community
By Minehaha Forman The hardships that bedevil the Metro Detroit
region are spelled out boldly in crippling un- employment rates, leaden property values and fatal flares of crime in the state’s largest city.
But a refreshing burst of encouragement
came at the third session of the Michigan Chronicle’s Pancakes & Politics series at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham. At the break- fast forum, top regional leaders displayed a vivid spirit of camaraderie in the face of adver- sity, a beacon of strong leadership.
The panel featured the region’s “Big Four”
elected officials: Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Macomb County Chair Paul Gieleghem.
Event host and WWJ radio and TV personal-
ity Carol Cain kept the event lively, asking her own hard-hitting questions as well as queries from the audience. One question burning in the mind of all those battered by brutal reces- sionomics is whether the worst is over. Patter- son thinks jobs will start flowing back into the region early next year.
“The job market will return … there will be
an uptick in 2011,” he told the nearly 400 at- tendees. “That’s the good news. Thebad news is property values are still sliding.”
The Oakland County head predicted prop-
THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE
June 9-15, 2010
Metro Detroit’s ‘Big Four’ elected leaders team up in trying times
erty values would plummet through 2012. Ficano said the Metro Detroit area, which
houses the core of the domestic auto industry, squeaked past the worst point in the recession due to the auto bailout.
Even Patterson, a Republican, agreed that
the auto bailout worked: “To the extent that the auto bailout out worked, Obama’s got some credit. It pains me to say that,” he chuckled.
“Sometimes the truth hurts,” Bing chimed
in to rousing laughter from the crowd. The mayor said the big three auto companies
and their suppliers would be okay, but that the region needs to diversify industry in order to beat the recession.
Macomb County front man Paul Gieleghem
said he didn’t see new industry propping up the economy anytime soon.
“We live and die by the auto industry,” he
said, calling for a federal jobs program. “The only way we’re gonna pull out of this is to get people back to work.”
Opinions aside, the key to effective leader-
ship is cooperation. The fate of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties are deeply intertwined, as Patterson discovered on a call regarding bond ratings.
“Right now Oakland County has a triple A bond rating. If Detroit goes into receivership,
we’ll lose that rating,” Patterson said, noting that Oakland County was “sandwiched” be- tween the struggling cities of Flint and Detroit. After that realization, Brooks said he made a call. “I got on the phone and called Dave (Bing) and said, “I’m your best friend. What can I do to help?”
One example of Oakland County working
with Detroit came recently after police officer Brian Huff was killed. Police picked up finger- prints at the scene and sent them to Oakland County’s Criminal Law Enforcement Manage- ment Information System (CLEMIS), which spans eight counties.
“Your officer sent two prints to our office
and within five minutes we ran it through the CLEMIS system and that’s the man that you arrested,” Patterson told Bing. “I think that’s the kind of cooperation we want to see between city and suburb.”
Bing said cooperation between leadership
and community is key to quelling violence in the city. While there’s no silver bullet for the rash of violence that has plagued Detroit, Bing said he did not believe the police department or the administration could solve the violence problem alone. Bing called the recent violence and fatalities “very demoralizing, very painful,” but because of the complexity of the problem, there was no one solution.
Ultimately, as Bing pointed out, it all comes
down to teamwork. After the event, Detroit City Councilman
Andre Spivey said he was encouraged. “I saw real cooperation today and that is
what we need,” he said. “We have to come to- gether.”
The fourth and final Pancakes & Politics
forum of the season will be held Friday, June 18, at the Detroit Athletic Club and will focus on healthcare. Featured panelists are Mike Duggan, president and CEO, Detroit Medical Center; Kevin Klobucar, president and CEO, Blue Care Network of Michigan; Dr. Patricia Maryland, president and CEO, St. John Provi- dence Health System; and Nancy Schlicht- ing, president and CEO, Henry Ford Health System.
The series is presented by the Michigan
Chronicle and Real Times Media and moderat- ed by Carol Cain, host of “Michigan Matters” on WWJ-TV. Title sponsors for the event include Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, Stra- tegic Staffing Solutions, National City, UHY Advisors, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, and St. John Health System. Corporate con- tributors are Bank of America, MGM Grand Detroit, Compuware, Fifth Third Bank, Wayne State University, Quicken Loans, and Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries. Media partners for the event are WWJ-TV, WWJ Newsradio 950 and Crain’s Detroit Business.
Page B-7
FRANK WOODS JR. (left), international representative, UAW; Southfield Mayor Brenda Law- rence; Rory Gamble, director, UAW Region 1A; Judge Sheila R. Johnson, 46th District Court; Rod Meloni, reporter, WDIV; and Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano.
THE “BIG FOUR” panelists: Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson (left); Detroit Mayor Dave Bing; Paul Gieleghem, chairman of the Macomb County Board of Commissioners; and Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano.
SANDY BARAUH,
GORDON FOLLMER,
managing direc- tor, UHY LLP.
president, Detroit Re- gional Chamber of Commerce.
PANELIST PAUL GIELEGHEM being interviewed by Vickie Thomas of WWJ Newsradio 950.
LESLIE ANDREWS, area development director, UNCF.
CHARLES PUGH (center), Detroit City Council president, and two staff members.
MACOMB COUNTY Sheriff Mark A. Hackel takes questions from the media.
OAKLAND COUNTY Sheriff Mike Bouchard and Debbie Dingell, president, D12 Strate- gies and member of the Wayne State University Board of Governors.
DETROIT CITY Council President Charles Pugh (left), Judge Denise Langford-Morris and Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano.
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