DEARBORN HEIGHTS — Less than a month after the police chief and directors filed a lawsuit against the city, the City Council has voted to hire its own attorney in a federal lawsuit of its own.

With a 4-1 vote on Feb. 13, the Council members approved a resolution to hire its own legal counsel, former City Attorney Gary Miotke, to represent them in a federal lawsuit alleging widespread corruption in City Hall and the Police Department overall. The Council is seeking “to intervene” in the federal whistleblower lawsuit filed on Jan. 24 by Police Chief Jerrod Hart and Directors Kevin Swope and Paul Vanderplow.

The lawsuit originally filed by Hart, Swope and Vanderplow alleged that they were denied their free speech rights when they tried to uncover wrongdoings in the department, including several accusations of corruption throughout the department.

The attempt to “intervene” in the lawsuit filed by the police officials is an attempt by the City Council to join in the existing civil suit as the police officials’ lawsuit is against the city as a whole, not the Council, despite the lawsuit naming some Council members and alleged wrongdoings.

The resolution also states that it will attempt to challenge the injunction granted that allows Swope and Vanderplow to keep their jobs during the litigation as the Council had attempted to eliminate both positions while claiming that their hiring had been done in violation of the charter.

“Everybody’s lawyered up,” Council Chairman Mo Baydoun said during the meeting on Tuesday. “Let the lawyers do their job now.”

The Council also approved a resolution in a 4-1 vote to open its own investigation into previous legal settlements made by Mayor Bill Bazzi’s administration with four police-related cases, citing that, “Bazzi and (Corporation Counsel Roger) Farinha may have acted beyond or outside of their authority” to settle the lawsuits.

Included in the lawsuits the Council is seeking to investigate is the undisclosed legal settlement of previous Police Chief Mark Meyers in 2023 regarding his termination in 2022.

The resolutions contend there is a recurring pattern by the police officials and some of the mayor’s administration of ignoring the Council and violating the city charter.

Attorneys could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.