Dearborn Charter Commission votes to keep current charter, turns down adding citywide wards
DEARBORN, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - It came down to the last vote, but on Wednesday, the Dearborn Charter Commission elected to stick with its current charter system despite pressure to revise it by establishing citywide wards.
While that decision was met with some pushback from local residents in attendance, the Charter Commission voted 5-4.
Commissioners Hassan F. Abdallah, Sharon Dulmage, Hussein M. Hachem, Timothy Shawn Harrison and Cheryl Hawkins all voted in favor of keeping the current charter system, while Commissioners Elizabeth Bailey, Laura Dudgeon, L. Glenn O'Kray and James O'Connor voted against it.
Dulmage says making a decision of this size should be put on a ballot and determined by voters.
"The decision shouldn't just be up to nine people," she said.
But for Bailey, who wrote the original proposal to revise the city's charter, she says giving residents the responsibility to decide on districting Dearborn would do them a disservice.
"People didn't say you know what, let's keep things going the way they that they were. They said let's elect nine people to really dig into this," Bailey said.
Nonetheless, Wednesday's meeting drew dozen-or-so residents from both sides of the aisle.
"Wards can create an us versus them system," one resident said. "I believe this proposal would be harmful to Dearborn," another resident claimed.
Mona Mowari, an advocate for wards, did not agree.
"To me, the city is already divided. There is stark differences between the West, East and South End," Mowari said.
And while the charter commission opened up its meeting for residents to voice their opinion through public comment, it ended with a vote against districts in Dearborn, a decision and opportunity that comes only once every 12 years.