Pennington was the name most mentioned during the first round of voting, and then again in the second round of voting. The name came out of left field to me. Any info on him? Google shows a Ed Pennington owning a collision shop. One and the same?

Wow, what a nice show of professional insightful teamwork. City Council, Mayor, City Manager, City Attorney, City Clerk. All staying on-task. All working to find the best candidates from a strong list of 41 applicants. This is Troy. This is the city I have lived in for 38 years.

Another great day in Troy. Keep up the good work!

Good Luck Carmen!

Hey Jen, can you post the resumes/applications of the final six candidates?

So, everyone thinks that we're going to have an "appointed" mayor and an "appointed" council person? No. There will be a special election. If not, then we're wasting our time voting. Its basically going to boil down to a popularity contest, in combination with Slater trying to bully the council to get his person in.

Jack do you have inside knowledge of how the court will decide before the case is even heard? And we elected those who ate choosing and they are choosing in accordance with our charter.

I can't believe anyone is going after Dane Slater like Jack above. The guy has been a model of civility and professionalism throughout this last agonizing year of Janice Daniels and the turmoil on council--an ex-police officer who has had to watch his fellow officers cut right and left to deal with the budget issues brought on by the Toxic Citizens United who made sure by every underhanded means possible that our city services would not be funded by their short-sighted tax fighting. We could do much worse than Dane as mayor. If either Dan Brake and Ed Kempen become mayor, we'll see just how much worse that can be.

I agree with Wiley about Dane Slater, he has conducted himself with civility and professionalism.

It was a good job by all of council last night in working together to pare down the list. I was especially impressed by Mayor Slater's chairing of this meeting. Each step of the way he sought input and got consensus before proceeding. The only place where I saw him interject his opinion was at the last round when they had six names all with three votes. They had earlier agreed to come up with five names. Rather than do another round robin, Mayor Slater proposed let's stay with the six, it's only one more interview. This may be a small thing, but it illustrates the kind of leadership needed: common sense, fair, flexible in thinking, and consensus-building.

Slater was ok with 6 names because most of them are his people anyway. And, he still won't answer about the missing $40,000. That issue was quietly swept under the rug. I'm not saying he did it, but I think he knows something about it. How could he not? he was a captain, a "leader".

Jack, I took notes. Three of the finalists were on Fleming's original list (Pennington, Johnson and Coppel), two were on Henderson's origianl list (Pennignton, and Copple), three were on Tietz's list (Copple, Johnson and Pennington). If one of the aforementioned make it will you be satisfied?

The reason TCU folks have a problem with Dane Slater is that they have continually displayed their comtempt for police officers and have tried to dismantle/get rid of our police force. They don't believe in using tax dollars for any purpose, and for some reason police officers have taken the brunt of their criticism. That is why they don't like Dane. So far, he has been a great Mayor. Head and shoulders above the inept Janice.

I would have preferred former councilman David Eisenbacher, who has a known voting record, or Ed Kempen, the voters’ clear runner-up choice for council in November 2011. Kempen got 99.1% of the votes of current council member Jim Campbell, compared to 93% for Bruce Bloomingdale, who also ran a good campaign. Doug Tietz (116.3% of Campbell’s vote count) and Dave Henderson at 109.2% were the newly elected conservatives.

Eisenbacher and Kempen would not have been acceptable to the three liberals on council, however, so I can understand why the three conservatives wouldn’t bother voting for them.

I don’t know any of the six finalists, so I won’t comment or pick one. Some in town would blindly oppose my choice anyway, and I wouldn’t want to hurt the chances of a good candidate.

Small business owner looks good on a resume and usually means someone who is focused on customer service and problem solving, not merely debating and winning arguments, possibly piling up lawyer bills for the city like some as they try to quietly seize power.

Remember, the voters chose a conservative mayor and council majority last November. People like me are only trying to block the hostile takeover.

A 3-3 council choosing the swing vote is kind of like picking Supreme Court nominees who only have to look good during a job interview. Their voting record won’t be known until they are sitting on the council.

Fortunately there will be a mayoral election coming in either February or November where once again “We, the people” of Troy will get to choose our mayor and then city council elections in November. The cost of a special election would be far less than the city would have to spend to fight the state’s lawsuit. So please stop the “saving the taxpayers money” argument for an appointed mayor for a year.

Those who are awake and engaged will once again have the opportunity to go to the polls and choose their leaders after hearing their campaign messages. What utter nonsense to think that low voter turnout in a special election in February will thwart the will of the people.

Liberals have no qualms using odd election times when it suits their purposes, like school board elections when many teachers show up. (This is not to denigrate anyone by applying labels, just pointing out voting patterns of people groups.) Those who care will show up; those who don’t will stay home and go back to sleep.

If you don’t vote, you should forfeit your right to complain. That didn’t stop the majority of the recall petition signers, however, who after a year of loud complaining finally succeeded in nullifying an election they hadn’t bothered to show up for.

Dale, your use of labels is nauseating and un-Christian. It's also predictable. You do know when you call people what you think are names, it's not nice, right? Maybe you should try being nonjudgemental and maybe people would listen to you.

Mom, Zoltan, Daffy, etc., you should listen to Dale. I know the truth can be hard to accept sometimes, but he is only telling you the truth and he should not be criticized for that. Now, what about the missing $40,000 that no one wants to talk about?

I find it fascinating that one of Carmen Johnson's references is Barbara Harrell, a very outspoken TCU sympathizer.

z

WHAT HAS THE TROY CITY COUNCIL DONE LATELY?
Worked to approve a realistic budget in tough times. Worked to a compromise on the Transit Center. Worked together to appoint an intrim Mayor. Worked together to narrow a field of City Council candidates from 41 to 6 ( in about a half hour). Selected an intrim City Manager. Selected a permenant City Manager. Came up with a "reasonable public comment policy" after earlier public comment debacles.

So where is the us versus them, and who exactly is us versus them ? The council may not agree on everything but when you measure what this council has acchieved, by what other councils have done before them, what this council has achieved is amazing.

The us versus them seems to come from the podium and social media. ON BOTH SIDES. Lets grow up and just stop it. Lets look out for what is best for Troy (not Lansing or Washington DC) Because in the end we live and work in Troy.

So let us celebrate the accomplishments of the current Troy City Council. Whatever side of the fence we find ourselves on.

Mr. Murrish is wrong, again. There is virtually no cost to defend the Charter, the case will be heard on briefs (written arguements). That won't be anywhere near a fraction of the cost of a special election. It's also laughable to hear Mr. Slater, Campbell and Ms. McGinnis called 'liberals'. And let's not forget Mr. Kempen's history of lies, misinformation, and oh yes, his forcing the City into court for an illegal petition. These are not differences of opinion, they're facts, and Mr. Murrish is wrong, again.

Lots of interesting discussion about the candidates. One candidate that is not mentioned is Dan Fair. He is an upstanding citizen with great intentions to make Troy the best it can be. He is knowledgeable about the workings of city government and is in tune with the issues that Troy currently faces. He has the experience and ability to work with people to get things done.

We all have our investment in Troy. I put my money on Dan Fair

I commend the 41 applicants for volunteering to serve our city in this temporary fill-in position. The six finalists all look strong in various ways (e.g., length of residency in city, team work experience, business/work in Troy, raised family in Troy, served on boards in Troy, no recent political aspirations) from their applications and a quickie Google search. I hope the interview process will help council choose someone that they all feel comfortable working with.

Ed Pennington is in my view a successful businesss man in Troy. He is intelligent, knowledgeable, hardworking, very pleasant to do business with and above all honest. This is the person that city council needs to keep the city going forward.
He will be a good member and complement the current council.

I see no discussion about Kessie Kaltsounis, to me she seems to have great qualifications as it relates to working in the city and it's various committees. Just on paper, seems to be one of the most qualified.