Politics & Government

Group Plans to File Petitions to Recall Troy Mayor on Tuesday Morning

If at least 7,985 signatures are valid, the recall issue will be placed on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Recall Janice Daniels, the political action committee that has led the charge to recall Troy Mayor Janice Daniels, announced Monday evening that it will officially file its recall petitions to the Oakland County Elections Division in Pontiac on Tuesday morning.

The group, led by Troy residents Matt Binkowski and John Kulesz, it had 7,760 – or 97 percent – of the 7,985 signatures required to trigger a recall election. The group was at the Troy Public Library, among other locations, collecting last-minute signatures over the weekend. Binkowski would not say Monday how many signatures had been collected.

The group had until this Friday to file the recall petition and signatures with the county before the group's initial signatures begin to expire. According to state recall procedures, the department then has 22 days after the petition is filed to verify the signatures.

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“Assuming they verify the signatures as valid and the number has been satisfied, then it would be something on the November election ballot," Troy City Attorney Lori Grigg Bluhm said. "At that point, we would have to see which way the vote went."

Bluhm said the ballot item "would basically be ."

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"It would be a yes or no question," Troy City Clerk Aileen Bittner said. “The law says that if there are more yes votes than no votes, that’s it.”

Bittner said what would happen next, if the mayor is recalled, is tricky.

“According to the charter, in the absence of the mayor, the mayor pro tem assumes responsibilities. Beyond that, the city attorney and I would need to do an analysis to determine what would happen next.”

Complete coverage

Daniels first came under fire in December for her  and has remained the center of controversy after  (a  was later approved), telling the  Gay-Straight Alliance she would bring in an expert to tell them  and writing a lengthy position paper some viewed as .

For comprehensive coverage of the recall effort, visit the Troy Mayor Janice Daniels topic page.


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