The Oakland County Election Commission unanimously rejected a petition to recall Springfield Township Supervisor Ric Davis yesterday, ruling that the document's language was too vague to satisfy state law. The petition centered on an August 13 board meeting where Davis left his chair twice while a motion was pending and reportedly said, “I quit” and “I'm done,” before returning to his seat later in the meeting.
Recall organizer Mike Eaton filed the petition against Davis, according to a report by MLive. The petition stated that during the regular meeting, Davis “left his chair at the board twice while a motion was pending and stated, ‘I quit’ and ‘I'm done.’” Commission members Lisa Brown, Robert Wittenberg, and Jennifer Callaghan, who chairs the panel, found the language failed on several fronts: it did not specify the type or location of the meeting, did not clarify whether Davis stood up, left the room, or left the building altogether, and did not identify the pending motion or tie it clearly to his statement about quitting.
Under Michigan Election Law Section 168.952, county election commissions are legally restricted to judging only whether petition language is factual and clear enough for voters and the targeted official to understand the specific conduct at issue — they cannot weigh whether the underlying claims have merit. Lisa Brown said the commission can address only the clarity and factualness of the language. That statutory limit meant commissioners could not consider outside context, only the text submitted, according to the same MLive report.
What Happened at the August Meeting
Hannah Harris, who witnessed the incident, described the interaction as bizarre. She said Davis told her he would have to talk to his attorney after she asked whether his action amounted to a resignation. Kara Okonewski, who also reported on the meeting, said the event happened and the quoted words were said, and noted that video evidence of the incident exists — Springfield Township posts meeting videos for public viewing.
Niki Mehrani, Davis's next-door neighbor who moved to Springfield Township in June, said Davis's actions at the meeting were not the first time he had done something similar. Eaton said the August 13 incident was one of a series of episodes that led to the recall effort, which Eaton and others say stemmed from a broader dispute that began with opposition to a proposed gravel pit.
The Gravel Pit Dispute Behind the Tension
Some residents have opposed the gravel pit proposal over concerns about air and water quality, traffic, and noise. The project at the center of that fight is an application by Burroughs Materials Corporation, a division of The Levy Group, to build a 482-acre sand and gravel mine on Ormond Road that would extract aggregate across 213 acres over five phases spanning 20 years, according to Springfield Township. Under Michigan statutory law, local zoning ordinances cannot prohibit sand and gravel mining on private property unless a township can demonstrate the operation would cause “very serious consequences,” a legal bar that forced the board into a careful review process rather than a straightforward denial.
In June 2025, the township board authorized retaining specialized natural resource extraction attorney Gerald Fisher along with independent environmental consultants to evaluate the Burroughs application and review the township's own mining ordinances, per the township's own account. That legal review has continued alongside the separate turmoil over Davis's leadership.
Davis's Leave of Absence and Return
Davis emailed township officials on May 11 about an immediate leave of absence, saying he was recuperating from surgery, per MLive's reporting. He had planned to work remotely during what he estimated as a four-to-eight-week absence and continued receiving regular paychecks during that time, though township officials stripped him of his official duties while he was away. His leave ended June 16, according to the seed report's timeline. In response to the absence, the board created a temporary Township Superintendent position on May 14 and appointed employee Brian Piper to handle municipal administration starting May 18, according to Oko Environmental. Davis's supervisor salary is $101,600.
Reaction Splits the Room
At yesterday's commission hearing, which Davis did not attend, a dozen people showed up, with about ten backing the recall petition and two opposing it. Robert Hoffman said it is too easy to file a recall petition against an elected official, and he argued that elections and competition, not recalls, should be the tool used to remove officials from office. Still, Hoffman praised recall supporters for taking an active interest in the township, and Jeff Neilson likewise praised supporters for their interest in local governance even as both men opposed the specific petition language.
Neilson said the petition gives the wrong impression by implying the meeting ended the moment Davis said he quit, when in fact Davis returned to the meeting after taking a break. Eaton has said he plans to meet with recall supporters to draft new language and refile the petition, though he does not plan to file to run for township supervisor himself. He has not ruled out finding someone else to run against Davis if Davis seeks reelection.
What Comes Next
Michigan Election Law Section 168.951a bars recall petitions during the first or last six months of an official's term for two-year terms, and requires organizers to collect all necessary signatures within 60 days once revised petition language is approved. That clock has not yet started for a second attempt, since Eaton's rewritten language still needs to clear the same clarity standard that doomed the first filing. Oakland County, where Springfield Township sits, added 5,788 residents in 2025 alone — the largest single-year gain of any of Michigan's 83 counties — a growth trend that has intensified friction between residential interests and industrial land-use proposals across the region's outlying townships.
