Election Commission Approves Detailed Petition to Recall Troy Mayor

PONTIAC, MI – The Oakland County Election Commission voted 2-1 Thursday morning to approve the language of a to recall Troy Mayor Janice Daniels, who took office on Nov. 14, 2011.

"We’ll be proceeding with this petition and not the ," petition sponsor and Troy resident Matt Binkowski said.

Binkowski, a member of the political action committee Recall Janice Daniels, said he and opponents of the mayor will begin collecting signatures "in the next few days."

During the clarity hearing in Oakland County Probate Judge Linda Hallmark's Pontiac courtroom, Hallmark and Oakland County Clerk Bill Bullard both voted to approve the language while Oakland County Treasurer Andy Meisner, who said he was "hung up" on a few of the words used in the petition, voted against it.

"I actually have a bit of an issue with the word ‘while,'" Meisner said. "I think there might be one other word there that can be clearer."

Meisner also expressed concern over the word 'attack' in the petition, saying, "I think that 'denigrated' was used in the original language, and I’m not sure ‘attack’ is an improvement … but I think that it works. … I’m not sure I see it as fatal."

Bullard disagreed, saying, "I think the word ‘attack’ is clear."

The approved recall petition language reads:

"We, the undersigned, registered and qualified voters of the City of Troy, in the County of Oakland, and State of Michigan, petition for the calling of an election to recall Janice Daniels from the office of Mayor, for the following reason(s): (1) for referring to the Troy City Charter as a 'whimsical' document in a November 21, 2011 interview with the Detroit Free Press; (2) for declaring, during an 'office hours' forum on January 9, 2012, that 'the homosexual lifestyle is dangerous'; (3) for publicly attacking city employees during the January 9, 2012 City Council meeting while reading a 20 minute 'position paper' into the record; and (4) for failing to support a Federal investment in the City of Troy of over $8.4 million, by voting against the Troy Transit Center project on three occasions (December 19, 2011, January 17, 2012, and February 20, 2012)."

A clarity hearing for will be held at 1:30 p.m. on March 28 in Hallmark's courtroom. The hearing is open to the public.

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  and writing a lengthy position paper some viewed as .

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

For the latest Troy news, follow Troy Patch on Facebook and Twitter.