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2012 State of the County
2012 State of the County Address
Good evening everyone and welcome to this State of the County address.
Making Wayne County a better place to live - to work - to raise a family is truly a team effort. No one person can do it alone. That’s why I would like to begin by taking a moment to recognize and say thanks to the entire Wayne County Commission and its Chair, Gary Woronchak.
Gary, can you please stand and let us say thank you for your hard work?
I'd also like to recognize Mayor Bing for joining us this evening.
There are a number of other elected officials here with us tonight as well. If I try to name you all, I know I’ll miss someone … so could I ask all of the other elected officials who are here tonight to stand and be recognized?
Thank you for the contributions you’re making - every day - to help Wayne County grow and prosper.
Finally, I’d like to recognize all of our men and women who have ever worn a uniform in service. Whether you’re serving your community on the streets here in Michigan - members of our local police and Sheriff’s departments - or whether you’ve served in the military at home or abroad - I want to thank you for your service and commitment.
We are here tonight to examine the State of Wayne County.
This annual message presents a unique opportunity to examine where we have been, where we are today and where we are headed as a County. This is my 10th State of the County message. Each one has been different as the conditions that have confronted us have changed.
On this occasion, I'd like to acknowledge our shortcomings and address real community concerns head-on. And that’s where I’d like to start our discussion today. Because there are concerns in our community … concerns over whether we have lost touch … over whether we continue to have the people’s best interest at heart.
I hear these concerns every day and that’s why I have said - and will say again this evening - that some members of my team have clearly let the people of Wayne County down.
Some people in whom I placed great trust did not serve me well this past year. More importantly, they didn’t serve the people of Wayne County well.
And I agree with those who have said, “He should have done better.”
After 30 years of public service to the citizens of Wayne County, -- first as Sheriff and now as the Wayne County Executive I should have had better oversight and for letting you down, I apologize. The last few months have been very painful and trying for me, because during my entire public service, I have always had the people’s best interest at heart.
It’s been said that the mark of any man is whether he’s wiser today than he was yesterday. I assure you, I am wiser today than I was yesterday.
And I’ve tried to use that wisdom to not only do things differently … but better.
Too many people in Wayne County are still struggling. Too many are still without jobs. Too many have bills they can’t pay. Too many are facing foreclosure and eviction. Too many are still on the doorstep of despair … for us to do anything less.
So my pledge to you tonight is that we will do a better job and I will do a better job. In fact, I am already rolling out plans to make us more responsive and more responsible to the people of Wayne County.
I’ve installed a new team. And I’m confident that the stricter oversight and accountability plans we’ve already begun implementing are making a huge difference in the way we operate the county’s business.
I’m also confident that with this new team in place we can now turn our attention back to what should be the number one priority for all of us: generating new jobs and bringing balanced growth to Wayne County.
Lately, that priority has gotten lost in the headlines.
But I assure you that despite the headlines, Wayne County is still open for business.
On the economic front, we’ve made tremendous progress. And I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished.
We’re growing jobs. We’re attracting investments. We’re building on our legacy as Michigan’s economic engine. In short, we’re digging ourselves out of the Great Recession.
But we’re not finished. No one could say our job is complete, no matter how many economic successes we’ve had recently. Helping secure jobs for the people of Wayne County … so they can stay here and raise a family … so no one will ever have to take a plane to visit their kids … is among the most basic functions we provide.
That’s why I can’t - and won’t - allow us to be distracted from the job we’ve committed ourselves to … and the job expected of us.
So what I’d like to do tonight is talk about how we can deliver on our biggest promise of all: attracting jobs and bringing balanced growth to Wayne County. And do it in a way that makes Wayne County proud.
So when I look back, I look back farther than most. And I remember - like you do - the number of times people have wanted to count us out. And I remember that the people who didn’t know us - - people who didn’t understand the Wayne County spirit - wondered if we would ever get back up.
I remember the number of obituaries written about us.
And, yet … here we are. Through recessions… through massive population shifts … through doubt … we are still swinging. That’s a Wayne County accomplishment and something we can all take pride in. -- Never bet against us!
That collective sense of community and perseverance is something each of us carries inside. We learned - from our parents and grandparents before us - how important it is to build a better place for our neighbors and children.
In fact, there’s a picture in my office that reminds me -- every day - of those bedrock values.
It’s a picture of my grandfather taken before he came here in search of one of Henry Ford’s living wage jobs.
He was fortunate to get a job at Ford. And I was fortunate enough to know him and learn from the high example he set.
One of the greatest lessons I learned is that you should never settle for “good enough.” My grandfather wasn’t just satisfied with any job. He not only wanted a job with a fair wage … he wanted a job with dignity.
So when he had the chance to join the UAW, he proudly did so.
And when he told stories - like the Battle of the Overpass - I listened. It would have been easy for him to back away from that struggle - and it was a struggle in every sense of the word. But giving up on the struggle meant giving up on the dignity of every working man and woman.
It’s because of him and my father that I know how important this job is … how critical it is for me, personally, to do whatever I can to make sure we have enough good jobs for every man and woman who wants one.
That hasn’t been easy for any of us to accomplish in recent years. Each of you in elected office know the uphill battle we’ve fought … the work we’ve done to claw ourselves out of this economic hole we didn’t dig.
Have we made progress? Absolutely. We’ve come a long way. But as Clint Eastwood said, it’s just now halftime here in Detroit. Which means we have a lot of work yet to do.
So how does my team intend to capitalize on the momentum we have right now? How do we intend to build on our successes to bring even more jobs and balanced growth to Wayne County in a way that makes everybody in Wayne County proud?
By implementing a two-pronged effort that takes us back to the basics of county government.
First, as I mentioned, my administration is already adhering to a more stringent ethics policy. At the heart of that, is my pledge to the people of Wayne County that I will do everything I can to restore trust and confidence in county government. That means tighter management controls … more accountability … and more direct oversight.
All of that starts at the top with my team … a team we are rebuilding with a focus not only on the technical skills they bring to the table - and there are many - but also on the character they bring.
Individuals with a strong sense of ownership and accountability …
Talented people … who are dedicated to a single objective: make Wayne County a better place to live by adopting a common-sense approach to county government.
• Making sure basic services like roads are taken care of.
• Making sure our health systems are meeting the needs of the community.
• Making sure our streets are clean and safe.
• Making sure our workforce is educated.
• And, making sure we do all of that - and more - with a keen sense of service to the people of Wayne County.
Back to basics -- That is job number one.
The second thing we are focused on - as we have been in the past - is bringing jobs and balanced growth to Wayne County.
One of the tragedies over the past several months is that some have forgotten how phenomenally successful our economic development efforts have been. They’ve forgotten what a strong momentum we’re building from.
You may remember that, in confronting the Great Recession, we refocused our entire attention on economic development. That focus led to more than $7 billion dollars in new investments since 2009.
I’m proud of that number. But I’m even prouder of the fact that it represents investments and jobs and an opportunity for families to continue to provide for their children.
Let’s start with the auto industry, the heart and soul of our economy. What would Wayne County and Michigan be if we didn’t have a healthy automotive segment here?
That’s why my team worked so hard - and so fast - to approve a Brownfield plan for Ford to build its new Michigan Assembly Plant site in 2009. Talk about efficient! Approvals like this usually take months - sometimes years!
My team accomplished it in a mere 11 days … -- 11 days of feverish work that is continuing to have a positive impact on our entire region.
Those 11 days of work resulted in an initial $500 million dollar investment from Ford in 2009. They resulted in retaining 2,000 jobs. And they resulted - in 2010 - in Ford moving its battery pack assembly from Mexico to Wayne County to create another 1,000 jobs and an investment of another $450 million dollars.
Results like that just don’t happen. They require a lot of expertise and a staff dedicated to moving at the speed of business in the 21st century. And they require a vision large enough to know that what’s important is influenced by the past and positioned for the future.
We can’t afford, for example, to risk our leadership in the auto industry. That’s why Cobo Hall has been such a personal mission for me.
We’ve been aware for some time that other cities have been making a play for the North American International Auto Show. Most everyone agreed that Cobo Hall was antiquated. That it no longer fit with today’s auto industry demands. That the show should leave Detroit. There was serious talk of moving it to Chicago or even to Los Angeles.
There’s no way we could let that happen. Because the Auto Show isn’t just a tradition, it’s a yearly reminder of our past and our future and, all by itself, has a tremendous economic impact on this region.
That’s why I made it a personal mission to secure the necessary legislation and funding needed to expand and renovate Cobo. And through a lot of hard work - and your tremendous faith - we’ve done that. And we can proudly say that the Auto Show won’t be leaving Detroit anytime soon.
Wayne County is still the heart and soul of the global automotive world. We’ve worked hard to make it that way! And we’re working even harder today to keep it that way!
Consider the work my administration performed - in terms of crucial site selection and incentive packages for GM’s new facility in Brownstown Township. Since it was selected as the site to construct battery packs for the new Chevy Volt, GM has announced investments of nearly $80 million dollars for that facility, ensuring our region remains the automotive, battery and advanced manufacturing center of America.
Who would have thought back in 2008 that GM would not only be investing in that site, but actually be running three shifts?
How can they do that, so quickly and effectively? Because we have the largest concentration of engineers in the U.S. right here around us. We are THE automotive R&D hub for Michigan. We are ranked number one in the U.S. for industrial R&D intensity and number two for industrial R&D investment.
And we are home to 80-percent of the world’s precision manufacturing R&D.
That’s one reason companies want to do business here. Many of those are tied directly to the automotive industry. Like our friends at A123 Systems - which has committed more than $600 million dollars in Wayne County investments for its high-tech batteries -- they represent the next phase of the auto industry: the push for greener technologies.
Others are more diverse - but no less important. In fact, in some ways they are more important. The more non-automotive investments we can attract - the more we can build on our engineering excellence to diversify - the stronger we’ll be in the long run. We’ll be more diversified and our growth will be more balanced.
That’s why you see my administration pushing so heavily for investments in other fields.
GE is a great example. We worked hard to attract GE’s Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology center here in 2009. And the payoff? They continue to expand employment here, more than 20-percent higher than they originally forecast.
Ninety percent of those jobs came from right here in our own region. They didn’t have to pull in the experts to run their most advanced R&D facility. The experts were already here.
That’s a testament to the strengths of Wayne County. That’s why - on my trips to Asia - I’m able to capture so much attention - and investments - from companies looking to tap into the American market. When they see our strengths - when they see what our people can accomplish - they become very interested.
That’s how we attracted SoulBrain, a battery technology components company. They’re investing $31 million dollars in Wayne County and we expect them to create nearly 300 jobs over the next five years.
That’s how we attracted several Chinese companies to help support the growing hybrid battery manufacturing in Wayne County and beyond.
You know, when I first began going to China, in 2004, there were only three Chinese companies located in this county. Today, 17 Chinese companies have invested in Wayne County and more than 50 have invested in the Detroit region.
A lot of people initially challenged my vision of going to China to bring back jobs. But they didn’t understand the economic potential to be found in building personal relationships with the Chinese to attract local investments.
My team is working hard to deliver those investments to Wayne County. My number one priority is, and always has been, Wayne County first - and I make no apologies for that.
But I also know the truth to that old statement: a rising tide lifts all boats.
That’s why I was glad to help our friends in Saginaw County attract a major investment from a joint Chinese venture leading to saving the auto parts maker Nexteer. I met with the Chinese officials during one of my trips and learned that they were looking to make a local investment and eventually, they invested in Nexteer.
And that’s one of my commitments to our region.
Every company we attract adds to our tax base. They add to our reputation as the most technologically advanced manufacturing region in the world. And, of course, they add jobs.
How many jobs? I’m proud to say that last year job growth in Wayne County topped 8,000. These are mostly high-paying and advanced manufacturing jobs that help reinforce our reputation for engineering excellence.
It’s no wonder we were ranked Number One in the nation by Business Week for job growth in 2011.
We got that ranking by understanding not only what our strengths are, but also what potential business partners are looking for. Our economic development team - ranked in the top 10 nationally - created the environment for investments. They work shoulder-to-shoulder with existing and new industries, foreign investors and cutting edge segments in the high-tech world to understand their needs.
It’s why we’ve spent so much time and effort to grow a world-class logistics hub surrounding Detroit Metropolitan Airport and it’s called Aerotropolis - turning the airport into an economic engine.
Washington DC legislators have recently taken keen notice of our Aerotropolis plans and sent a team to study our project and strategy. They felt that Wayne County’s Aerotropolis project is one of the top best planned and organized in the world.
Since 2007, we’ve added some 6,000 jobs in this hub and, just last year, attracted an additional $5.8 million dollars in investments.
Aerotropolis will become a determining element of Wayne County’s development efforts for years into the future. A lasting legacy that will become one of the major cornerstones of our economy.
So we have automotive. We have new green technologies like alternative and renewable energy. We have advanced manufacturing and R&D investments. And we have logistics.
Let me mention one more. I said our focus was on balanced growth - and this one is a great example of what I mean.
One of the fastest growing fields in the country is Health Care. Did you know that Wayne County’s Life Sciences and Health Care Industries represent nearly 15-percent of the County’s total employment?
It’s a critical part of our local economy and one I’m committed to expanding. That’s why our economic development team jumped into action when Nashville-based Vanguard Health indicated they might want to invest here.
And I want to congratulate Mike Duggan for the critical role he played as the CEO of the DMC in making this investment possible.
We pledged a Renaissance Zone to make it happen and, in the end, attracted a whopping $1.5 billion-dollar investment-expansion of the Detroit Medical Center.
This will be, in fact, the region’s largest single investment in 20 years. Bigger than Comerica Park, Ford Field and the Campus Martius projects all combined.
More importantly, it represents our commitment to diversify our employment base by creating thousands of construction and permanent jobs here in Wayne County.
Jobs … and balanced growth.
And my team understands that, and were able to deliver.
And by the way, they did it while also delivering a balanced budget in 2011.
Yes, Wayne County, we had a budget in the black. By itself, this would be worthy of a headline anywhere in the country.
All of you in public service - all of you who run a business or even manage your household finances - know how critical this is for us.
We didn’t do it overnight. But when the recession hit, we went to work. We renegotiated contracts. We trimmed our staff. We cut expenses across the board.
It wasn’t accomplished overnight. It took a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of sacrifice. But we finally have a stable budget.
I want to point out two more events that were critical to this new budget stability. One was the five-year agreement on funding we reached with the Third Circuit Court. This agreement provides a mechanism for them to continue providing their important services but also institutes new accountability measures.
This agreement was the single most important element in helping the County preserve its investment grade rating and, more importantly, move our economic outlook from negative to stable. This is critical to continue attracting potential investors.
The second aspect to our budget is something I’m especially proud of. We implemented a Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention Program to help the county’s residents at risk of losing their homes.
One of every 33 homes in the county is at risk of mortgage foreclosure. And every home that is foreclosed on, means another family is out in the cold and costs the county more than $2,000 in property tax revenue annually. So finding a way to reduce those foreclosures was critical to our budget.
Over the last few years, more than 5,000 families sought assistance from our program. And, in fact, since it began, we have resolved more than 2,700 cases with a homeowner retention rate of 58-percent. That’s twice the national average.
To date, the program has retained more than 1,600 homes for families in need and preserved $3.6 million dollars in property taxes.
Of course, those are just the hard numbers. They don’t tell the whole story. And they don’t begin to reflect the real reason I’m so proud of what this program has achieved.
Because behind every one of those numbers is a real family. Every saved house means one more family has a place to call home, a place to sleep, a place to call their own.
I’m pleased to have with us tonight two families who benefited from this program.
John Barnstatter who runs his own Heating and Cooling business. When he was injured and wasn’t able to work, he got behind on his mortgage payments and wasn’t able to catch up.
He sought help from us and we were able to step in and help him work out a plan to save his home by getting his loan modified. John is so grateful that - even today - he carries fliers about our program around in his truck and hands them out to people in need.
John - thanks for being our “boots on the ground.”
We also have with us Nellie Jenkins-Kendrick, another great story. Nellie missed a few payments when she lost her job. And when she returned to work, her income wasn’t where it used to be.
She told us that, by the time she sought our help, she had already talked to counselors at another agency. But nobody seemed to be able to help. She was not only behind in payments but her house was scheduled for a Sheriff’s sale.
We were able to reconnect her with the mortgage company, got the sale postponed and then worked to get her loan modified to a lower rate.
John and Nellie, can you also please stand and be recognized.
Thank you for your willingness to share your stories with us. Great examples of what we can do … when we do our best.
Thanks for being here and thanks for helping spread the word about this tremendous program.
You know, we can talk about improving roads - about investments - jobs and new factories.
All of those are important and are THE fundamental part of our “back-to-basics” approach.
But for me, it doesn’t get much more basic than preserving a family’s dignity by making sure they have a place to call home.
So expect us to continue this program and to continue a focus on job growth. Expect us to continue our work on economic development and enhancing our infrastructure. Let me mention one in particular. It’s a new campaign I’m announcing tonight that will hire people to help clean up our roads. We’re calling it Clean and Green.
Our goal is make our roads, the gateways into our county, shine with pride. We shouldn’t just clean them up only when the Super Bowl comes to town. We should clean them up and keep them clean.
We’ve got the momentum to start that now. Jobs are returning to Wayne County. Investments are returning to Wayne County. And most of all, the pride is returning to Detroit and Wayne County.
Now is the time to make it look as good as it truly is. “Clean and Green” will help us get there.
Finally, expect us to put a premium on doing all of this work the way the public expects: ethically … transparently … and with a reinvigorated sense of accountability at every level.
On this last point I want to be perfectly clear.
I understand that we must re-store the public’s trust. It’s not enough to be doing the right things … we must also do them the right way.
Now - I thought a lot about the traditional ways I can end this speech. But tonight I thought the best way I know how to communicate with you is really to speak from my heart.
There are a lot of standards I can measure myself and my administration by. Standards set by the media, the business community and critics, but regardless, the highest standard I have to meet is the one that was set by my mother, father and grandfather. They set the bar the highest. I feel that I am one of the luckiest people in the world to be in the position I am in.
My father and grandfather came here like hundreds of thousands of other immigrants. They were proud and even though they didn’t have a college education, they were determined to make their way into our community. But most importantly, they had that ultimate humility that gives up nearly everything for the next generation.
That’s why I am standing here before you tonight in fulfillment of their dreams... that their son and grandson could not only get a college education, but a law degree, and be elected to represent one of the largest counties in the United States.
So when it is all said and done, I only have two things to pass on to my children - my good name and the knowledge that when my name was called, I did everything in my power to make Wayne County better.
So in meeting that standard, whatever is broken right now in Wayne County, I am going to fix. And I am not going to walk away from that. I won't allow the last few months to define my 30 years of public service. Because my family heritage and values would expect nothing less.
So I am asking all of you to stand with me, to help me fix what needs to be fixed and move forward to make this the greatest county to work, live, and play in the United States.
Thank you for coming tonight.
Thank you for your interest in Wayne County.
