A Highland Park entrepreneur and community booster will soon take over as the city’s new treasurer after a judge ousted Janice Taylor-Dibbs in January.
The Highland Park City Council voted 3-2 on Monday night to appoint Lisa Stolarski to the position.
She was among nearly 10 candidates vying for the seat. Only two of those candidates, including Stolarski, live in Highland Park, which is a requirement for the position, according to Councilman Khursheed Ash-Shafii.
“I think Miss Lisa Stolarski is going to be a great addition to the city, and I think she is going to do a wonderful job and give us the transparency that we haven’t had for 30 years,” Ash-Shafii tells Metro Times. “The office has been sealed and locked off to the public since Janice Taylor-Dibbs has been treasurer.”
A Wayne County judge ordered the seven-term treasurer to resign on Jan. 30, saying she was ineligible to run for re-election because she owed more than $90,000 to the city as the result of a housing scandal.
Highland Park’s charter and state law bars residents from running for office if they are in default to the city.
Taylor-Bibbs owes the money because she brazenly took advantage of a federally funded program aimed at helping lower-income residents buy a home. Despite a policy that generally forbids city officials from participating in the neighborhood stabilization program, Taylor-Bibbs was awarded a new house on Midland Street near Woodward Avenue in Highland Park in 2012.
The Michigan State Housing Development Authority, which doled out the federal funds to build the new houses, demanded that Taylor-Bibbs pay back the $90,620 spent on the home or relinquish ownership to the city, saying she was ineligible to participate in the program.
Taylor-Bibbs did neither and kept the home, where she still lives, according to city records.
Stolarski is a popular city booster, and in 2018, she founded the Antique Touring Company, which provides historical tours of Detroit in antique, Detroit-made vehicles.
Stolarski previously served as executive director of the National Cooperative Business Association’s domestic development program and has been on boards for cooperatives around the country.
In 2015, Stolarski helped start the Cooperation Group, a Highland Park-based nonprofit that provided consulting and technical assistance for cooperatives. The idea was to assist in economic self-determination of people who want a more inclusive economy.
“She’s got my full support,” Ash-Shafii says. “Things are turning around in Highland Park in a positive direction.”
Metro Times couldn’t reach Stolarski for comment.
