Chronology on Zussman Park
(rev. November 18, 2002)

• For several months, there had been rumors circulating around town that the Emergency Financial Manager, Louis Schimmel, was going to pave a portion of Zussman Park in order to increase parking around City Hall.
  
  
• On September 30, Preserve Our Parks wrote to Mr. Schimmel, expressing our concern about the rumors we had heard. We stated our opposition to vacating any or all of Zussman Park. We also asked him to make public his plans for the Park.
  
  
• On October 4, POP President Phillip Kwik received a call and an email from Joe Young, Assistant to Mr. Schimmel, saying that Mr. Young would like to meet with Mr. Kwik.
  
  
• On October 7, Mr. Kwik responded to Mr. Young, via email, inviting him to the next POP meeting, Wednesday, October 16. Mr. Young responded via email that he would have to ask Mr. Schimmel.
  
  
• On October 8, Mr. Kwik attended the Council meeting. Earlier, POP had forwarded the Council the September 30 letter to Mr. Schimmel, along with a cover letter asking the Council to oppose any vacation of Zussman Park.

Before the meeting started, Mr. Bill Barnett, an assistant to the Financial Manager, entered the Council Chambers and handed each Council member and Mr. Kwik a rough architectural drawing which cuts approximately 7,000 square feet out of the Park (roughly 25%) in order to create 18 parking spaces. This drawing also shows the removal of 12 trees and several bushes. There was no cover letter attached, no cost estimate, and no comment by Mr. Barnett.

The City Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing the vacation of any or all of Zussman Park, and opposing the expenditure of any resources on any plan to vacate the Park.

• On November 14, Mr. Kwik met with Emergency Financial Manager Schimmel in a last ditch effort to save Zussman Park. Mr. Schimmel refused to back down.
  
  
• On November 18, Preserve Our Park will go to Circuit Court to argue for an injunction preventing the destruction of Zussman Park.
  

The Emergency Financial Manager’s office has made no argument for the action in vacating Zussman Park. The only thing that Mr. Barnett said was that "We are not vacating the Park; we’re just taking a part of it for parking."

Preserve Our Parks believes:

1. The Park is protected land in Hamtramck. According to the Hamtramck City Charter, Chapter VIII, Section 2 (47), park land "shall not be vacated or discontinued except on a three-fifths vote of the electors." The Ordinance to Preserve Park Land in Hamtramck, passed 2-1 by a referendum vote in 1996, mirrors this language, by not allowing any new building on any City parks without a three-fifths vote of the electorate. State law is similar, by not allowing the sale of park land without a three-fifths vote.
   
   
2. The deed to Zussman Park restricts the land usage. The deed, dated July 18, 1922, in which the land was conveyed by the Henry A. Cleland Estate Company, Ltd., to the City of Hamtramck, states that the land will remain "a public park forever." The great-granddaughter of the donor, and the nephew of the World War II veteran in whose name the Park has been named, have supported POP in the effort to save Zussman Park.
   
   
3. The Emergency Financial Manager has overstepped his bounds. Public Act 72 gives the Emergency Financial Manager wide latitude in dealing with a municipality’s finances. However, vacating park land for parking is clearly not a financial issue, nor is it an emergency. In this way, the Manager has no authority to subvert the City Charter and the deed restrictions.

Compiled by POP, updated November 19, 2002