From The Oakland Press:

After collecting nearly 9,300 signatures from people supporting the recall effort against Troy Mayor Janice Daniels, the Recall Janice Daniels campaign has submitted recall petitions to the Elections Division of the Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds Office.

“The conduct of Mayor Daniels provides an overwhelming case for her recall,” states a press release from the Recall Janice Daniels campaign.

“By referring to the City Charter as a ‘whimsical’ document, the mayor demonstrated her lack of her respect for the city’s own ‘Constitution.’ By repeatedly voting against the Troy Transit Center, Mayor Daniels put her ideology over the best interests of Troy residents and business community. By attacking city employees with false and irresponsible accusations, Mayor Daniels has driven out John Szerlag, the former City Manager, described by L. Brooks Patterson as ‘one of the best.’ Finally, with her controversial remarks, Mayor Daniels has brought embarrassment and shame to the entire community.”

Daniels has been at the center of controversy since December — just one month after her election — when a post stating “I think I am going to throw away my I Love New York carrying bag now that queers can get married there” was discovered on her Facebook page.

When reached by phone Tuesday evening, Daniels said the people behind the recall “have an agenda.”

“My effort is going to be to try to get people to know me better,” she said, asking people to visit her website, janicetroymayor.com.

“Come to my meetings and see how I’m handling the meetings. I think I’m doing a good job.

“I voted the way I campaigned and I think it’s curious to see the extent that people will go to to try to regain power.”

Daniels disagreed with the recall campaigns claims that she drove City Manager John Szerlag out of office.

“This is the second time John Szerlag left,” she said. “The first time he left, Louise Schilling was mayor. Did she drive him out of office in 2003?

“I think his decision to move to Florida is the fact that he has family down there. When he had an opportunity to take another job in Florida, he took it.”

Daniels said things are going well in the city.

“Quite frankly, our business permits are way up this year,” she said. “Residential sales are on the increase.”

Daniels also mentioned the recent recall effort against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who survived a recall effort by winning a recall election earlier this month.

“I’m proud of the results in Wisconsin, where Scott Walker’s team proved the people don’t like recalls,” she said.

A total of 125 volunteers for the Recall Janice Daniels campaign gathered the signatures over the course of three months, surpassing the total of 7,985 signatures that is required by law, according to the release.

The Elections Division has seven days to determine whether enough “facially valid” signatures were obtained, and within 22 days, it must verify that each signer is a registered voter.

Daniels can challenge any signatures within 30 days of the date of filing, and a final review by the Elections Division must take place within 35 days of filing, according to the release.

If the signatures are certified, the recall issue will be included on the November ballot. No special election is required.

“While the majority of voters have been supportive of our efforts, a few have suggested that a recall should not take place unless Mayor Daniels has committed a crime or other act of malfeasance,” the release states.

“This assertion has no basis in fact. Michigan’s Constitution and subsequent legislation … permits recall for any objectionable conduct during the elected official’s term in office. In contrast, when an elected official has committed an illegal act, the officer can be removed … (in) a completely separate and distinct procedure.”

Daniels is seeking donations to fight the recall effort via her website.

“You may have read that there is a small group of citizens who have filed a petition attempting to remove me from office after only four months into my first four year term,” a statement on her website reads.

“Although this is a legal option within the American system, we believe that if we could all work together we could achieve great outcomes in Troy. I was elected by the majority of the voters in Troy to address fiscal transparency and integrity in budgeting.

“I ask each of you to join me in our effort to help unite us to create a better place to live, work and play. Please donate today to help me fight this recall effort.”

Source:   http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2012/06/13/news/local_news/doc4fd794159a8fd189762243.txt?viewmode=fullstory

From Crain’s Detroit Business:

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has given the private consortium seeking to build a $137 million streetcar along Detroit’s Woodward Avenue 60 more days to answer questions about the project’s construction and operational financing before any federal funding will be granted.

LaHood today met with the leadership of the M1 Rail project, Gov. Rick  Snyder and other elected official at Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s office in city hall.

Addressing reporters after the meeting, M1 Chairman Roger Penske, Snyder and Bing each said Washington still has “four or five” questions about the project, which seeks a $25 million federal transportation grant.

Perhaps tellingly, LaHood was originally scheduled to speak — but neither he nor any federal officials came to the press conference. He was supposed to address reporters at 11:30 a.m., but the ongoing talks delayed that about 30 minutes. Only Bing, Snyder, Penske and M1 CEO Matt Cullen spoke.

None made clear specifically what financing questions were not answered previously by M1.

In April, the group submitted a 1,200-page report to the U.S. Department of Transportation, meeting a requirement LaHood set for the group Jan. 6 to validate its project — and its costs — before it could be eligible for federal aid. That report apparently didn’t satisfy federal concerns, or Washington has raised new questions — it was unclear from today’s meeting.

M1 had 90 days to submit its plan to raise capital and operational funding for its 3.3-mile streetcar route between Hart Plaza and New Center, a project first reported in February 2008 by Crain’s. The report was in addition to the grant application.

The report reiterated M1’s pledge to build a rail system that can stand on its own while also feeding into other transit options.

Cullen said that  an additional 120 pages probably is needed to answer the federal questions.

“It’s a refinement of the work that we’ve done,” he said.

Penske said today that the group has assembled $131 million of the project’s costs, meaning it needs $6 million more to reach its goal, which includes a 15 percent contingency amount.

U.S. Rep. Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit, speaking with reporters alone after the meeting, said LaHood and the Transportation Department are worried that the project’s cost estimates are too low and that its fare box revenue estimates are too optimistic.

M1 estimates it will cost $5.1 million annually to operate and maintain the line. The group has said it will endow a $10 million fund to operate and maintain the system for up to 10 years, until 2025, at which point M1 Rail plans to donate the project assets and operating responsibility to a public agency, such as the proposed regional transit authority.

M1 sought the $25 million grant from the federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program. An application for the latest round of TIGER grants was filed on M1’s behalf March 19 by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, the regional planning agency that acts as the legally required pass-through for federal transportation funding.

A previous $25 million TIGER grant for the city’s version of the rail project has since been transferred to a regional bus project.

Cullen has said that the consortium is still in talks with other potential donors for the capital costs and also expects to sell naming rights for the entire line.

LaHood also apparently raised the question of who will operate the line in the short and long term. M1’s plan has been to set up a private authority, which is legal under a 2008 state law, and later turn it over to a regional transit authority.

Enabling legislation for a metro Detroit RTA remains in the Senate.

The leadership of M1 Rail is Penske Corp. founder Penske; Peter Karmanos Jr., founder of Detroit-based Compuware Corp.; the Ilitch family, owners of the Detroit Tigers, Red Wings and Little Caesar Enterprises Inc.; and Quicken Loans Inc. founder Dan Gilbert, the project’s co-chairman.

Major commitments of $3 million have been secured from Quicken Loans, the Ilitch companies, Penske Corp., Compuware, Chevrolet, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the Detroit Medical Center, Wayne State University, Henry Ford Health System, Wayne County, the Ford Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Hudson Webber Foundation has pledged $1 million.

The $3 million commitments are for the display advertising rights to a station along the route. The Troy-based Kresge Foundation has pledged $35.1 million, part of which already has been spent, and it gave an additional $3 million as a “backstop” grant.

The Detroit Downtown Development Authority has earmarked $9 million for M1. An additional $16 million is from federal New Market Tax Credits, which have to be reapplied for annually. Financing plans include a $22 million commercial loan.

Bing and Snyder jointly announced in December that the city was dropping its $528 million light-rail plan, which ran from Hart Plaza to the city limit at Eight Mile Road, in favor of a state-backed regional rapid-bus system that would cost about the same but connect key points in the metro area. LaHood hailed the bus plan when it was announced.

M1 had become part of that rail plan. The decision to kill it prompted an outcry from the private group and its political patrons, including U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, and a hasty gathering of top elected officials and M1’s backers at Bing’s office Jan. 6. LaHood said that day that M1 would be given 90 days to convince Washington of the merits of its wish to build its portion of the line. M1 has to convince Washington, along with the city and state, that the streetcar system can be built and operated at its estimated costs — something that had drawn skepticism at the federal, state and local levels.

The M1 project was a standalone effort until being absorbed by a Detroit Department of Transportation project in 2009 that extended the route to Eight Mile Road.

M1’s plan is a 3.3-mile line that will be a mostly curbside-running, fixed-rail streetcar circulator system, co-mingled with traffic, with 11 stops between Grand Boulevard and Congress Street. It will run in the median at its north and south ends.

Source: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20120604/FREE/120609966

From a USDOT press release:

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced May 10, 2012 a final agreement of $15.8 million for the West Detroit Connection Track project that will eliminate congestion for Detroit-area Amtrak passengers by addressing a bottleneck that comes from serving both freight and passenger rail on the same tracks.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration is providing a grant for $7.9 million, which is being matched with another $7.9 million from the State of Michigan.  The project is set to break ground in West Detroit later this year.

“President Obama’s bold vision of investing in rail projects like the West Detroit Connection Track will create jobs and grow our economy over the long-term by moving people and goods more quickly and efficiently than ever before,” said Secretary LaHood.  “In eliminating a longstanding bottleneck, we are creating capacity to handle future rail demand as our population grows, while strengthening the foundation for economic development across the region.”

Currently both freight and intercity passenger trains make a connection through Bay City Junction.  The West Detroit Connection Track project will provide new track to separate freight and passenger train movements. Amtrak’s “Wolverine” service, which provides three daily round trips between Chicago and Detroit/Pontiac, will use the new track. West Detroit Junction is a key link between the Dearborn Station and the Detroit New Center Station.  In 2009, this track moved 444,127 passengers on the Wolverine service.

West Detroit Junction is a key part of the Chicago to Detroit line, which has seen nearly $400 million in federal investments in the state of Michigan under president Obama’s High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program. The line now reaches speeds of 110 mph between Porter, IN and Kalamazoo, MI and will reach 110 mph on 80 percent of the track by 2016.

The Chicago to Detroit line is part of the Midwest Regional Rail Network, which is located in one of five densely populated mega-regions, areas already overwhelmed by congestion and in need of better transportation options. Bringing safe, fast, convenient, affordable high-speed rail to these areas will create jobs, increase economic opportunities and relieve congestion.

“This is yet another example of how federal, state, and local governments, as well as the railroads, are working hard to eliminate rail bottlenecks and improve service for both freight and passenger rail customers,” said Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph C. Szabo.

More than 100 million people call the Midwest region home. Using the Gross Domestic Product as a measure, the Great Lakes-Midwest economic region would be the fifth largest economy if it were its own country.

The Federal Railroad Administration and its 32 state partners are making great progress on High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program-related projects across the country. With $10.1 billion in federal funding, they’re moving forward with 153 projects, laying the foundation for a 21st century passenger rail network.

Source: http://www.fra.dot.gov/roa/press_releases/fp_FRA%2018-12.shtml