The suspended city manager of Hamtramck plans to file a lawsuit next week that his attorney claims will detail “mind-blowing” allegations of corruption and malfeasance against the city’s mayor, council members, police chief — and possibly “high-ranking officials in the U.S. government.”
The Hamtramck City Council suspended Max Garbarino with pay at a meeting this week that featured a contentious back-and-forth between Garbarino and the city’s mayor, Amer Ghalib. Ghalib and council members were angry that Garbarino suspended Hamtramck Police Chief Jamiel Altaheri following what the city manager described as allegations of criminal wrongdoing from multiple sources.
Garbarino’s suspension is the latest episode in a series of dramatic events that include investigations into alleged wrongdoing and potential corruption within Hamtramck city government. Four current and one former council member are under a state special prosecutor’s investigation for alleged absentee ballot fraud, while two current council members face a Michigan State Police investigation for allegedly living primarily outside Hamtramck in violation of the city’s charter. (The council voted earlier this month to retain the two council members in question, Muhith Mahmood and Abu Musa, while the state police probe is ongoing.)
Also simmering in the background are tensions that have sprung from the city’s changing demographics. Hamtramck, once a predominantly Polish Catholic enclave within Detroit, has seen a surge of immigrants from majority-Muslim countries that has translated into political power. Since 2021, the city has been governed by an all-Muslim, predominantly Yemeni-American city council. Altaheri, the suspended police chief, is also of Yemeni descent.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Garbarino made a lengthy statement disputing what he called rampant “misinformation” about why he suspended Altaheri. He said there are “several verified complaints” of criminal wrongdoing made against the chief.
“These are criminal allegations,” Garbarino said. “When a police officer in any state, any county, any city across the whole nation is suspected of this, they are put on administrative leave. This is how this works.”
Garbarino said he was simply doing his job by suspending Altaheri. “The authority to discipline employees falls entirely to me under the charter,” he said. “I did absolutely nothing that violated my mandate by failing to ask permission to do my job in conformity with the laws.”
Ghalib, however, accused Garbarino of, among other things, facilitating “blackmail” against Altaheri by not investigating a Hamtramck police officer who had made some of the criminal accusations against the chief. He suggested that Garbarino should not have suspended Altaheri without consulting him and council members first.
“All we're asking for is a fair, transparent investigation [into Altaheri] because you are being given the opportunity to explain to the public what's going on and defend yourself,” Ghalib said. “You did not give that privilege and that right to the police chief. You just sent him out of the department and did all that to shift the attention from the problem, the person who caused the problem in the department, to the police chief as if he is the criminal.”
Garbarino responded by saying that he was him, not Altaheri, who had placed the officer in question on paid leave as well. He also noted that Altaheri had facilitated the officer’s coming to the department.
Garbarino added that he had no motive to suspend the chief without cause. “What do I gain from this?” he asked. “Up until recently I had an excellent relationship with the chief. Why would I start this immense amount of drama for no reason? It's just insane.”
In the end, the council unanimously voted to suspend Garbarino with pay. He was escorted from the council chambers by security.
Garbarino then hired employment attorney Jonathan Marko, who told Michigan Public on Thursday that he planned to file a lawsuit on his client’s behalf next week that will detail numerous “serious concerns about illegal, unethical, and corrupt activities” within the Hamtramck police department and city government, as well as “high-level individuals within the U.S. government.”
“No doubt about it, this was retaliation” for suspending Altaheri, Marko alleged. The as-of-yet detailed allegations, he claimed, “will blow your mind. It’s going to be like a novel.”
