Ex-State Rep Barnett Challenges Oakland Exec Patterson

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FARMINGTON HILLS, MI – A battle is shaping up in this fall’s race for Oakland County executive, a position held by plainspoken Republican L. Brooks Patterson since 1992.

Former state Rep. Vicki Barnett, D-Farmington Hills, filed papers on Tuesday to run for the powerful position. The county executive oversees government operations in affluent Oakland County, an $826 million annual budget and a workforce of some 4,300 employees, according to the county website.

Barnett, 61, is a former Farmington Hills mayor and city council member who served in the Michigan House from 2009-2014. Term limits prevented another term, and Barnett lost a 2014 primary bid for the state Senate.

“It’s becoming growingly apparent that Oakland County needs to jump into the 21st century with both feet,” Barnett told the Detroit Free Press.

“I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t think we could do things better,” she said. “I’m very optimistic about Oakland County’s future if we begin to look more regionally instead of being the impediment and the blockade to that progress.”

A theme in her campaign will be closing opportunity gaps. For example, she told The Detroit News she wants to boost mass transit in Oakland County to “attract young people in droves that we’ve been bleeding to other metropolitan areas” and “allow our seniors … to transport themselves to the services they need.”

Barnett faces a primary challenge from Democrat Mark Danowski, of Davisburg, who lost his primary bid for Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash in 2012. The deadline to file nomination papers is April 19.

Patterson, 77, of Clarkston, has been a political influencer for years in Oakland County. Before becoming county executive, he served as Oakland County prosecutor for 16 years.

He announced plans for a seventh term during his February State of the County address, when he proclaimed the state of the county “strong, amazingly strong.”

He also touted a balanced budget through 2021, and the county’s survival of the Great Recession to reach full employment through the county’s $7.8 billion in investments in economic diversification.

He said as a result of Oakland County’s Emerging Sectors program that works with companies in the knowledge-based economy, 371 businesses have made a total investment of more than $3.3 billion, created 37,000 jobs and retained 21,000, for total job creation of 58,000 positions.

Also among the initiatives Patterson touted was a $1275 million Interstate 75 widening project expected to begin this summer. He said the project will ease traffic congestion and help companies along the busy freeway move goods and conduct business more efficiently.

He said the so-called “Oakland County Main Street” project will add a lane of traffic on both north- and southbound I-75 from Eight Mile to M-59.

“Companies along I-75, like Fiat Chrysler, that support I-75’s modernization, will see their employees in a safer commute; it will give companies along I-75 the ability to move goods more quickly through that corridor; and certainly improve the quality of life by easing some of the worst traffic congestion in our area,” he said.

Barnett criticized the plan, telling The Detroit News she favors reinvesting in cities instead.

“Our ‘main streets’ are in the myriad of small communities that dot Oakland County that have been struggling to make ends meet, that are creating small businesses and great little venues for people to shop and eat and high quality-of-life businesses,” she said.