At its meeting on Monday, July 27, 2009, the Wayne County Election Commission approved the language of a recall petition aimed at unseating four Van Buren Township officials. The charge is that the four voted to appoint retired Detroit Police Sgt. Carl McClanahan as the interim replacement for fired Public Safety Director Jerry Champagne.
Targeted are Supervisor Paul White, Clerk Leon Wright, and Trustees Al Ostrowski and Denise Partridge. They have 10 days to appeal the language approval before the recall supporters start collecting signatures. They must get about 2,500 valid signatures for each official to put the recall question on the November ballot.