DEARBORN — Mayor Jack O’Reilly on Wednesday announced a planned shake up of a city department and voiced a message of hope despite harsh economic times in his State of the City Address.

Dearborn mayor Jack O’Reilly stands with residents Suehaila Amen, Lucia Gliese and Art Hughes, at the Henry Ford Centennial Library auditorium on Wednesday after giving his State of the City address. O’Reilly singled out the three during his speech as examples of residents who give back to the city through community organizing and volunteerism.  PHOTO: Khalil AlHajal/TAAN

The mayor announced plans to restructure the Building and Safety Department and create a new Residential Services Department, to address years of complaints about complicated processes.
“Despite our employees’ best efforts, they’ve been undermined by a structure that just didn’t work,” O’Reilly said in the speech. “So we’re going to change that structure with a proposed reorganization. This reorganization will be built around the people we serve—our residential customers and our commercial customers.”

Later in the speech, O’Reilly singled out three residents who he said serve as examples of giving back to the city.

He recognized Lucia Gliese, a volunteer with over a dozen service clubs and community organizations; Art Hughes, of the Dearborn Farm Market, who he said “takes care of his customers’ needs, both inside and outside of his store; and Suehaila Amen, an Arab American involved in countless community groups, who O’Reilly said has made an impact “especially in the lives of young people in Dearborn.”

“She’s an energetic educator, an astute fundraiser and a confident advocate,” he said.

Fay Beydoun, Executive Director of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce, said the mayor was right on in restructuring the Building and Safety Department.

“That’s long overdue. He’s doing the right thing, streamlining the process, making it more user friendly,” she said.

She said business in the city have long complained about the amount of red tape to go through at every turn.

“That is what most of the companies complain about,” said state Sen. Irma Clark-Coleman, who represents Dearborn.

“I love his vision,” she said about O’Reilly. “He’s willing to lift every rock… find creative ways in getting things done even in tough economic times.”

She said the city is making progress facilitating better communication with residents through technology.

“I love that,” she said.

Mary Zatina, Senior Vice President of Government Relations for Oakwood Healthcare, which is developing a major care center in place of the old Montgomery Ward building, said the city has facilitated the process of moving the project along well.

“He has made so many of his staff available… there were no bones about it,” said Zatina.

“It was a message of hope,” she said about O’Reilly’s speech.

“If we can save time and money for them,” said O’Reilly after the address about his focus on bettering communication and streamlining processes for business and home owners, “then we’re making progress.”

He said the three people he singled out in his speech were examples of residents who work to link city government to communities and provide “their input on how we can do things better with them.”