This week, Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly announced that he cancelled his annual State of the City address, ahead of the snowstorm that impacted the city on Wednesday.

It was yet another move that has contributed to what many feel is lack of transparency in Dearborn over the last several months.

What many disgruntled residents don’t understand is, why is it so difficult to get answers from city officials?

Frustration continues to grow over the lack of information released to the public regarding two fatal shootings of Detroit residents during a pursuit by Dearborn Police.

While the Police Department has issued press releases about both incidents and expressed remorse toward the families of the deceased, it is simply is not enough.

We understand that some details in both of these cases should remain undisclosed in order to limit any influence on the investigations, but other questions should’ve already been addressed by now.

The city remains silent about simple questions in these cases, such as the identities of the officers, whether surveillance footage was available during the encounters and if the officers were being overly aggressive towards the individuals, both of whom had mental disabilities.

Meanwhile, New Era Detroit, a grassroots organization demanding justice for the deaths of the Detroiters, remains puzzled themselves.

When the group first attempted to attend a City Council meeting in January, its members claimed the doors into the building were locked – alleging that the city violated the Open Meetings Act.

City officials have since stated they weren’t sure how and why the doors were locked.

But if the city doesn’t know why the doors were locked, then who does? 

Simple communicative efforts between city officials and Police Chief Ron Haddad, who frequently attends City Council meetings, could’ve resulted in an answer to the very simple question of whether the doors were deliberately locked to keep certain people out.

Instead, the city thinks it can continue to dodge bullets by avoiding simple questions.

We’ll give you another example.

Earlier this month, The Arab American News contacted the city’s Department of Public Information to obtain an update on the city’s hookah laws.

The ordinance implemented last year was met with some controversy after the city announced it was creating its own zoning rules for hookah establishments and capping the licenses at 15 businesses. More than a year later, questions remain unanswered about this ordinance. Deadlines for business owners to meet these requirements had been delayed numerous times, leaving some business owners scratching their heads.

When we attempted to get an updated list of the businesses that obtained licenses, we were told via email by the director of Public Information that we would need to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Why would this department, which has the sole purpose of relaying timely information to the public, attempt to derail the process of such a simple request?

We are more than certain the director of the department could’ve obtained the list within minutes and forwarded it to us without a problem. We would have already published the article and been done with it by now.

We did not need to file a FOIA with Wayne County when we asked for a list of hookah businesses that were in compliance with state laws. The county provided a list of 55 businesses within two days.

But, for whatever reason, the city of Dearborn told us to take a strenuous month long journey to obtain a list of 15 businesses that’s most likely sitting in an Excel document at City Hall.

Instead, we received a press release about an event taking place at Henry Ford Centennial Library. 

That appears to be all the department does these days. Instead of answering pivotal questions from the media, it sends out information on upcoming events that likely generates no fanfare from residents.  

We aren’t interested in obtaining information on an event about 19th century poetry; we are interested in getting answers on the city’s laws. 

The last time we filed a FOIA with the city was to obtain an official list of names of city employees, in order to gather data on the number of Arab Americans who worked for the city. Weeks later when we checked the status of our FOIA on the deadline day, we discovered it was sitting on a desk collecting dust.

After we gave City Hall personnel a friendly reminder that the deadline had arrived, a representative said they would mail out a response to us by the end of the day.

A few days later, we received the letter, which stated that the city had no information on our inquiry. One month had gone down the drain in our quest to obtain this data.

In the press release announcing the mayor’s cancellation of the State of the City address, the city stated, “A plan for an alternative presentation is being considered.”

However, what city officials should be considering is working on their communication skills.