HAMTRAMCK, Mich. (WXYZ) — At a Hamtramck City Council meeting Tuesday night, members voted to keep two councilmen who are accused of not living in the city.
Watch the report in the video player below:
Hamtramck police have launched their own investigation into fraud and perjury and turned their findings over to Michigan State Police to reduce conflict of interest. MSP is now investigating the matter criminally.
The meeting, which overflowed into the hallways, was at times tense as the two council members, Muhith Mahmood and Abu Musa, defended their residencies and reputations.
"Really struggling to understand. What is the motive of doing this," Mahmood asked at the meeting.
The two men submitted to run in the 2025 election, with Mahmood running for the open mayoral seat and Musa running for reelection on city council. Consistent with election background checks, all candidates were vetted to see if they live in the city, a requirement to run.
Private investigators with Advantage Investigations were hired on the city’s dime to look into all the candidates, even keeping tabs on them with GPS trackers on their cars and looking into property records. They found that Mahmood resides in Troy and Musa lives in Warren.
The two deny the claims.
At the meeting, it was announced by police officials that they began an investigation of their own.
“The Hamtramck Police Department has conducted a thorough review corroborating the investigators findings through records such as resident documentation, municipal filings, motor vehicle records, GPS tracking data and photographic evidence," Special Investigator David Adamczyk with the department said at the meeting.
Residents voiced their frustrations.
“Why is it OK for somebody who lives in Warren or another city to make the decisions of what’s going on in our community? They’re not living here. They’re not seeing what’s going on on our streets," Hamtramck resident Andrea Karpinski said.
At the meeting, the council members voted unanimously to keep Musa on council, and five members voted to keep Mahmood on council with member Muhtasin Sadman abstaining.
“This chamber did not received any evidence if these two live outside the city," Councilman Khalil Refai said during the meeting. "Where is the proof?”
This comes as Hamtramck City Clerk Rana Faraj also reached out to the Michigan Attorney General's Office to review allegations of election fraud during the 2023 Hamtramck City Council election.
Residents say they are fed up with the drama and demand transparency.
“You know, people talk about putting us on the map and we’re only on the map for negative reasons now. It is disheartening," Karpinski said.
