Pizza party pre-empts public comment at city council meeting
GARDEN CITY, Mich. (AP) — Seven homeowners waiting to plead their eviction plight to Garden City officials were turned away because the City Council had hot pizza waiting.
A pizza party was scheduled immediately after Monday night's swearing-in ceremony and councilmembers in the community west of Detroit walked out before residents could speak, The Detroit News reported Tuesday.
"It's a happy occasion," Mayor Randy Walker told the newspaper.
Walker, a part-time mayor, was one of the officials recently re-elected to office.
"We had food waiting. We had pizza coming out of the oven," he said, adding that public comment typically is not held at swear-ins.
But the law requires some form of public comment at public meetings, according to University of Michigan law professor Leonard Niehoff.
Tarek Baydoun, an attorney representing the homeowners who have had their properties foreclosed on, said he plans to file an Open Meetings Act violation complaint with the state.
Garden City and some other Wayne County communities acquired tax-foreclosed houses this year from the county. Garden City has sold its homes to a developer.
Residents being foreclosed on "can come to the next council meeting" to speak, Walker said.
"The houses were foreclosed by the county," he said. "We are not the property owner anymore. It's out of our hands."
Cheryl Deanda said she was ready to pay the $16,000 owed in taxes on her home, but she didn't get a chance to tell that to the council.
"Apparently, they'd rather take an investor's money than mine," Deanda said.
