DEARBORN — This week’s city council meeting started out on a positive note as the city honored former Seattle Seahawks assistant coach and Dearborn native Robert Saleh for his recent Super Bowl victory. However, the atmosphere at City Hall took a bizarre turn after a local Arab American confronted the council on what he said were “troubling issues in the city.”

The meeting kicked off with Mayor Jack O’Reilly giving Saleh a key to the city as well as a proclamation in front of his family and friends. Saleh, who grew up in the city and graduated from Fordson High School, was a defensive quality control coach for the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. He recently accepted another offer with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars to be their linebackers coach. O’Reilly said the presentation was the city’s way of showing that “our hearts are with him.”

Saleh accepts honors from the city with family and friends.

The highlight of the evening came at the very end during the public comment section, when a local Arab American took the podium to address concerns he had with the city. The man, who identified himself as Hassan, stated that he lived in Westland but had concerns he wanted to address as an individual who works in the city. He refused to publicly give his address fearing for the safety of his family.

After referencing Prophet Muhammad and loudly chanting Islamic prayers, Hassan said that the city needed to monitor neighborhood parks around the clock because people have been using them to conduct sexual activities. Council President Susan Dabaja, however, told him that the city doesn’t have the resources or money for increased security at parks and asked him to move on to his next point.

Hassan also stated that there were magazines and newspapers at the public libraries and civic center that can “cause colossal damage to a child’s health,” asking the city to review and monitor literature before they are distributed. Dabaja cited that freedom of speech laws exist and that parents, not the city, should monitor what their children read.

“These issues are not relevant to this body,” Councilman Thomas Tafelski added, looking frustrated.

Hassan was told he needed to speed up his message to the council because, according to council rules, an individual is limited to three minutes of speaking time during the public comments portion of the meeting. Hassan proceeded to address concerns he has regarding discrimination against Arabs in the city. He cited his current place of employment as an example. 

“There is no political correctness contained and there is so much harassment towards Muslims and Arabs,” Hassan said. 

Dabaja, however, was quick to tell him that his points were out of line and not issues that the council usually tackles.

“If you have concerns about your supervisor, then go ahead and seek the advice of legal counsel. This is not something that we as a body can address,” Dabaja stated before telling the individual that his time on the floor had expired.

A focus of the evening was an amendment to the garage use ordinance, a heavily debated topic amongst residents over the last year. While the item did generate some debate during the meeting, it was met with little to no resistance from residents in attendance, after which the council officially approved the first reading in a 6-0 vote. Absent from the meeting was councilman Brian O’Donnell. 

The final reading for the ordinance is set to take place on Tuesday, March 4, at which point the council will likely vote to approve or deny it. 

The city had aimed to change the language in the ordinance to reflect modern day use of residential garages. Restricting residents from using the garage as “habitual space or for commercial purposes” was added to the zoning ordinance in the section titled “Accessory Buildings and Structures.”

According to the city, the new ordinance will prevent residents from living, cooking and sleeping in their garages, citing that  such activity could be a safety hazard. The new law will also serve to limit residents parking their vehicles in neighborhood streets. It emphasizes that garages and driveways must now have enough room to park two vehicles. 

In recent years, the city has expressed concern that it has been difficult for emergency vehicles to operate in neighborhoods efficiently because residents have been parking their cars in the street instead of their garages or driveways.

Another change to the ordinance states that every garage must now have an overhead  retractable door in order to allow a car to enter and exit it.

One resident who lives on Orchard Street in east Dearborn asked if he would be in any legal trouble because he installed a sliding glass door in place of an overheard retractable door, like many others in the city. Councilman David Bazzy told the resident that a sliding glass door could be a safety hazard because a fire or explosion could cause the glass to shatter and harm people within close radius. 

The resident added that his family frequently uses the garage because they don’t want to smoke in the house and he feels they are not breaking any laws by doing so. The council told the man to seek advice from an attorney in order to make sure he’s in compliance with city codes.

Following his time at the podium, another woman who lives on Orchard Street told the council that she lives right across the street from the man who spoke before her and she believes his family is a disturbance to the entire neighborhood because of their frequent garage use.

“They have a lot of company…cars are parked on the street constantly. My husband is very sick right now and I had to call the ambulance the other night, and there’s just no way for them to get around. They are there until 12:30 or 1:30 [a.m.], and every time they leave they have to honk the horn, which is very disturbing for people who are trying to go to bed early. They have a fire in their garage every night. They have a finished basement and a sunroom,” said Dorothy Cliss. 

The ordinance gained national attention in 2013, with numerous media outlets reporting that it was a case of cultural clash. Arab American households have increasingly been using their garages for social purposes, but the city council has pointed out that the issue is not a cultural problem. Councilman David Bazzy stated last year that Italian American residents have also been using their garages for similar non-traditional purposes. 

Resident Lee Jacobson told the council that he attended all the study sessions for the amendment of the ordinance, but he still disagrees with the new language. Jacobson told the council that Henry Ford used to build projects in his garage in Dearborn, and it is ironic that the city is now preventing residents from having the freedom of using their own garages. 

However, councilman Tom Tafelski was quick to note that Jacobson runs an eBay business out of his his garage, where he stores the products. Tafelski said that the new ordinance would not conflict with his business. 

Councilman Robert Abraham said that there seems to be a misconception about the garage ordinance as the city’s goal is to not prohibit residents from using them, but rather to change the rules so that the ordinance reflects modern times. 

“The objective of this ordinance is actually not to be more restrictive, but to actually give more latitude in a safe manner. This ordinance actually gives homeowners the ability to do more in their garage. It’s our response due to changes in lifestyle. People are using their garage differently than they did in 1940 or 1950,” Abraham said.

Residents can read the details of the current garage ordinance before the new version is approved by visiting the city’s website at //www.cityofdearborn.org/city-departments/law and clicking the Ordinances tab.