DEARBORN — Members of the Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC) voted Monday to make endorsements for items on the Dearborn ballot in the upcoming Nov. 6 election.

The group chose to support proposed revisions to the City Charter, to support giving permission to City Council to sell the Dearborn Towers in Florida, and to endorse real estate agent Hussein Berry for school board.

Before the vote, Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly and Charter Commission Chairman David Bazzy attended an AAPAC meeting to urge support for the new Charter.

Bazzy described the current Charter as onerous and said that the changes serve to simplify it.

O’Reilly said that the changes would not raise taxes, as some have worried, but would authorize City Council to raise the city’s millage rate to up to 15 mills, if necessary.

Dearborn currently levies 13.687 mills.

The mayor said that in a worst case scenario, the maximum amount that taxes could go up under the new Charter, if the Council ever did choose to raise the rate, would be about $100 for a $150,000 home.

“No matter what happens, we can never assess a millage rate for more than 15,” O’Reilly said.

AAPAC member William Isaac Robinson, who works for the Michigan Teamsters, raised concerns at the meeting about the changes that might give the mayor new powers to more easily create, privatize or eliminate city departments.

“We don’t need to be strengthening the mayor’s position,” Robinson said.

“If you’re not here,” he said to O’Reilly, “we could have a George Bush in there.”

O’Reilly said that the new charter would not give him any more power than he has now, but that it would allow some flexibility for cost cutting moves that City Council would have to approve.

The Committee voted 10-1 to endorse a ‘Yes’ vote for the new Charter.

“I think they made the right adjustments and the right decisions,” said AAPAC Vice President Don Unis. “We have to tighten our belt.”

They also voted unanimously in favor of voting ‘yes’ on a proposal to authorize the sale of the Dearborn Towers, a senior citizens’ complex in Clearwater, Fla.

“It’s like holding onto a stock that’s losing value,” said Mazen Hammoud, a founding member of AAPAC.

The November ballot will also include a choice of eight candidates to fill two seats on Dearborn’s School Board.

The candidates are Hussein Berry, John C. Corbin, Mark Jess Dawdy, Abd Elgouhri, incumbent Joseph A. Guido, Tameria Metiva, Mary K. Petlichkoff, and Douglas Piazza.

Current board member Mary Lane was expected to run, but her last minute paperwork was not filed on time, according to elections officials.

She has said that a family emergency in California complicated her efforts to join the race.

AAPAC endorsed Berry, who is currently president of Fordson High School’s Parent Teacher Student Association. He proposes efforts to get corporate and small business entities more involved in sponsoring extracurricular programs to help alleviate budget woes.

“Right now there’s no money. Children have to pay to play,” he said. “We have a very generous business community in Dearborn.”

He also said that more can be done to get local parents more involved in their kids’ education. Holding nighttime PTA meetings to accommodate working parents was an example that he gave.

Polls are expected to open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Election Day. Photo ID is now required prior to receiving a ballot. Voters will be asked to show a photo ID or sign a form stating that they do not have one. Acceptable IDs include Michigan driver’s license or personal identification card, other federal or state government-issued photo identification, U.S. passport, military ID, or student identification including the person’s photo and name.

Anyone who does not have an acceptable form of photo ID can still vote, but must sign the form stating that they are not in possession of identification.

The new requirement is the result of a 1996 law recently upheld by the Michigan Supreme Court.