HAMTRAMCK — Mayor Adam Alharbi has filed a lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit Court seeking to overturn the Hamtramck City Council’s decision to terminate newly appointed City Manager Adel Al-Adlani, a move that signals an escalating power struggle over governance and decision-making inside City Hall, which is already facing multiple legal challenges stemming from the dismissal of former city officials in recent months.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn the Council’s decision, citing violations of the city charter and state law

The lawsuit, filed Monday by attorney Nabih Ayad, argues that the City Council clearly violated the Hamtramck City Charter, Michigan’s Open Meetings Act and the state constitution when it added a surprise agenda item during its regular June 9 meeting to vote on Al-Adlani’s dismissal only a few months after he assumed office, without providing any justification for the action.

The Council voted 4-2 to terminate the Yemeni American city manager following nearly 30 minutes of chaos and verbal clashes between Mayor Alharbi, who presides over the Council under the city charter, and Council Pro Tem Mohammed Hassan over procedural rules and Al-Adlani’s performance. None of the Council members who supported the dismissal offered a direct reason for removing him from office.

Speaking during a press conference outside City Hall on Monday, Alharbi said he still does not know why the Council chose to terminate Al-Adlani, noting that the two had maintained a positive working relationship since the city manager’s appointment in February.

The Yemeni American mayor asked the Wayne County Circuit Court to invalidate the dismissal, warning that failure to do so could expose the city to yet another lawsuit in addition to those already filed by former City Clerk Rana Faraj, former City Manager Max Garbarino, former Hamtramck police officer David Adamczyk and former Councilman Muhith Mahmood, who lost last November’s mayoral race.

“We already have enough lawsuits,” Alharbi said, explaining that he filed the complaint in order to “save Hamtramck taxpayers from bearing the burden of defending the unreasonable conduct of the defendants”, referring to members of the City Council, all of whom are Muslim.

Ayad criticizes Hassan

Ayad said during the press conference that Councilman Mohammed Hassan was the most outspoken advocate for Al-Adlani’s removal, noting that Hassan is scheduled to appear in court on June 29 to face criminal charges related to election fraud.

“It is truly alarming to me that someone who has already violated state law through election fraud has the audacity to try to violate the law again in the city of Hamtramck,” Ayad said. “Enough is enough. The repeated violations of the law must stop.”

Councilman Nayeem Choudhury, who attended the press conference and voted against Al-Adlani’s dismissal, said he also remains uncertain why his colleagues wanted to remove the city manager, suggesting that the move was likely driven by what he described as “personal agendas.”

“They asked him to do something, and the city manager refused,” said Choudhury, who is of Bangladeshi descent. “Either it violated the city charter or he was simply following the rules. Perhaps that is why he was fired.”

Under the Hamtramck City Charter, the city manager serves as the municipality’s highest-ranking administrative executive and is directly accountable to the mayor and City Council for overseeing all city operations.

Supporters of the firing cite alleged violations

Councilmen Hassan, Abu Musa, Muhtasin Sadman and Yusuf Saeed, who voted to dismiss Al-Adlani, did not provide a direct explanation for their decision. However, Saeed stated during the Council meeting that the city manager committed numerous violations during his short tenure at City Hall, though he did not specify what those violations were.

Saeed, who is of Somali descent, claimed that Al-Adlani committed more than 20 violations since taking office on February 10 and demonstrated from his first day that he was unqualified for the position.

“Instead of working with the system, he worked against it,” Saeed said.

Saeed further argued that the Council did not violate the Hamtramck City Charter but merely suspended its procedural rules, a relatively common parliamentary tool used when officials want to address an issue immediately rather than wait for a future meeting or follow standard procedures.

“The Council voted to change leadership,” Saeed wrote on Facebook. “It was legal, consistent with our procedural rules and the Council did not need the mayor’s permission.”

Meanwhile, Hassan held up a thick stack of documents during the Council meeting and said that anyone seeking additional information about the Council’s decision to remove the city manager could submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain the reasons behind Al-Adlani’s dismissal.