THE CITY LOST. AGAIN.
The City of Troy tried to stop me from running for City Council. They changed the rules. They used those rules to remove me from the Troy Fire Department. They ignored the warnings. They spent taxpayer money defending it.
They lost before the Administrative Law Judge.
Then they doubled down.
Instead of accepting responsibility, fixing the policy, and moving forward, the City appealed. They asked the Oakland County Circuit Court to reverse the ruling, dismiss my complaint, and bless their decision to fire a firefighter for running for office. Today, the Court gave them their answer:
“THE SEPTEMBER 12, 2025 ALJ DECISION IS AFFIRMED.”
- No remand.
- No do-over.
- No technical escape hatch.
The City argued I was “just a volunteer.” The Administrative Law Judge rejected that.
The Circuit Court rejected that.
The City argued the judge used the wrong legal standard.
The Circuit Court rejected that.
The City argued that the firefighter incentive plan was not real compensation.
The Court looked at the full record: mandatory training, response requirements, discipline rules, the right to hire and fire, service-credit incentives, W-2 payments, and the fact that firefighters perform an essential public safety function for Troy. And the Court affirmed what we already knew: Troy firefighters are not just hobbyists.
For purposes of Michigan’s Political Activities by Public Employees Act, we are public employees with rights.
The ALJ said it clearly: “The principal issue is whether Petitioner was an employee of the City of Troy. If he was an employee, the facts are clear that Respondent violated the Act by terminating his status as a volunteer firefighter because he filed to run for a seat on the Troy City Council.”
The judge also found: “The undersigned concludes that this was compensation for Petitioner’s service to the City of Troy as a volunteer firefighter.”
And the ruling could not have been clearer about what the City did: “Instead of complying with the statute, however, Respondent terminated Petitioner’s employment, violating Petitioner’s rights under MCL 15.403(1)(c).”
That is not my spin.
That is the ruling.
And now the Circuit Court has affirmed it.
This matters far beyond my case.
For years, firefighters have asked the City to recognize the reality of what we do. The City would not do it voluntarily. So now the foundation is being built where the City refused to build it: in the courts, on the record, and in black and white. And the City should understand something very clearly: The window to fix this voluntarily is shrinking.
The City can still choose to do the right thing. It can restore a fair pension or retirement structure. It can recognize the work firefighters actually perform. It can stop pretending that mandatory training, response requirements, discipline, service-credit compensation, and essential emergency response are just casual volunteer hobbies.
Or it can keep forcing firefighters to get from the courts what City Hall refuses to provide voluntarily. That choice is still in the City’s hands, for now.
Let’s also be honest about how this started. After I filed to run for City Council, the City allowed a policy to be written that specifically targeted Troy firefighters’ ability to seek elected office in Troy.
That policy did not come from nowhere. It was written by the City Clerk, adopted by City leadership, and enforced by the Fire Chief to remove me from service. They were warned. They had offramps. They could have fixed it.
They could have reinstated me.
They could have stopped wasting taxpayer money.
Instead, they defended an unlawful policy all the way through an administrative hearing, lost, appealed, and lost again. Two rulings now confirm what should have been obvious from the beginning:
- You cannot write a local policy that violates state law. And you probably shouldn’t allow your city clerk to draft the unlawful policy either.
- You cannot punish a firefighter for running for office.
And you cannot pretend Troy firefighters are “just volunteers” when the record shows the City controls our training, response requirements, discipline, eligibility for incentive compensation, and service to the public. The City’s rule was not about public safety. It was about control. It was about silencing a firefighter who had the nerve to run for office and speak honestly about what is broken.
They tried to make an example out of me.
They did.
Just not the example they intended.
I am reinstated.
I am back in service.
The City lost.
The City appealed.
The City lost again.
And I’ll be very clear about one more thing: given everything that has happened, I fully expect the retaliation and gamesmanship to continue in some form. But now the record is stronger, the law has been tested, and the City has lost twice. Any further retaliation, obstruction, or attempt to punish me for exercising my rights will be documented and dealt with through the proper legal channels.
I did not back down the first time.
I will not back down now.
This was never just about me. It was about fighting to get the compensation that every widow, retiree, previous firefighter, current firefighter, and future ones get what was promised to them. It was about whether City Hall can silence a firefighter for participating in democracy. It was about whether public servants have rights. It was about whether the City gets to invent an unlawful rule, enforce it against one person, and then expect everyone to pretend it was normal.
They tried. They failed. Twice.
Back in service. Twice confirmed.
More to come.