Michigan State Rep. Lori Stone (D-Warren) gives a farewell speech on the House floor on Nov. 9, 2023 after winning the mayoral race in Warren. (Photo: Anna Lix Nichols)
A recall effort against Warren’s mayor is proceeding after a confrontation with the City Council over a proposal to create a land bank.
The petition seeking a recall against Democratic Mayor Lori Stone was approved Dec. 30 by a 2-1 vote of the Macomb County Election Commission. Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham, a Democrat, and County Treasurer Larry Rocca, Republican, voted in favor, saying the reasons for the recall were factual and clear. Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini, a Republican, was the lone no vote.
The petition was filed by Warren resident Paul Kardasz and named Stone’s failure to timely sign a land bank agreement that had been unanimously approved by the City Council in August.
“On November 26, the Council voted to give her 72 hours to sign the agreement. When she did not comply, the Council filed a lawsuit on December 9, 2024, in Macomb County Circuit Court (Case No. 2024-004810-AW) to compel her to authenticate the agreement,” stated the petition.
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Stone, a former House member who eventually signed the agreement two days after the council filed suit, did not respond to a request for comment from the Michigan Advance. However, she told WJBK that she didn’t veto the proposal because she still had questions about the land bank’s impact.
“I believed that we could have conversations and I needed to have answers to what the fiscal impact is,” said Stone.
The proposed land bank would allow the city to purchase houses and vacant lots for potential redevelopment, but Warren Councilman Jonathan Lafferty has been vocal in his criticism of Stone’s delay, saying it cost the city a million dollars in “missed opportunities in state and federal funding.”
“This is a win for Warren taxpayers, although it is terribly unfortunate that we had to threaten legal action to compel the mayor to do her job,” Lafferty stated on Facebook. “While we avoided expensive and unnecessary litigation, Stone’s malfeasance and failure to act has cost the city a loss of over $1 million dollars in state and federal revenues that would have kickstarted redevelopment efforts.”
The conflict between Stone and the Warren City Council recalls similar struggles with the city’s previous mayor, Jim Fouts, including accusations that he misspent $460,000 and that he filed a “frivolous” lawsuit seeking to run for a fifth term despite a 2020 voter-approved amendment to Warren’s city charter that prevented him from doing so.
Kardasz, meanwhile, says they’ll need to collect 12,521 valid signatures to place the recall up for a special election. He notes that’s 644 more votes than Stone received to win office, a situation he says is biased towards incumbents and ultimately anti-democratic.
“With its inflated signature requirement, the system creates an artificial barrier, requiring recall proponents to mobilize more support than the mayor needed to win office. This prioritizes protecting those in power over empowering voters, making meaningful accountability almost statistically improbable,” Kardasz posted on Facebook.
This is the second attempt by Kardasz to get approval for a recall petition against Stone. In November, the Macomb County Election Commission unanimously voted against his petition alleging that a resident Stone appointed to the city’s Historical Commission made “inflammatory social media posts,” including about Islam.
Stone, a Democrat, won election as Warren mayor in Nov. 2023, leading to her resignation from the Michigan House of Representatives.
Because former state Rep. Kevin Coleman (D-Westland) also stepped down after winning his race for Westland mayor, Democrats lost their 56-54 majority until it was restored several months later after special elections.
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