Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter delivered his fifth State of the County address Thursday night in Farmington Hills, praising the county’s nonstop economic boom for attracting high-tech automotive and health care jobs.
Among examples, Coulter cited Taiwanese auto supplier TYC Genera’s plan to expand its research and development facility in Wixom. And he said that other automotive as well as health care facilities are growing their footprints. Among those in the audience, listening to the CEO of Michigan’s wealthiest county, were Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, and, as Coulter quipped early on: “Mark — what’s his name? Oh yeah, Mark Hackel, Macomb County’s executive!”
Despite Detroit’s big rebound in property values leading Wayne County’s resurgence, and not slighting the gains in defense spending in Macomb County, Oakland County continues to be the state’s main economic driver and Michigan’s most prosperous big county by far. But Coulter was quick to divert from big business to champion small ones and the proverbial little guys and gals — those struggling to pay for education after high school, or to rent or buy homes, or to start small businesses. Oakland County has an array of new programs to help all of them, he said.
Coulter also celebrated the county’s embrace of bus transit across many more communities — thanks to passage of a countywide transit millage — and to county government’s investment in new state-of-the-art radio connectivity for emergency responders, which is expected to let Oakland County cops do more outside their jurisdictions, such as responding to criminal tips stemming from the NFL draft in Detroit at the end of April.
He also highlighted the county government’s effort to provide greater access to affordable housing, partly through a $20 million Oakland County Housing Trust Fund, providing incentives for developers. Earlier this week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer touted her administration’s similar initiative to invest in affordable housing. Both leaders have said that spiking home prices and interest rates had priced home ownership and rents out of reach for many Michiganders.
“We’ve had remarkable success on a number of fronts in the past year, from transit to mental health care, affordable housing to sustainability, small business coaching to education and training. We were able to provide these innovative programs with the support from the Board of Commissioners, who have approved our initiatives in a bipartisan manner, proving once again that, in Oakland County, working across the aisle is how we do business,” Coulter said.
In a rare moment when Coulter sounded partisan, he drew on an issue that many Democrats say has been crucial to their success, statewide and nationally: women’s reproductive health. Coulter alluded to former President Donald Trump, saying, “When the former president sought to eliminate family planning services, Oakland County stepped in,” providing “contraception, cancer screening and other preventive services” at county health clinics.
Flanked by five American flags, Coulter said: “I trust women to make their own health care decisions, and I will stand against anyone who tries to turn the clock against women’s rights.” The applause was loud.
Responding to Coulter in advance of the speech, Oakland County Commissioner Mike Spisz, R-Oxford Township, said that bipartisanship between Democrats and Republicans who govern Oakland County “isn’t always happening, but we do a pretty good job of being bipartisan when we can be.” The chief disagreement, on the county board with a 13-6 majority of Democrats, is Coulter’s unprecedented wish to revive downtown Pontiac by buying the antiquated office buildings tied to the crumbling Phoenix Center parking deck, Spisz said.
“From a business perspective, nobody can make a good business case for it,” Spisz said. During his speech, Coulter recognized Pontiac Mayor Tim Greimel and said he was committed to rebuilding that city’s economy after “decades of disinvestment at the hands of government and industry and emergency managers.” The county has invested $10 million, and another $50 million was recently allocated in federal funds earmarked for the project by state lawmakers, “to refurbish a long-vacant building and move at least 500 county employees into the heart of the city,” Coulter said during his speech.
“I envision this historic downtown bustling with workers at lunchtime and socializing at new bars and restaurants after work,” Coulter said.
Other partisan differences include whether Coulter’s social services, while sounding good at the outset, “can be maintained in the long term,” Spisz said. For example, the county’s Oakland80 Navigators and housing trust fund are programs that GOP members are watching carefully, gauging to see whether they’re effective and whether permanent funding will be available without increasing taxes, he said.
Coulter, a former mayor of Ferndale, was elected to his first term in November 2020 after he was appointed the previous August by the Oakland County Board of Commissioners, shortly after the death in office of longtime Executive L. Brooks Patterson. Coulter announced last fall that he would run for reelection. His presumed opponent is Patterson’s daughter — Mary Margaret Patterson, of Clarkston — who began her campaign last year with support from the Oakland County Republican Party.
The speech on Thursday night drew an audience of more than 700 to the auditorium inside Farmington Hills’ Hawk Community Center. It opened three years ago after the city bought the former Harrison High School from the school district, then invested more than $22 million into creating one of the state’s largest municipal recreation facilities. Being there drew plaudits from the county executive, who called the Hawk “a fabulous community center (for) fun, recreation, culture and education,” and “a shining example of what’s possible when we repurpose our gathering spots.”
Contact Bill Laytner: blaitner@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Taiwanese auto supplier plans R&D growth in tech-strong Oakland County