Wayne County elections for mayor, council, bond proposals heat up

A number of cities didn’t have a main election resulting from a scarcity of candidates.

• Voters in Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck are selecting a brand new mayor after Trump named town’s mayors as ambassadors.
• A number of cities, resembling Dearborn, didn’t have a main election resulting from a scarcity of candidates.
• Huge cash raised in Dearborn Heights within the race for mayor, with Council Chair Mo Baydoun elevating greater than $210,000.

Voters in Wayne County communities flocked to the polls Tuesday, Aug. 5, to vote for varied proposals and to whittle down the variety of candidates for mayors and metropolis council members for the November election. Election outcomes are anticipated later tonight.

A number of cities, resembling Dearborn, didn’t have main elections for elected positions due to a scarcity of candidates, sparking considerations for some concerning the lack of participation this yr in native politics. Throughout Wayne County, together with in Detroit, there have been 47 elected positions that didn’t have main elections on Tuesday resulting from an inadequate variety of candidates as required beneath state election legislation, Wayne County information present.

Election outcomes 2025: Detroit and Wayne County main races, poll proposals

Some cities didn’t have any main election in any respect as a result of not one of the positions had sufficient candidates; along with Dearborn, the cities with out an election for candidates on August 5 have been: Flatrock, Gibraltar, Grosse Pointe Farms, Harper Woods, Riverview, Rockwood, Romulus and Southgate. In Westland, the 4th largest metropolis in Wayne County, there isn’t a election for mayor this yr as a result of Westland Mayor Kevin Coleman is working unopposed.

Here is a have a look at among the races:

Taylor race for mayor, council heats up over towing contract

Taylor Mayor Tim Woolley and former metropolis councilman Herman ‘Butch’ Ramik will sq. off towards one another in November within the race for mayor of Downriver’s largest metropolis.

Woolley bought 70.86% of the vote whereas Ramik bought 17.95%, in keeping with totally reporting Wayne County outcomes. The 2 different mayoral candidates have been Timothy Lengthy, who bought 6.7% and David Mortensen, who bought 4.49%. Within the race for Taylor treasurer, Amira Garza bought 44% of the vote and Nicone Dragone bought 31%; the 2 will compete towards one another in November.

Martin Drouillard and Tedario Edmond have been eradicated within the race for metropolis council, receiving the fewest votes amongst 16 council candidates. The highest 14 vote-getters will advance to the November election for seven council seats. Taylor presently has solely six metropolis council members as a result of a vacant place has not been crammed for greater than a yr.

Lots of the campaigning this yr has targeted on an issue over towing contracts.

Woolley final yr authorized a metropolis contract with J&T Crova Towing Enterprises for towing within the metropolis after town council deadlocked 3 to three on selecting them over Space Towing, which has contracted with town for years. Some residents and candidates have complained that Space Towing typically overcharged prospects, unaware of the prices when getting their autos towed. After a lawsuit was filed, Wayne County Choose Brian Sullivan dominated on April 29 that Woolley “lacks authority to unilaterally award the contract.”

Ramik and Lengthy, who opposed Woolley’s resolution, have famous that J&T Crova Towing’s president of operations, Louay Hussein, and members of the family, donated hundreds of {dollars} to some metropolis council candidates. Ramik, a former Taylor metropolis councilman, mentioned “pay to play” is “alive and properly in Taylor.”

“In my 15 years on Taylor Metropolis Council I’ve by no means seen a contractor like Louay Hussein” giving massive sums of cash to these working for public workplace, Ramik mentioned.

Lengthy informed the Free Press he is working to “expose all types of waste, fraud and abuse.” He mentioned some candidates are “taking cash from a towing firm so they are going to assist J&T get an enormous contract with town.”

Woolley didn’t return a message looking for remark. J&T Crova Towing mentioned in a Fb submit that Taylor residents have been “exploited” beneath Space Towing and defended their marketing campaign contributions.

“If it takes funding each marketing campaign that is keen to scrub home at metropolis corridor, we’ll do it,” the corporate mentioned. “We won’t cease till there is a council that solutions to the general public.”

The earlier mayor of Taylor, Richard Sollars, is presently serving time in jail for bribery.

Livonia voters reject controversial $150 million bond proposal

In Livonia, voters soundly rejected a bond proposal for municipal amenities, with 67% voting towards it and 37% voting for it.

There was an intense debate in latest months over the $150 million bond proposal to fund a brand new library, new police station, a 2.5 acre central plaza, pathways from parks to town’s civic heart campus and to increase and renovate fireplace stations, Hometime Life reported. If authorized, the proposal would have price a mean house owner $144 a yr. It was supported by Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan.

Livonia, like different suburbs in metro Detroit, is attempting to develop extra walkable areas, however faces an getting old inhabitants. The town’s inhabitants has been declining over the previous 20 years and was at about 95,000 residents within the 2020 census.

“The Livonia Constructed Bond Proposal is a dedication to our metropolis’s future,” Brosnan informed the Free Press in a press release by way of a spokesperson. “This funding would improve police and fireplace amenities and create new areas the place our youngsters can study and play and our neighborhood can have fun collectively. The objective is to construct the infrastructure that retains our residents and attracts younger households.”

However opponents, who’ve spoken out towards the plan at metropolis council conferences, say it is a tax enhance for pointless tasks.

“I don’t assist the $150 million greenback bond,” metropolis council candidate Patrick Brockway told Hometown Life. “Whereas I perceive it took a very long time to place collectively, it incorrectly handcuffs first responder must luxurious tasks town doesn’t require. It ends in the destruction of Bennett Library and far woodland. We are able to do higher as a metropolis.”

There are 19 council candidates working for 4 seats; the first will slim that right down to eight candidates for the November election.

Dearborn Heights council chair prime vote-getter in race for mayor

Dearborn Heights Council Chair Mo Baydoun and Councilwoman Denise Malinowski Maxwell will advance to the November election.

In a four-way race for mayor, Baydoun bought 58.49% of the vote, 4,163 votes, and Malinowski Maxwell bought 26.88%, 1,913 votes, in keeping with outcomes from town and county clerk’s workplaces.

Dearborn Heights is a small suburb of 63,292 residents that has seen contentious fights over time, with members of the council typically battling amongst themselves and with the mayor.

Dearborn Heights Mayor Invoice Bazzi will not be working for reelection as a result of he was picked by President Donald Trump in March to be ambassador to Tunisia. Bazzi, an immigrant from Lebanon who endorsed Trump in October as a result of he mentioned Trump promised to finish conflict within the Center East, turned the primary Muslim to turn out to be mayor of Dearborn Heights in January 2021 when the council selected him after Mayor Dan Paletko’s dying. Bazzi was then elected by voters in November later that yr with 72% of the vote.

The opposite two candidates who ran for mayor have been Lena Arzouni, an actual property investor and former financial institution supervisor who bought 7.74% of the vote and Hussein Anani, president of Dynamic Glazing Techniques, a glass and mirror store in Detroit, who bought 6.65%.

Baydoun, listed as Mohamad Baydoun in his Wayne County finance information, co-owns an ice cream store, The Custard Firm. Malinowski Maxwell misplaced towards Bazzi in 2021.

Baydoun has raised $210,297 to this point this yr, in keeping with his marketing campaign report filed July twenty ninth with Wayne County. He is spent $131,972 in his mayoral marketing campaign with a present stability of $80,825. He was fined by Wayne County for submitting his report previous the July twenty fifth deadline. His contributors embrace Wayne County Deputy Government Assad Turfe, who gave him $1,000, and Dearborn Heights twentieth district courtroom choose David Turfe, who donated $200.

The quantity raised and spent by Baydoun is unusually excessive for a small suburb, mentioned some opponents.

“The amount of cash being spent campaigning is unbelievable,” Malinowski Maxwell informed the Free Press. “The place solely pays a certain quantity and I personally cannot justify spending more cash than I’d make in a yr.”

The present wage for the mayor of Dearborn Heights is $111,508, with a proposed enhance to $113,738, in keeping with metropolis information.

Malinowski Maxwell is spending her personal cash for her marketing campaign. She raised $8,000, which she donated to her marketing campaign, in keeping with Wayne County information.

“I’ve ran a clear and frugal marketing campaign,” she mentioned.  

Anani and Baydoun didn’t return messages looking for remark.

Baydoun, an outspoken critic of Israel, drew consideration in 2023 when he canceled a beforehand scheduled ice cream social with State Sen. Sylvia Santana, D-Detroit, at The Custard Firm, which he co-owns, with places in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, as a result of he was upset with Santana visiting Israel.

Bazzi, who typically spars with Baydoun, mentioned he endorsed Arzouni.

“I’ll by no means endorse Mohamad Baydoun, who can’t even run a gathering,” Bazzi mentioned. “How can he run a metropolis? His conferences are chaotic and retains insulting the employees … He’s targeted on himself and his circle.”

Over the previous couple of years, Dearborn Heights has seen squabbles amongst metropolis officers and the police division over staffing and accusations of bias. A bunch of white police officers filed a lawsuit final yr in federal courtroom alleging anti-white bias and ageism, saying that Arab-American elected officers desire officers who’re “younger and Arab.”

Arzouni mentioned in a press release emailed to the Free Press: “I’m uninterested in the antics of our elected officers and sympathize with the residents’ frustrations. … As a businesswoman and all through my 25 years of expertise in administration, it’s time to put my management expertise to make use of in serving to this metropolis.”

Patent official is prime vote-getter in Hamtramck mayoral race

Within the race for mayor in Hamtramck, Adam Alharbi, a former marketing campaign supervisor for present Mayor Amer Ghalib, and Councilman Muhith Mahmood will advance to the November election.

Alharbi obtained 53.62% of the vote, 1,931 votes, and Mahmood obtained 28.85%, 1,039 votes, in keeping with outcomes supplied to the Free Press by Hamtramck Metropolis Clerk Rana Faraj.

Within the race for 3 seats on town council, the six candidates who will advance to the November election are Councilman Abu Musa, who bought 1,129 votes; Nayeem Choudury, 1,053 votes; Yousuf Saed, 909 votes; Motahar Fadhel, 900 votes; Abdulmalik Kassim, 814 votes; and Luqman Saleh, 812 votes.

The highest vote-getters in each the mayoral and council races, Alharbi and Musa, respectively, supported Trump throughout his marketing campaign final yr.

Diane Elizabeth Frkan, the one lady amongst 14 candidates for council, got here in seventh place, with 751 votes, narrowly lacking the prospect to compete in November. Frkan informed the Free Press on Election Day she was working partially to indicate that girls may run for workplace. Hamtramck has no girls amongst its elected officers and can proceed to have an all-male metropolis council and mayor after Tuesday’s outcomes.

As in Dearborn Heights, the mayor, Ghalib, was not working for reelection as a result of Trump picked Ghalib in March to be ambassador to Kuwait.

There have been 4 candidates working for Hamtramck mayor: Alharbi, a former marketing campaign supervisor for Ghalib who works at the US Patent and Trademark Workplace within the Commerce Division; Mister Bangladesh, a former journalist; Khan Hossain, a validation product chief at Stellantis; and Mahmood.

Hossain obtained 13.05% of the vote and Bangladesh bought 2.83%. Hossain informed the Free Press on Election Day he was working to assist enhance the picture of Muslims in elected workplace. Hamtramck’s metropolis council and mayor are all Muslim, the one all-Muslim council within the U.S. Bangladesh, an immigrant from Bangladesh, was born as Dewan Mahmud Chowdhury, later altering his identify to replicate “love for my motherland,” the council candidate informed the Free Press.

Alharbi and Mahmood didn’t return messages looking for remark.

Alharbi is a part of a bunch of Muslims in Hamtramck who engaged with Republicans and the Trump marketing campaign over the previous couple of years. In 2023, he and Ghalib visited an evangelical church in Sterling Heights to satisfy with retired Basic Michael Flynn, who later got here to Hamtramck for a city corridor with Muslims. When Trump rallied in Hamtramck in October with Ghalib and others, Alharbi was within the entrance rows.

If elected, Alharbi, an immigrant from Yemen, mentioned on Fb that he’ll work on “creating a brand new Yemen City to draw guests and increase native economies.” He additionally mentioned that he’ll work to cut back water charges, which he mentioned are too excessive.

Mahmood faces allegations he doesn’t reside within the metropolis, claims he has denied. State Police are presently investigating the allegations. There are additionally presently investigations in Hamtramck concerning the alleged actions of town supervisor and police chief and of alleged voter fraud involving absentee ballots in 2023.

Ghalib, who endorsed Trump final yr, informed the Free Press he helps Alharbi, however “didn’t formally endorse anybody” as a result of he needs to abide by the Hatch Act, which restricts political exercise by federal staff.

Whereas he hasn’t but been confirmed by the Senate to be ambassador, I am “attempting to watch out since there was no particular time for affirmation,” Ghalib mentioned. “Nonetheless, I do assist Adam Alharbi for Mayor, and need metropolis council candidates the very best of luck.”

It is unclear when the Senate will vote on confirming Ghalib and Bazzi.

Ghalib mentioned he helps candidates who “wish to proceed with the identical imaginative and prescient of my group” and opposes the candidates who “need to reverse all the things, disregarding the loud voice of the neighborhood and resisting any efforts to vary.”

Romulus faculty proposal fails

In Romulus, voters rejected by 54% to 46% a constructing and website Bond Proposal for the Romulus Group College District, in keeping with Wayne County outcomes.

Hometown Life reporter Susan Bromley contributed to this story.

Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com, X @nwarikoo or Facebook @nwarikoo