The Dearborn Chamber of Commerce’s annual Margaritaville Auction is set for Saturday, Oct. 10.

This is a fun event and well worth attending if you have time Saturday. You’ll enjoy great food, music and have the chance to take part in numerous raffles and bid on silent auction items. You’ll also have the chance to win a prize for the “loudest” Hawaiian shirt and craziest flip flops.

This year’s event again will feature steel drum music and the chance to socialize with Dearborn business, education and probably even some of our elected officials or those seeking office.

The event is being held at the Student Center of the Henry Ford Community College. This annual Dearborn Chamber fundraiser will feature great food donated by local restaurants, including Andiamo, Bangkok 96, BD’s Mongolian BBQ, Big Fish, Buddy’s Pizza, Chili’s, Del Taco, The Dearborn Inn, Dearborn Hills Golf Course, Dearborn Sausage, Fuddrucker’s, Oakwood Commons/Morrison Senior Dining and the Park Place.

Henry Ford Community College is the venue sponsor. Gold sponsors include HFCC Federation of Teachers and Dearborn Federal Savings Bank; Silvers sponsors include Fidelity Bank, AAA Michigan; and University of Michigan-Dearborn. Demorest Law Firm, DFCU Financial, Grit Design, Dearborn Public Schools, Fairlane East Apartments, Henry Ford Medical Center – Fairlane, Karcher Insurance, ASG Renaissance, State Farm-Bob Zakar, Dale Bender CPA, Cyberlink Systems, Kearns Brothers, Adam’s Cleaning and A Victory Inn.

Tickets are $35 per person. For more information or to register click HERE.

Councilman Doug Thomas says he's been a Dearborn resident for 77 years.

Less than 24 hours after having the legitimacy of his Dearborn residency called into question at a city council meeting, Dearborn Councilman Doug Thomas tells Deepsaidwhat.com that he removed the homestead tax exemption from his Florida residence and now only maintains the tax exemption on his Dearborn home.

“The property in Florida is no longer homestead,” Thomas said Tuesday. “I had that eliminated today (Tuesday). I am still homestead in Dearborn where I have been a permanent resident for 77 years. I have never missed an election . . . I am here more than six months out of the year.”

At Monday night’s city council meeting, Dearborn resident and former council candidate Nancy Siwik presented the City Council with documents that she says supports her claim that the legal residency of Councilman Thomas is a condominium in the city of Bonita Springs, Florida, and not Dearborn. Siwik said Thomas was in violation of the City Charter for not being a Dearborn resident and asked the council to remove him from office and his name from the November ballot.

Thomas doesn’t deny owning a home in Florida but he says it is the primary residence of his wife, Jane, who is a Florida resident and works there. Thomas said he and his wife were given bad information by Bonita Springs officials who said she could homestead the property because she is a Florida resident and lives there year round. Doug Thomas said his name appears on the property in Florida simply because the deed lists both he and his wife but his homestead and primary residence has always been here in Dearborn.

“As it stands right now, she should have never applied for a homestead down there,” Thomas said. “I didn’t know I was homesteaded down there.”

Thomas, a Dearborn councilman for 21 years, said the allegations raised by Siwik were indeed politically motivated. He said in 2001, Siwik, then with the backing of the late Mayor Michael Guido, attacked him in that election year and he was unseated coming in eight place. However, he regained his seat on the council after then Councilman Gino Polidori won a seat as a state representative.

“If it wasn’t political why wouldn’t she have raised this before the primary?” he said.