Troy City Council, Mayoral Election Creates Shift in Ideology

Troy City Council incumbents were shaken Tuesday by election results that will bring a new conservative majority to the city's governing body as voters showed strong support for candidates calling for a change in the city.

"We ran 100 percent positive campaign," Janice Daniels, Troy mayor-elect, said Tuesday night after winning the mayoral election by nearly 700 votes. "We focused on the issues. We respect people, we respect ideas. We will have a forward thinking, problem-solving council for the next four years so we can make Troy a leadership city across the country."

Daniels took just less than 52 percent of the vote, while sitting councilwoman and mayoral opponent Robin Beltramini garnered 47.82 percent.

Council candidates receiving the top votes on Tuesday were Troy businessman Doug Tietz, who took 7,621 votes; Troy Realtor Dave Henderson, who took 7,157 votes; and Jim Campbell, managing director for Future Tool and Machine, who took 6,522 votes.

Edward Kempen, a longtime Troy resident who led an unsuccessful petition to have the city's charter amended to keep the library open without the use of any new taxes, missed securing a seat on City Council by only 57 votes.

A full breakdown of Troy City Council votes can be found on Troy Patch's .

Beltramini, who was joined by several other candidates and incumbents Tuesday night at , said "dirty politics" came into play during Tuesday's election. However, she said some voters may have been swayed by the announcement from the city's administration two weeks after voters approved a dedicated library millage that nearly $3 million in savings had been attained through employee concessions and early retirements.

Opponents of the millage claimed the city had enough funds to operate the without any new taxes; however, the outgoing majority of council members said the library would have been shuttered had the millage failed during a special election in August.

Henderson said he was happy to see the governing body return to a conservative majority.

"Overwhelmingly, people I talked to at the polling locations today said they tired of being abused by the city," Henderson said. "They wanted more control, and they knew that we would do it."

Council Candidate Neil Yashinsky said he believes low voter turnout on Tuesday may have played a part in his loss. Yashinsky took 12 percent of the vote, leading both Allen D'Aoust and Amin Hashmi by more than 3,000 votes each.

Tietz rejected the idea that voter turnout played a part in the election results, noting that while turnout overall was lower than it had been for the August election, it was higher than the last city council election.

"We need to compare apples to apples," Tietz said.

Preliminary election results available from the Oakland County Elections Office indicate voter turnout in Troy was among the highest in the county, ranging from 20 percent  to 40 percent in several precincts. The Troy City Clerk's Office on Tuesday had predicted a voter turnout of about 37 percent. Overall figures weren’t available Tuesday night.

While the city's governing body will see significant changes from Tuesday's election, there will be one new face on the 's Board of Education.

Incumbents Todd Miletti and Gary Hauff secured their positions on the board, while M'Liz Malven, who was appointed to the board about a year ago, lost her seat to Karl Schmidt.

"I'm just really happy to be part of the board," Schmidt said Tuesday night. "I'm really excited to serve the kids and to fight for them."