Royal Oak poll workers assist a voter at Royal Oak High School during the Nov. 4 general election.
By: Taylor Christensen | Royal Oak Review | Published November 5, 2025
ROYAL OAK/CLAWSON — The Nov. 4 election results are in, creating a new mix of people to sit on the Royal Oak City Commission and the Clawson City Council.
Clawson
Clawson voters were asked to choose a mayor for one two-year term. The candidates were incumbent Mayor Paula Millan and Mayor Pro Tem Susan Moffitt. Moffitt won the election with 56.84% of the votes compared to Millan’s 42.77%, according to the unofficial election results posted on the Oakland County website. The totals were 1,721 to 1,295, with 12 write-in votes.
Clawson voters also were also asked to vote for four council members out of the 10 candidates running for three four-year terms and one two-year term. The three highest vote totals won the four-year terms and the fourth-highest vote total won the two-year term.
The three top vote-getters were Meredith Peltonen with 15.32% of the votes (1,627), Laura L. Slowinski with 14.29% of the votes (1,518) and Heather Rigby Rinkevich with 14.17% of the votes (1,505).
Scott Tinlin, who was on the City Council in 2022-2023, was the candidate with the fourth-highest number of votes, 1,286, which worked out to 12.11%. He will be serving the two-year term.
Those who did not win election were incumbents Glenn Shepard and Bruce Anderson with 1,125 and 1,097 votes, respectively, Alec W. Speshock with 986 votes, Scott E. Manning with 725 votes, William J. Renshaw with 373 votes, and George Georges with 369 votes. There were 10 write-in votes.
Clawson voters also chose a council member to fill a term ending Nov. 15, 2027. There were two candidates. Aidan O’Rourke won with 62.56% of the votes, 1,711, over Richard Scott’s 37.29% of the votes, 1,020. There were four write-in votes. Scott had been appointed to the City Council in July.
“I am super excited about the outcome. Clawson had the fourth-highest voter turnout in Oakland County. Our residents are engaged and made conscious decisions about what they wanted for their city going forward,” Moffitt said. “They elected all new people in the roles, and they are ready for some change. I think that’s super exciting.”
Moffitt said that the new members on the council are “exciting, young and fresh voices” who are going to be bringing new perspectives to the city of Clawson.
“It’s like a new beginning. There’s new opportunities to sit down and take a look at how things should be going forward,” she said. “I think that there is going to be a learning curve, but we just need to give everybody a little bit of grace to get up to speed and bring some new ideas and fresh approaches and fresh perspectives to everything that the City Council is involved in.”
As the new mayor, Moffitt hopes to be available to Clawson residents for any concerns or questions they may have.
“It’s crazy already. The week since the election completed, there’s been people that have already reached out to me with their ideas of how they think things should work or what they want to see,” Moffitt said. “I think the biggest thing is creating an environment where I will answer every email. I want to be approachable and have conversations. We’re not always going to agree, but we can always talk, and I want to create a place where people can always have their voice be heard.”
Royal Oak
In Royal Oak, voters were asked to choose between incumbent Michael Fournier and Trish Oliver for mayor. The two candidates ran for one two-year term. Fournier came out on top with 58.99% of the votes, 9,426. Oliver had 40.75% of the votes, 6,512. There were 41 write-ins.
Voters were also asked to choose three candidates out of the seven running for four-year terms on the City Commission.
The three candidates elected to the City Commission include incumbent Brandon Kolo with 20.13% of the votes (8,945), Paul Bastian with 19.99% of the votes (8,882), and Woody Gontina with 19.20% of the votes (8,531). Carolyn Martz received 6,358 votes, David Buzynski received 6,088 votes and Eric Smethurst received 5,444 votes. There were 191 write-in votes; Michael Willard had run as a write-in candidate.
“This is something I have wanted to do for 30 years, since I was involved in student government at Dondero High School. So, to have the voters in Royal Oak, old friends and strangers alike, be supportive of my candidacy, and give me the opportunity to serve the city this way is incredibly meaningful,” Bastian said. “I hope to serve the people well. I hope to continue Royal Oak’s forward progress. I hope to continue Royal Oak to be the incredibly desirable community that it is and work with the current commissioners and my newly elected peer, Woody Gontina, to pick up the baton from the commissioners that have stepped aside and do work that is required to keep Royal Oak a desirable and welcoming, fantastic community.”
For more information on the election results, visit elections.oaklandcountymi.gov.