Council recall effort in Woods fails;
organizers fall short on signatures

It's official: There will be no recall question on the ballot this fall in Grosse Pointe Woods.

Woods resident Nancy Hames said she is abandoning her effort to recall Arthur Bryant and Joseph Sucher, the two newest members of the Woods city council, after failing to gather enough signatures to place the question on the ballot. Hames began her campaign in May, after Bryant and Sucher voted with the majority to raise the city's millage rate. The Woods, like most municipalities in Michigan, faced budget shortfalls due to declining property values and tax receipts. 

Sucher and Bryant both said they voted for the increase, along with three other members and Mayor Robert Novitke, in order to preserve the high level of services residents have come to expect in the Pointes. Hames and others, in a loose organization calling itself Tapped Out Taxpayers, contended city officials didn't do enough to rein in spending before opting for a tax increase.

On Friday (July 31), Hames conceded the group did not have enough signatures, falling "a few hundred" short of the roughly 2,500 it needed. She said a late start–the petition language wasn't approved by the Wayne County Election Commission until late June–didn't allow enough time. 

"If we'd had the full 90 days," she said, the group could have easily made its goal.

Sucher said work on the city's budget is ongoing, but as for the recall effort, "I'm glad it's over. Now we can get back to the business of the city. It was a significant distraction." 

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