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Mayor Beydoun honors late employees, announces new directors and grant push
Summary
Mayor Mo Beydoun opened the Jan. 13 meeting with tributes to recently deceased residents, thanked emergency responders for a search for a missing resident, and introduced multiple mayoral appointees including directors for water billing, ordinance/animal control, communications, emergency management and grants; he said a new grants director will pursue sizeable federal/state funding.
Mayor Mo Beydoun opened the council’s first meeting of 2026 with a moment of silence for Vince Tripakowski and remarks about the community search for missing resident Yousef Naim, acknowledging the police, fire and county partners who took part in the effort.
During his remarks the mayor introduced several new appointees: Rachel Lapointe (water billing supervisor), Yousef Nasrallah (ordinance and animal control director), Ahmad Al Zayat (emergency manager/community liaison), Mohammed Qasem (communications director), Nicole Hefty (grants director) and Michael Kozlowski (police chief). The mayor described the hires as locally connected and positioned to coordinate across departments.
Nicole Hefty, the city’s new grants director, told the council she will pursue federal and state funding and said she and the mayor discussed applying for more than $103 million in potential grants covering multi‑year project budgets; she cautioned that awards are not guaranteed but framed grant capture as a central administration priority.
The mayor also announced plans for pedestrian and traffic safety funding (a $700,000 SEMCOG grant) and said the city will study potential purchases and pilot projects this spring to slow traffic near schools and parks. Several council members and directors praised the new hires and thanked staff and volunteers involved in the recent search and other operations.
