Brown recall efforts die as signature deadline passes

Two recall petitions targeting West Bloomfield Township Trustee Larry Brown have been dismissed by the Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds Office after no signatures were submitted by the Monday, July 25 deadline.

The petitions’ language was submitted by township resident Betty Hyman and was approved by county officials on Jan. 26.

Hyman was then given 180 days to circulate recall petitions and collect 6,654 registered voters’ signatures, or 25 percent of the township votes cast in the last gubernatorial election, in order to seek Brown’s recall on a township ballot.

However, Hyman failed to meet the deadline.

Hyman cited in both petitions Brown’s decision in 2009 to have his $125 meeting stipend diverted to a township Water and Sewer Benevolent Fund for needy families, claiming that he has not paid taxes on his 2009 earnings as a trustee.

In the second petition, Hyman added that Brown voted in November 2009 in favor of a sanitary sewer lining project contract with Liquiforce Services (USA), which has an office located in Romulus but is based in Ontario, stating in her recall petition that the contract would have been subsidized with federal stimulus funds.

Hyman also cited in the second petition Brown’s lawsuit last year against the West Bloomfield Police Department regarding a prior Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking information on an investigation by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office into one of Brown’s business relationships.

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 members denied Brown’s request to abstain from voting on the Richfield contract.

Brown has said that the board previously approved allowing him to have his meeting stipend allocated to the benevolent fund through the township budget, and maintains that he never received any of that money.

The dismissal of the two petitions comes after another recall petition filed against Brown by township resident Ray Jarjis Kasmikha expired on April 25 after no signatures were turned into the Clerk/Register of Deeds Office.