Brown recall effort dismissed due to lack of signatures

A recall petition targeting West Bloomfield Township Trustee Larry Brown has been dismissed by the Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds Office after no signatures were turned into the office by the Monday, April 25 deadline.

Recall petition language was submitted by township resident Ray Jarjis Kasmikha last June and approved by county officials last October.

After that approval, Kasmikha was given a deadline of 180 days to circulate recall petitions and gather 7,251 registered voter signatures — a figure equal to 25 percent of the township votes cast in the previous gubernatorial election — to seek Brown’s recall in a special election.

However, Kasmikha failed to meet the deadline.

Kasmikha’s proposed recall petition language stated that at a Dec. 7, 2009 Board of Trustees meeting, Brown made a partial disclosure about an expected business relationship with Richfield Equities and voted to award Richfield a 5-year single-source waste hauling contract.

Kasmikha also stated in the petition language that at the Nov. 19, 2009 board meeting, Brown voted to award a multi-million dollar contract using federal stimulus funds to a Canadian corporation to complete a clean water state revolving fund project.

Before the township board approved a single-source waste hauling contract with Richfield at its Dec. 7, 2009 meeting, Brown disclosed to the board that he would be entering a business relationship with Dan Garman, an outside contractor for Richfield, through one of his companies, Crossroads Consulting & Management.

Also prior to the board vote on the Richfield contract, the township’s attorney indicated to Brown that a pending partnership between him and an individual tied to Richfield didn’t present an ethics policy violation. In addition, a majority of township board member denied Brown’s request to abstain from voting on the Richfield contract.

There are still two active recall petitions against Brown that were submitted by township resident Betty Hyman. Those recall petitions were approved by county officials on Jan. 26. According to the Clerk/Register of Deeds Office, Hyman has a deadline of July 25 to turn in the required number of signatures.