Mount Clemens

Language approved for clerk recall petition

By Kristyne E. Demske
C & G Staff Writer

MOUNT CLEMENS — Shelby Township Clerk Terri Kowal said she’ll consider taking action against a man she said is fraudulently registered to vote in the township after the Macomb County Election Commission approved language on one petition filed against her.

“There’s not one person named Sebastian that owns property” in the township, and the petitioner, Joy Sebastian, “does not live at the address he says,” she said after the Aug. 27 hearing.

Kowal said Aug. 30 that she turned the matter over to Township Attorney Rob Huth, who will investigate whether Sebastian lives at the address where he is registered to vote. If he does not, it would be up to Huth to decide whether to turn the matter over to the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office.

Sebastian filed the petitions Aug. 9 with the Macomb County Clerk’s Election Department, faulting Kowal for voting for her daughter for the position of senior coordinator and also alleging that she pressured a township employee to hire her grandson.

The first petition reads, “Request for Clarity — At a February 2nd 2010 Board of Trustee meeting, Clerk Terri Kowal voted in support of a motion to promote her daughter to the position of Senior Citizen Coordinator. The promotion resulted in a 23% increase in her daughter’s salary, for her daughter.” The second states, “At a February 2nd 2010 Board of Trustee meeting Clerk Terri Kowal voted in support of a motion to promote her daughter to the position of Senior Citizen Coordinator. The promotion resulted (in) her daughter (receiving a) 23% pay increase, and Clerk did not request to abstain from the voting on 2/2/10.”

The last petition says, “Clerk Terri Kowal used her position as an elected official to pressure a department head to provide summer employment to her grandchild. The department head subsequently hired her grandchild as an township employee.”

Sebastian did not attend the Election Commission meeting where the language was considered.

But Kowal had assessing records at the hearing that showed that a Jennifer Sebastian owned the home Sebastian lists on his driver’s license and voting registration, on Forest View, until November 2008, when it was taken into foreclosure by the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office.

She said the current owners of the home, who bought it in September 2009, told her they do not know Sebastian.

“I believe these are fraudulent petitions, at very best,” Kowal said.

The Election Commission is only charged with determining the clarity of the language on the petition, not the truthfulness of the allegations or the petitioner’s legal qualifications to circulate the language for signatures, said Frank Krycia with the Macomb County Corporation Counsel’s office. He said anyone who feels that voter fraud has been committed needs to take that allegation to the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office.

“Even if the proposal for recall is a lie, if it’s clearly stated, (it is) up to the voters” to decide the veracity of the claims, he said.

The commission voted 2-1 that the language on the first petition was clear. Macomb County Treasurer Ted Wahby was the lone dissenter.

The commission, which also includes Macomb County Clerk Carmella Sabaugh and Judge Mark Switalski, found the other two petitions unclear by a 2-1 vote on the second petition and unanimously on the third petition.

Kowal told the commission that the facts in the petitions were false. She said she had to vote, by charter township law, for the motion that promoted her daughter, Amy Drake, because no board member called for a vote beforehand asking her to abstain from voting. And because the motion promoting Drake passed 6-1, she said, her vote wouldn’t have mattered, anyway.

In addition, she had a letter from Department of Public Works Director Ted Schoenherr that spelled out that he called her to ask if her grandson would work for the summer, and that she never pressured Schoenherr to hire her grandson.

By law, Sebastian will have 120 days to collect 7,700 signatures on the recall petition for it to move forward before the language expires, but signatures are only valid for 90 days.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Kristyne E. Demske at kdemske@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1041.