Almasmari

HAMTRAMCK — According to City Council candidate residents should encourage each other to vote in the Nov. 3 election in order to be better represented and to change the city’s current high taxes.

“Your vote is your voice,” said 28-year-old Almasmari, who was born in Yemen. He says he is the only Arab council candidate in the race.

Local public school reform, lowering taxes and better roads are among the candidate’s top priorities he says he will work to implement once in office.

According to Almasmari, 27 percent of Hamtramck residents are Yemeni, making it the city with the highest concentration of Yemeni Americans in the state. That is why he believes he would better represent the community if elected to City Council. As more immigrants trickle in, one of his goals is to “value to the diversity” in Hamtramck, one of the most diverse towns in America.

The candidate said he believes bringing in more financial resources to the city will fix many of the issues many residents are concerned about.

“If you wanna change something, it’s not gonna be changed by blaming each other, but by voting,” Almasmari said.

He also said a better Hamtramck means better public schools.

“If we want a better future, we have to have better schools,” he said. That would be accomplished by working as a team with the council members to support the city’s public schools.

Almasmari stressed that electing the right people, ones who work hard for the people, is the only sure way to improve Hamtramck’s condition.

Convincing more businesses to establish themselves in Hamtramck is another of Almasmari’s goals. He also promises to work on making the city safer for residents and to attract more businesses.

He encourages business owners to vote as well, because their concerns would be heard by the Council.

Hamtramck has the highest tax rate in the state, according to Almasmari. He said bringing in more resources, not declaring bankruptcy, will reduce the high tax rates.

In 2013, Gov. Snyder appointed Cathy Square as Hamtramck’s emergency manager. Last year, the state announced the financial emergency in Hamtramck was resolved and would be placed under the guidance of a transition board.

Almasmari said he has spent the past six years serving his community through a non-profit organization and he will continue to do so, even if he is not elected. He previously ran for a seat on the board of education, but did not win. He is also an alternate tax board member on the Hamtramck Board of Review.

Almasmari, who is majoring in business administration at Wayne State University, is a small business owner who opened King’s Ice Cream in 2011 and supplies metro Detroit with more than 70 ice cream trucks.

He said about 40 of his campaign signs placed around the city were vandalized with a large, spray painted “X.” Flyers that say “Let’s get the Muslim out of Hamtramck” were also posted around the city.

“The hateful flyers that we see around are trying to divide the community, but that will never happen,” he said.