Mike Sareini, pictured right, discussing community topics with a resident of Dearborn.

DEARBORN — “Busy people get things done.”

That’s the viewpoint of Dearborn City Council member Mike Sareini, who took office in January. He replaced his mother, Suzanne Sareini, who opted not to run again, after a 24 year tenure.

Sareini, the father of five, went back to college in 2006, after the birth of his youngest son, and earned a law degree from Thomas Cooley Law School. He has also been a car salesman at Jorgensen Ford in Detroit since 1995. In 2011, Ford Motor Company recognized him as the state’s highest ranked volume salesman and the third highest-ranked in the country.

In an interview last month, Sareini told The Arab American News that having little free time taught him efficiency. 

He also said he is satisfied with his tenure on the council so far.

“I’m a salesman at the highest level in the county, but the city council is more demanding,” he said. “I am proud to say people come to me because I am able to resolve their issues. I have always been a person who gets a resolution. I have five kids. I don’t turn around and say ‘who spilled the milk on the floor?’ I find a way to clean it. My job as a councilman is to serve all the people and I believe I’ve done that with no question.” 

Sareini said he returns every call he gets from residents; and that when people come to him with problems, he tries to walk them through the process and explain the city’s regulations.

The councilman defended the property tax increase for fiscal year 2015, which the council approved at the end of May, saying residents want to preserve the city services and are willing to pay for them.

“We never want to increase taxes,” he said. “But we had stuff out of our control that were voted in, like the library millage, because people want libraries for the community. People want what’s best for value. Can we give them value for their money? People who live in Dearborn Heights, their streets are swept once or twice a year. In Dearborn we swept 12 times. We give an expert service because our citizens demand it, and that costs money.”

Sareini added that the tax hike is slight.

“People are still paying lower taxes on the dollar than what they were paying in 2006. And that’s factually true,” he said. “Although the millage is higher, our property values are lower now. They’re paying less than they did then. The city cut 30 percent of its staffing over the last five years and we’re starting to see the effect. You can cut and cut, but at a point you start seeing the services dwindle; and we’re at a point where we need to add.”

Sareini said the citizens of Dearborn will pay only $35 more on a $100,000 home and that the city will use that money for employees and equipment for the Department of Public Works to take care of “our aging infrastructure.”

He also said the Dearborn has received no money allocated for the roads from the state. 

“We have the highest gasoline tax in the country,” Sareini said. “And the state was supposed to use that tax money for the roads. They’re not using it for the roads.” 

One of Sareini’s proudest achievement on the council was to double the number of students accepted each year to the “Police Internship Program.” Every year, the city takes five graduates from Dearborn high schools into the program. The students work with the city and attend Henry Ford College for two years. The city co-ops some of the funds for their education. Then they can be sent to the police academy and eventually hired as police officers.

“We have been asking for more Arab Americans to represent our community to be hired,” he said. “Federal law and state law do not allow you to hire people based on race. You can’t just say I’m hiring an Arab American.” 

He added, however, that the police internship program facilitates hiring police officers from the local community.

“They only budgeted for five students last year; 21 people applied,” he said. “Real policy, real change is what I did. I asked the Chief of Police, Ron Haddad, and requested to take it from five to 10, and that was passed in the budget. So now, because of my input, we’re going to have 10 kids who graduated from our high schools [in the program]. Whether they’re Arabs or not, it doesn’t matter. They’re going to understand our community because they grew up in our neighborhood. I got that passed, and I’m very proud of it.”

Sareini also addressed an incident regarding the alleged use of excessive force by the police late last year. The city faces a lawsuit related to the incident, in which police tried to arrest a local man who was riding a bike in an east Dearborn neighborhood in the early morning hours on Dec. 7. The councilman said there is little he can say about the situation because it is an ongoing litigation, but added that he stands by Police Chief Haddad in the process.

He also said that, speaking as a citizen, he’d want the police to stop someone riding a bike by his house at 4 a.m.

“You need to know that this man was not jailed, was not booked and was taken straight to the hospital,” he said. “What’s so great about our country is that if these cops did something wrong, they’re going to have to pay for it. But from what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think that’s the case. I think it was a rightful stop.”

The complaint alleges that the police falsely arrested Ali Baydoun and assaulted him. Baydoun’s attorneys say he has mental problems and does not speak English. 

Sareini also defended the ordinance that prohibits turning garages into habitable places. The ordinance was debated by the previous council for a year and passed by the current one in February. 

The councilman said he made significant changes to the ordinance, including removing a clause that would have made it illegal for homeowners to store items that do not belong to them in the garage.

“I also wanted the Michigan building safety code to be listed in the ordinance,” he said, adding that a person can install any door, so long as it allows the entry of a car and meets the safety code. “But you can’t put a stove inside your garage. It’s a safety concern. I don’t believe the ordinance is targeting Arab Americans. A garage is for a car. There are only 38 garages that have that issue.”

Regarding the impending move to a new city hall, Sareini voiced his support, explaining that the new administrative building could save Dearborn up to $400,000 a year in operational costs.

“A lot of people say they’re against the move. What’s their alternative? They have none,” he said. “We need to look at somebody who has a solution. Anybody can stand there and tell you this is bad. But would you do different? Ask the people who question the city hall for a different plan to save $400,000 a year.”

The city council has asked the school board to move its offices into the city’s new administrative center, but the board showed no interest in relocating to the new city hall.

“The people who sit on the school board also sit on the Henry Ford College board,” Sareini said. “They said if they’re going to move anywhere, they’ll move to the college. They have a six-year term. That’s too long. You get stagnations. The problem is that the term for the college trustees is six years. There should be two separate boards, and the people on the school boar should get two-year terms, so we can turn the schools around. Logistically, it is better for them to move to HFC, which makes sense.”

Severstal, a Russian-owned steel company based in the South End of Dearborn, paid the city $8 million this year. The councilman said the payment, which will go into preparing the new administrative building, is not a grant. He explained that the $8 million is a form of tax that is unique to the contract between Severstal and Dearborn. 

According to Sareini, when Severstal bought the plant in Dearborn during the administration of former mayor Michael Guido, it received a tax break as a new business. However, according to its contract with the city, the company was required to share a small margin of its profit. As Severstal started to become profitable after reclaiming the funds put into renovating the plant, the company offered to pay the city $8 million in order to repeal the profit-sharing obligation. Mayor Jack O’Reilly signed the agreement.

Severstal has come under scrutiny as a major polluter in the area after the state approved a permit allowing it to increase the level of toxins it emits into the air. Sareini said the company’s payment to the city is not related to the pollution issue.

“It is not a restitution for the people who got sick from the pollution,” he said. “If I get into a car accident and I have to pay a restitution, it is for the people I made harm to. If there was a harm made to the people of the South End, it has nothing to do with this contract. They’re two separate things. If there is a harm, then ACCESS and the lawyers have to go after them and get them to pay the restitution.”

Sareini said he did not receive a single call from community activists in the South End about the permit, while he gets complaints about infrastructure problems there all the time.

Sareini can be reached at 313.943.2404.