A hearing is set for Friday morning on a petition filed by a Brighton woman to recall two members of the Brighton Area Schools Board of Education.
This is the second attempt by area attorney Sarah Cross to have the Livingston County Election Commission approve the language on a petition that would seek the removal of trustees John Conely and Bill Trombley.
The initial attempt was rejected Feb. 7th when the commission, comprised of County Clerk Betsy Hundley, County Treasurer Jennifer Nash, and Probate Court Judge Miriam Cavanaugh, ruled the language lacked clarity and was more a matter of opinion than fact-based.
Cross has since simplified the petition language and hopes for approval on Friday. If that happens, a total of 5,472 signatures would then be required to be collected from registered voters within the BAS district. While the recall language would be valid for 180 days from the date of approval, the required signatures must be gathered within a 60 day time frame
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.The new petitions seek Conely’s ouster based on his language in an email to a former district employee who asked that he vote in favor of a mask mandate for students in the district to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. In that email, Conely stated “You mean like Hitler did? Mandates, we don’t have laws to support them. We are not Socialists.”
That later prompted a rebuke from Carolyn Nornandin, the Regional Director the Anti-Defamation League of Michigan (ADL Michigan), said she was “deeply disturbed” by the statement which she said was “shameful” for “connecting current health policies during a pandemic, with an administration seeking to commit mass genocide of targeted groups”.
The petition seeking Trombley’s recall states that he failed to read the board packet prior to the September 27th meeting.
