Group Files Revised Petition to Recall Troy Mayor

, a political action committee (PAC) comprising "concerned citizens" leading the effort to recall Troy Mayor Janice Daniels, filed a revised recall petition this morning after one of its two recall petitions was .

The Oakland County Election Commission approved the first petition on Thursday, which listed "voting to reject a $8,485,212 Federal investment grant to the City of Troy on December 19, 2011" as the sole reason for recalling the mayor.

"We did this in an effort to satisfy several members of our broad coalition who felt that the rejected petition made a better case for recall," Troy resident and petition sponsor Matt Binkowski wrote in an email to Patch. "This revised language addresses the concerns of Judge (Linda) Hallmark and County Clerk (Bill) Bullard."

In the second rejected petition, the PAC listed four reasons for which it wished to recall the mayor, including:

"...(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."

During the hearing, Oakland Probate Judge Linda Hallmark and Oakland County Clerk Bill Bullard – who were part of the three-person Oakland County Election Commission, along with Oakland County Treasurer Andy Meisner – expressed concern over the first reason.

"I have concerns about … whether the oath of office was prior to the time that the mayor was actually sworn in for her office," Hallmark said during the hearing, which drew a crowd of more than 30 people to the Pontiac courtroom. According to state law, each reason for the recall must be based upon the mayor’s conduct during her current term in office.

The revised petition includes language and details that Matt Binkowski, petition sponsor, says is more clear. The revised petition 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)."

As of noon Monday, a clarity hearing for the revised petition had not yet been scheduled. The Oakland County Election Commission has 20 days from the day the petition was filed to hold the hearing before the recall language is automatically approved.

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 our special Troy Mayor Janice Daniels topic page.