County Commissioner: Troy Mayor is 'Black Eye on Our Whole Region'

A fundraiser will be held in Ferndale this weekend to support the recall of Troy Mayor Janice Daniels, who has been under fire since December for using an anti-gay slur on her Facebook page.

Craig Covey, an Oakland County commissioner and former Ferndale mayor, is organizing the fundraiser, called "Recall Troy Mayor Janice Daniels Ferndale Solidarity Party."

The event will be held at Soho in Ferndale from 6-8 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 7. Organizers will take donations of any amount to benefit the recall effort.

Troy residents will vote on Nov. 6 whether to recall Daniels, who was elected to office in November.

"The Ferndale community decided it wanted to help," said Covey.

Daniels first came under fire in December for an anti-gay Facebook comment and has remained the center of controversy after voting against the Troy Transit Center (a scaled-down version was later approved), telling the Troy High School Gay-Straight Alliance she would bring in an expert to tell them the homosexual lifestyle is "dangerous" and writing a lengthy position paper some viewed as personally attacking city employees and council members.

[For full coverage of the recall effort, visit the Troy Mayor Janice Daniels topic page on Troy Patch.]

Covey said more than 70 people are already planning to attend the fundraiser on Sunday, which will include food, a cash bar and drink specials. Representatives from the recall effort will speak at the event.

"It's just basically a way for local Ferndale and neighboring folks to support the [recall] effort," Covey said.

He said there is a lot of interest in the community for the situation in Troy - not only because of Ferndale's large LGBT population but also because Ferndale stands for diversity and believes "diversity is a strength."

"She's sort of the antithesis," Covey said of Daniels. "She's doing the opposite in Troy of what we've been trying to do in Ferndale."

Covey said the issue extends beyond Troy partly because Troy is so important to the southeast Michigan region - a hub for corporate headquarters, banking, retail and more.

"I think the tone that she has set has been an embarrassment for the entire region. It's made national news," he said. "I think it's a black eye on our whole region."

Ferndale City Council member Dan Martin, who is co-hosting the event, said he got involved because elected officials "should be working for all of the people in our cities."

"I think it is very inappropriate and sad when an elected official shows such intolerance for any group of people," he said. "We should all be working together towards diverse and inclusive communities."

And for Covey, the event is really about "neighbors helping neighbors."

"I think it's the kind of thing where if Ferndale was going through this I would want people to come and help us also," he said. "I look at it as neighbors helping neighbors."