member’s email to his chief operating officer concerning her city car usage, which insinuated that the mayor was not being transparent.
The discussion occurred during the Feb. 3 City Council committee of the whole meeting, which occurs the Thursday before each subsequent Tuesday night council meeting, to set the agenda and clarify information about agenda items.
Councilmember Robert Abraham, who sent the email, said his assertion was that the use of a city car, which COO Amanda Bright McClanahan uses to commute to her home in East Lansing, for which she purchases the gasoline, should have been revealed to the city council when it approved her compensation package.
Hammoud said it is up to the mayor’s discretion as to who receives a city vehicle, and under the previous administration, a strong precedent was set and many directors had city vehicles, including the Department of Public Works director, the city engineer and the fire and police chief.
“I just wanted to say that there is no lack of transparency and I did not offer benefits to existing directors that were not offered to previous directors,” he said. “This administration will operate differently. My chief operating officer sits above all of my personnel.”
Hammoud said he wants to ensure that no inequity exists within his own administrative structure.
He said McClanahan will follow accounting guidelines with respect to mileage records.
“It is very concerning to me, when someone says that I am not being transparent,” Hammoud said. “I actually take that very offensively, personally. My administration is nothing but transparent, and I promise you that we are setting precedents for transparency in this administration relative to previous administrations. So, I wanted to bring that forward, because we have nothing to hide.”
Hammoud said he does not use a city-owned vehicle, and the two mayors before him did.
Abraham said he had a phone conversation with McClanahan before he sent the email in question.
“I don’t disagree with the mayor on how things were handled in the past,” he said. “However, I think things are not apples to apples.”
Abraham said the conversation was initiated because when the council was tasked with approving the directorial salaries, it was asked if there were any additional benefits included with the compensation, if there was anything that was not a part of the base salary.
“The answer was ‘no,’ and only typical benefits were being offered,” he said. “To my knowledge, no appointed official in the mayor’s office had a city vehicle to take outside the city from any of the previous administrations.”
Abraham said that during Mayor Michael Guido’s administration, there was a strong push by the city council to keep city vehicles within the city, and that only emergency responders would take a city vehicle outside of the city.
“I also felt that it wasn’t typical for anyone in the past to take a vehicle to Lansing,” he said. “This is clearly not for business use; this is clearly to commute back and forth to work and I think that is different than — using the city engineer as an example of having a vehicle – it is truly used for work, every single day.”
Abraham said he wished the city car had been mentioned when the city council approved the directors’ salaries.
“I think it should have been brought up then, and it wasn’t,” he said. “You have certain discretions as the mayor, but I just don’t like hearing about it and people complaining about it. I wish it would have been brought up.”
Abraham said he talked to Hammoud on the phone about this issue, and they agreed that he has the authority to assign city cars to employees.
“Using a company vehicle for commuting is part of a person’s compensation, and it should show up on their W2,” Abraham said. “I don’t want to debate it. It is fine the way you explained it. I just wish it would have come forward when we were dealing with the compensation.”
Council President Michael Sareini said he thinks the mayor should have a city car and he should have more than one police officer protecting him.
“I know he thinks he doesn’t need more than one, but he definitely needs more than one, that’s for sure,” he said.
Sareini said certain privileges are given to the mayor by the electorate.
“So, some people that wanted to run for mayor should have run if they wanted to be the mayor,” he said. “But the bottom line is, this is his prerogative.”