Councilman Doug Thomas

Does Dearborn Councilman Doug Thomas live in Dearborn or Bonita Springs, Florida?

Dearborn resident and former council candidate Nancy Siwik says the councilman is a Florida resident and should be removed from office and erased from the November ballot because he is in violation of the City Charter.

Ms. Siwik presented the City Council with documents Monday evening that she says supports her claim that the legal residency of Councilman Thomas is a condominium in the city of Bonita Springs, Florida, and not Dearborn.

Ms. Siwik asked the City Council to have Dearborn’s legal department look into the matter and remove Thomas from his position as a councilman and from the November ballot because he is not a Dearborn resident, which is a requirement of Dearborn’s City Charter.

Ms. Siwik presented property data that shows Doug and Jane Thomas homestead a condo on 25900 Hickory Blvd., in Bonita Springs, which makes it their principal residence.

At the meeting Monday, Thomas said his Michigan Driver’s license proved he lived at 511 Elmwood in Dearborn, a property currently listed for sale at $239,000, according to documents Siwik presented council members Monday night. Thomas did not deny the existence of a home in Florida but said it was homestead in his wife’s name.

Council President Thomas Tafelski tried to bring the discussion to a close after those remarks from Thomas, saying it was becoming “political.”

Siwik took umbrage with Tafelski’s comment. She came back to the microphone and explained that her actions were not political, pointing out that she no longer was on the ballot for council and that she waited until after her primary loss to bring this news about Thomas into the open.

Before taking her seat, Siwik reminded council members that neither Michigan nor Florida law allows people to list more than one dwelling as a “principal residence” in order to take the tax exemptions that come with such a designation.

What action Dearborn’s legal department now takes next could determine the political career of Councilman Thomas.

Dearborn Mayoral candidate Michael J. Prus said Monday evening he still is very anxious to debate or have a forum with Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., to discuss in public his plans to help revitalize Dearborn.

We wrote here on these pages last week that Mr. Prus was a no-show at a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Dearborn/Dearborn Heights. At the time, we did not know why Mr. Prus was unable to take part in the forum at Dearborn City Hall.  It turns out the mayoral candidate had a very serious case of bronchitis. The 50-year-old candidate still had a bad cough even when we we finally caught up with him Monday night.

“I was planning to attend all the way up to 2:30 p.m. on the day of the event,” Mr. Prus told us Monday night. “I went to my doctor and he said you have a severe case of bronchitis. When I told my doctor about the forum, he said ‘you aren’t going anywhere. You need to go home and go to sleep. You are contagious.’

“I am not afraid to debate,” Mr. Prus continued. “Why would I want to miss an opportunity like that? That would be political suicide. I was in no condition to do this.”

Mr. Prus said he is sorry he missed the opportunity to tell voters about his plan to revitalize Dearborn but he is hopeful he and Mayor O’Reilly will still have the chance to meet again in person for the benefit of residents. Mayor O’Reilly, in an earlier story in the Dearborn Press & Guide, told the paper he was willing to take part in a debate with Mr. Prus.

“I wish I could debate the mayor,” Mr. Prus said. “I have questions on how our tax dollars are being spent and why we have so many lawsuits against the city.”

Mr. Prus, a Dearborn resident of 40 years and a graduate of Dearborn Divine Child, works for the state of Michigan as a Department Analyst and state fidelity bonding coordinator, helping people who have trouble in their background find a job through bonding. He is married and he and his wife, Libby, have one son.

Dearborn City Clerk Kathleen Buda

Dearborn City Clerk Kathleen Buda is reminding residents that Monday, Oct. 5 is the last day to register to be eligible to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 3. So if you aren’t registered, please make it a point to stop by the Dearborn City Clerk’s office to do so.

Buda says that those planning to vote absentee have until Monday, Nov. 2 at 4 p.m. to cast their ballot. Voters on that day must come to the clerk’s counter in Dearborn City Hall and vote there.

The Dearborn City Clerk’s office will be open on Saturday, Oct. 31 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will be issuing absentee ballots on that day.

Dearborn officials are alerting residents that the city has no relationship with a private insurance company that is contacting homeowners trying to cover the costs of emergency repairs of water service lines on private property.

Some homeowners may have received information recently in the mail from the insurance company.

The City of Dearborn does not make recommendations regarding the purchase of insurance policies. However, homeowners may be interested to know that out of the 33,000 households in Dearborn, only two to four a year are affected by water service line emergencies that require extensive repairs.

A water service line is the pipe on your property that brings fresh water into your home from the city’s water line, which is usually in the street.

Dearborn mayoral candidate Michael J. Prus was a no-show Tuesday evening at a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Dearborn/Dearborn Heights.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly Jr., was on hand to face his challenger in the City Council Chambers but without Mr. Prus the LWV decided to cancel the forum rather than hold a question and answer session with just Mayor O’Reilly.

It isn’t entirely clear why Mr. Prus — who ran unsuccessfully for Dearborn mayor in the 2007 special election (he had 63 votes to O’Reilly’s 16,060 in that election) — was unable to attend Tuesday’s forum.

Mr. Prus earlier sent a letter to Mayor O’Reilly inviting him to take part in a series of debates. Let’s hope the two can find another evening to discuss the many challenges our city faces.

Separately, the forum for the 14 city council candidates did take place in the City Council Chambers as scheduled.

While this was just Round One for selecting who will serve next year on the Dearborn City Council, the makeup of the top seven finishers in Tuesday’s primary suggests Dearborn residents — at least the 18.4 percent of registered voters who took the time to cast a ballot — only want a little bit of change.

Five of the top seven vote getters were city council incumbents, including Thomas Tafelski who finished as the top voter getter with 5,629 votes. Nancy Hubbard, amazingly or maybe not so, depending on your perspective, finished second with 4,457 votes.

Perhaps the most interesting primary election news were the two new names to break into the top seven, Sharon Dulmage and Brian O’Donnell. Dulmage had the good fortune of serving more than 20 years on the Dearborn School Board, so she is a familiar name with a track record. Some people we spoke to after voting said they cast a vote for that “incumbent Sharon”. Whatever the reason, Dulmage was the sixth top voter getter with 3,533. She was followed by newcomer O’Donnell, a newbie on the Dearborn political scene. He finished seventh.

The other seven candidates who will round out the 14 council candidates on the November ballot include incumbent Doug Thomas, a part-time Dearborn resident; incumbent Robert Abraham; David Bazzy, a former Dearborn Charter commissioner; George Hart (proof positive that the right name really can get you elected); Patrick Kiernan, owner of Kiernan’s Steak House; Patrick D’Ambrosio and Ali Sayed, who is very active in Dearborn recreation events for children.

Still, it is too early to read too much into these results. The heavy campaigning starts now and the council incumbents will have the upper hand. Throw out the order of how the top 14 candidates finished in Tuesday’s primary. This is an all new race and it begins Wednesday.

The results, in order of finish, are below. Those names in bold will appear on the November ballot:

1. Thomas Patrick Tafelski. . . . . . 5,629
2. Nancy A. Hubbard . . . . . . . . 4,457
3. George T. Darany . . . . . . . . 4,140
4. Suzanne Sareini . . . . . . . . 4,051
5. Mark C. Shooshanian . . . . . . . 3,931
6. Sharon Dulmage. . . . . . . . . 3,533
7. Brian C. O’Donnell . . . . . . . 3,417
8. Doug Thomas. . . . . . . . . . 3,284
9. Robert A. Abraham. . . . . . . . 3,232
10. David W. Bazzy. . . . . . . . . 2,759
11. George Hart. . . . . . . . . . 2,372
12. Patrick M. Kiernan . . . . . . . 2,267
13. Patrick D’Ambrosio . . . . . . . 2,170
14. Ali Sayed . . . . . . . . . . 2,004
15. Adrenne Wygonik . . . . . . . . 1,958
16. Nancy Siwik. . . . . . . . . . 1,644
17. Stephen S. Dobkowski, Jr. . . . . . 1,497
18. Rabih Hammoud . . . . . . . . . 1,432
19. Terry Burke. . . . . . . . . . 1,182
20. Scott J. Marquette . . . . . . . 1,031
21. Khalil Dakhlallah. . . . . . . . 989
22. Mark J. Dawdy . . . . . . . . . 884
23. Hussein Sobh . . . . . . . . . 880
24. Molly Sharp. . . . . . . . . . 630
25. Joseph Agius . . . . . . . . . 446
26. WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 94

Today Dearborn is holding a Primary Election to determine candidates for the November General Election.  The key item on the ballot are the 25 candidates running for City Council.

The unfortunate part with these summer elections is they generally have very low turnout.  The selection of the people who will go on to the general election will directly impact our everyday life in Dearborn.

So please make sure you vote today. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Those of you unsure of your polling location can click HERE to find that and see a sample ballot.

If you plan on voting in Dearborn’s August. 4 city primary you’ll need to be a registered voter. The voter registration deadline for the primary is Tuesday, July 7.

This is an important primary as we have 25 candidates vying for seven City Council seats. The top 14 vote getters will proceed to the general election. So if you aren’t a registered voter, please get out and do so before the deadline.

The voter registration deadline for the November 3 city general election is Monday, October 5.

A candidate for Dearborn mayor whose petitions were ruled invalid has filed a grievance with the elections commission requesting reconsideration in the matter.

The Dearborn Clerk’s office ruled last week that some of the signatures on Ziad Abdulhamid Abdulmalik’s petition were invalid, which automatically made him ineligible to run for Dearborn mayor. He is now asking that the decision be reconsidered.

The City Clerk’s office will meet with election commission officials next week to discuss a variety of matters, including the request by Abdulmalik. According to the clerk’s office, a number of the signatures on Abdulmalik’s petition did not match the signatures the clerk’s office keeps on file of all registered voters in Dearborn.

The Clerk’s office took similar action with Doug Thomas, who submitted petitions for both city council and mayor. His petition for council was deemed valid but his mayoral one was thrown out because a number of the signatures were from people who are not registered voters in Dearborn, which is a requirement. Apparently either Thomas or his supporters overlooked that tiny detail as a number of the signatures on his mayoral petition were from Dearborn Heights residents.

Of course, the drama of not having the required amount of signatures to run for mayor could have been avoided by both Thomas and Abdulmalik. Had the candidates turned in their petitions ahead of the deadline, they would have had time to actually go back out and get the proper signatures from registered Dearborn voters to make their petitions valid before the time ran out.  

As it stands now, Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., will face just one challenger, Michael J. Prus, in the November general election.

Dearborn Fire Chief Nazih Hazime plans to retire July 30, his 25th year as a Dearborn firefighter, to become chief of the Sedona Fire District in Sedona, Ariz.

The Dearborn Press & Guide reported this news first in their Sunday edition.

“I want to make it clear that I’m not running away from Dearborn – I love this city,” Hazime, a Dearborn resident for more than 30 years told the Press & Guide. “It was a very difficult decision to leave, but this represents a great opportunity. I’m going to miss everyone – especially my colleagues in the fire department.”

Before being named fire chief, from 1984 to 2004, Hazime held the positions of firefighter I, firefighter II, fire pump operator, firefighter II and lieutenant with the Dearborn Fire Department. The late Mayor Michael A. Guido appointed him fire chief in February 2004.

Hazime told the Press & Guide that he learned May 9 he had been unanimously selected from among 52 candidates to serve as fire chief of the Sedona Fire District, which oversees two communities and two counties with a population of about 22,000.