County Election Commission to Discuss Recall Petition Language for Troy Mayor

The Oakland County Election Commission will hold a Clarity Hearing on March 1 to discuss the language of recall petitions , a political action committee comprised of "concerned citizens" leading the effort to recall Troy Mayor Janice Daniels, who took office Nov. 14, 2011.

A meeting notice from the commission states the group will meet at 1:30 p.m. in the courtroom of Chief Probate Judge Linda Hallmark to "determine whether each reason for the recall stated in the petition is of sufficient clarity to enable the officer whose recall is being sought and the electors to identify the course of conduct which is the basis for the recall."

If the language is approved, Daniels has 10 days to appeal the commission's decision. Daniels she is not worried about the recall effort and called it "an unnecessary distraction to the city."

Though the recall petition , the group may begin gathering signatures once the recall petition language is approved. Once approved, the recall language is valid for 180 days, though individual signatures gathered on the petition are only valid for 90 days.

In Troy, 7,985 votes – or 25 percent of the number of Troy residents who voted in the last gubernatorial election – are needed to successfully recall the mayor.

In the first of two petitions, the group listed the following reasons for recalling Daniels:

(1) for refusing to swear to support the Troy City Charter in taking the oath of office and later referring to the Charter as a "whimsical document"; (2) for failing to support a Federal investment in the City of Troy of over $8.4 million dollars, by voting against the Troy Transit Center project on two occasions, December 19, 2011 and January 17, 2012; (3) for violating the City Council's procedural rules on January 9, 2012, by exceeding the limitations on a council member's speaking time by reading a position paper which publicly denigrated city employees; and (4) for embarrassing the citizens of the City of Troy on January 9, 2012, by telling high school students planning an anti-bullying program that the homosexual lifestyle is dangerous.

In the second petition, the group lists "voting to reject a $8,485,212 Federal investment grant to the City of Troy on December 19, 2011" as the reason for recalling the mayor.

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 and writing a lengthy position paper .

For more information on the recall procedure in the state of Michigan, please see the attached pdf file.