Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans State of the County Address

8/20/2019 Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans State of the County Address

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2016 State of the County Address

Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans

Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at 7 p.m.

Detroit Film Theatre

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Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Welcome tonight to this fabulous

venue—one of our County’s great public spaces— to tell you about the State of

our County. I extend my appreciation to Salvador Salort-Pons, Director of the

Detroit Institute of Arts for serving as our host this evening. Permit me to

specially recognize my fellow County executives who have honored me

tonight with their presence. From Oakland County, L. Brooks Patterson. And

from Macomb County, Mark Hackel. I’d also like to thank those of you listening

at home for taking the time to hear some encouraging news about WayneCounty.

Shortly after my election I gathered my campaign staff to talk about the

transition. I knew finding expertise in finance would be critical to solving

Wayne County’s problems. Also I knew we needed a subcommittee on

finance, and I knew that Committee would likely be the most important. We

talked about who should be on that subcommittee and I kept pushing one

particular name. My campaign staff was wary of this person because he was a

Republican and he worked for Brooks Patterson.

What would people say, if a Democrat County Executive asked for such help? I

ended the argument. Here’s what people would say, “We are interested in

good government and don’t care where we get the information or expertise to

accomplish it.” So I directed my campaign manager to call this person to ask

him to serve on this subcommittee. He was flattered and surprised. He was

willing to do it, if it was okay with Brooks. By then I had decided that I wanted

him to Chair this committee. I called Brooks and Brooks agreed.


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This person spent countless hours providing his expertise to this critical

transition issue and Wayne County will always be grateful to him. Although he

could not be here tonight, ladies and gentlemen, please recognize, Deputy

Oakland County Executive, Bob Daddow. Thank you Brooks.

Last year I chose not to deliver a traditional State of the County Address.

Wayne County faced critical issues: Could Wayne County avoid an emergency

manager and bankruptcy? Could Wayne County recover from the public’s loss

of faith and trust in its ability to deliver an honest and competent

government? I frankly wasn’t ready to answer these questions.

Instead, throughout the year I visited with residents, community groups, faith

leaders, business owners, and others, from Grosse Pointe to Detroit and from

Taylor to Belleville. I shared with them the critical problems the County faced.

It was important for me to let them know I planned to meet the County’s

challenges head-on. I told them solutions would require sacrifice, but I would

do my best to make certain it was a shared sacrifice.

A year later, as I begin my 15th month as County Executive, I am pleased toreport, that while many obstacles remain, the worst of our problems are in the

past. I can’t quite tell you that the State of the County is great. I can, however,

say that the state of the County has stabilized, it continues to improve, and

that our best days lie ahead.

The first thing I had to do as County Executive was identify all of the major

problems facing Wayne County. While major financial problems existed, other

critical problems, also, needed to be addressed.

Many County facilities were in horrible shape. We had a partially-completed

jail that would cost hundreds of millions to finish. We had existing jails that

were falling apart. The Lincoln Hall of Justice, where our juvenile offenders

are adjudicated and treated, needed replacement years ago.


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The Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, housing the Criminal Division of the Wayne

County Circuit Court and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, required

either replacement or tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure

improvements and renovations. And the settlement of a lawsuit required the

County to build the Wayne Circuit Court a new courthouse. Finally, the

purchase of the Guardian Building was a huge financial mistake.

Compounding this mistake was vacant office space at the Guardian Building

while the County owned or leased expensive space in other buildings.

Even if, somehow, we could, magically, solve all of Wayne County’s financialproblems, these facilities problems remained.

Unfortunately, finances and facilities weren’t the only problems. A lack of

cooperation between the County Executive and other County elected officials

existed. For too long the County Executive didn’t understand, that the

County’s problems could not be solved through confrontation.

But the Sheriff, Prosecutor, and Wayne Circuit Court had sued the County

Executive and the County claiming that their budgets were inadequate. TheCounty spent hundreds of thousands of dollars paying for attorneys on both

sides of these cases. And these lawsuits provided only the illusion, that a judge

could actually issue an opinion that could solve the County’s budget problems

and adequately fund these Offices. I was intent on changing that culture. To

solve the County’s problems, we needed to work together.

Yet, another major problem was the poor delivery of services in many areas.

Far too common was low employee morale. Employees had given concessions

to solve problems that never got solved, while executives received

extravagant pensions. And if the goal was to provide efficient, quality County

services, then the existing organizational chart didn’t make that possible.

Adding to inefficiencies, were the County’s antiquated purchasing systems,

inadequate employee training and an economic development model of

grandiose announcements that never lived up to the hype.


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So confronted with the County’s financial mess, it’s unfinished and

dilapidated facilities, the institutional animosity between the County

Executive and other elected County Officers and its poor delivery of services, I

thought seriously about taking Brooks Patterson’s advice. When asked, “Did

he have any advice for me as the new County Executive of Wayne County?” He

responded, “Yes, ask for a recount.”

But I didn’t and I went to work developing solutions. Wayne County’s

problems could not be solved in one year. But as we worked on one issue, we

needed to make sure we didn’t make the others worse. Short-term fixes hadn’twork. I wouldn’t repeat those mistakes.

The biggest problem was clearly the County’s fiscal health. Wayne County had

been insolvent for years and things were getting worse. Wayne County, had

survived this long by continually robbing Peter to pay Paul. We had little time

before corrective financial actions would be too late, and bankruptcy

inevitable. No one knew with certainty how long we had before corrective

action would be too late. The time, however, was short enough, for the fiscally

responsible to agree, that now was definitely not too soon.

The road that led to this financial mess resulted from a number of factors:

Mismanagement, Poor-decision making, Bad economic development deals,

Rising legacy costs for healthcare and pensions, and property tax revenue that

plummeted as a result of the economic downturn of 2008. No matter who

headed Wayne County government during this time, managing with dwindling

resources was going to be tough. The real problem was the failure to see the

coming financial crisis and the failure to make any tough decisions to avert it.


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The result was an accumulated deficit approaching $100 million, a yearly

structural deficit of approximately $52 million, $1.3 billion, t hat’s with a

capital B, in unfunded health care liabilities, and a pension fund, once fully-

funded, decimated to just 44% funded and needing about $900 million to

reach full funding.

Wanting to be sure of the numbers, we brought in an independent team of

CPAs and accountants from Ernst and Young. Unfortunately, the numbers

were as bad as they appeared.

While I was prepared to make the tough decisions, I knew I couldn’t do it

alone. I needed the right team to make it happen. Late in the transition I

found the person who would become the Architect of the County’s plan to

recover from this financial mess. It was a 29 year-old, turn-around expert,

who saved Benton Harbor from financial ruin and was a gubernatorial

appointment to Detroit’s Financial Review Board. A whiz kid, who grew up in

Detroit, went to our own Cass Tech, and somewhere along the way, learned

the value of using his intellect for the public good. Ladies and gentleman, I give

you Wayne County’s Chief Restructuring Officer and Chief Financial Officer,

Tony Saunders.

Although Tony was the architect, he had a lot of help. I lured my Deputy

County Executive away from a lucrative law practice by playing on his weak

spot of caring about good government. He gave up more in pay than I’ve ever

made in a year. His previous experience as Chief Judge of the Wayne County

Circuit Court and General Manager of SMART proved invaluable. Ladies and

gentlemen, please recognize my Deputy County Executive, Rick Kaufman.

Rounding out my fiscal recovery team was the former Deputy Treasurer of the

State of Michigan under Gov. Blanchard and the Treasurer of the State of

Michigan under Governor Granholm. He is now my Chief Operating Officer.

He could not make it here this evening but allow me to acknowledge Jay

Rising.


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These three dedicated public servants spent weeks and hundreds of hours

poring through the financial data. They asked me innumerable questions

about my priorities and, frankly, how courageous I planned to be.

They drafted and redrafted and redrafted what became known as the

“Recovery Plan” for Wayne County. I released it on April 29, 2015 and we

immediately went to work implementing it.

Tonight, I am pleased to report that as a result of unprecedented cooperation

and shared sacrifice, Wayne County finished its last fiscal year with a positive

General Fund balance. Let me say that again, for the first time in 8 years, the

County finished a fiscal year in the black. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s a

remarkable accomplishment by anyone’s measure.

We will not need an Emergency Manager and we will not be going bankrupt!

We have eliminated the accumulated deficit!

We have eliminated the yearly structural deficit!

And we have dramatically reduced our health-care liabilities. A recent

actuarial report from NYHART established that our healthcare liabilities have

been reduced from $1.3 billion to $471 million. As important, the study

warned, that if we had not taken action, our health care liabilities would have

risen to $1.8 billion by the end of 2015.

We didn’t achieve this financial recovery on our own. We had cooperation

from many places. We had an unprecedented level of cooperation between

the executive branch and the Wayne County Commission. The Commissionwas an important partner in approving many of the essential parts of the

“Recovery Plan”.


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The new spirit of cooperation between the County Executive’s Office and the

other elected County officials was extremely important. Proof of this new

spirit was the Wayne County Sheriff, and the Wayne County Prosecutor,

agreeing that the CEO recommended budget for their Office for this fiscal year

was fair. I’m sure nobody in this room can remember the last time that

happened. I certainly can’t.

How’d we do it? We listened?

My staff spent countless hours with the Sheriff’s staff going over every detail

of his operation. Analyzing the job of every deputy, and through consensus,

not confrontation, agreed to changes. Cooperatively we reduced the Sheriff’s

operational budget by $2 million in this fiscal year without sacrificing

service. And I’m pleased to report, that having finished the first quarter of this

fiscal year, the Sheriff, for the first time in many, many years is living within

his budget. No other sheriff, including myself, was able to do that because of

the lack of cooperation from the County Executive’s Office , Thank you Benny

Napoleon.

So is the Wayne County Prosecutor. We listened to her needs and gave her

increases where they were most critically needed and she listened to our

problems and worked with us to help balance her Office’s budget. Thank you

Kym Worthy.

We are near completion of a reorganization of the Register of Deeds’ Office,

headed by Bernie Youngblood. He is dedicated to having the best Register of

Deeds Office in this country. This reorganization provides the resources and

flexibility to deliver operational excellence in the Register of Deeds Office.

And this reorganization results in a budget reduction of hundreds of

thousands of dollars. Thank you Bernie Youngblood.


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Recently, we invited the County Clerk and her staff to meet with me and my

staff to start a similar process. She agreed and the meetings have begun. I

thank you Cathy Garrett. I’ve also begun working cooperatively with our new

County Treasurer, Richard Hathaway. We will work together, to utilize the

authority of the Wayne County Land Bank and other measures to keep people

in their homes.

We had even more help. The Wayne County Circuit Court, led by its Chief

Judge Robert Colombo, and the Wayne County Probate Court, led by its Chief

Judge Freddie Burton, cooperated and helped us reduce costs and increaseefficiencies.

Our Wayne County Prosecutor, Sheriff, Treasurer, Clerk, Commission and

Register of Deeds, together with our two Chief Judges, are helping us improve

County services and meet our enormous financial challenges. It is amazing

what can be achieved when dedicated people work in cooperation.

We, also, had help from most of our Retirees. Approximately 4000 of the

County’s 5000 retirees agreed to resolve a lawsuit over health care benefitsthat recognized the County’s financial circumstances. When I became County

Executive, this case had been pending for years and millions of dollars of

attorney’s fees had been spent litigating. The Union representatives of these

Retirees showed leadership and courage to recognize reality and work with

the County to reach a solution.

Additionally, 12 of our 13 labor unions agreed to new Collective Bargaining

Agreements that helped reduce our legacy costs. Thank you for the

cooperation.

We also needed the cooperation of the State. The “Consent Agreement”

approved by the County Commission and executed with the State Treasurer

was essential to implementation of important pieces of the “Recovery Plan”.

Many warned that the “Consent Agreement” would fail . They were wrong! It


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worked and I am proud to report that this year we will petition the State

Treasurer to release Wayne County from the Consent Agreement. And I

believe this can occur early in this year.

But the news is not all good. Yes, we’ve made significant progress, but we’ve

got a long way to go. As I said, ending the County’s fiscal crisis won’t solve our

facilities problems. But we have begun to make a great deal of progress in this

area.

We need to finish the partially built jail on Gratiot. There is no cost effective

alternative. We recently completed a preliminary agreement with AECOM and

Ghafari that will, hopefully, settle a lawsuit and lead to the completion of the

Gratiot jail. It will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to finish that jail. The

costs of restarting construction and the natural increase in prices will add

millions to the cost to complete it. But the solid financial recovery the County

has experienced will, likely, allow us to borrow the money necessary to

complete this essential project. There is a long way to go before this is a

reality, but our plan is solid and provides the best opportunity for success.

We recently completed an exhaustive study of the renovations needed for our

existing jails and the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. We will need to find the

money to make the necessary repairs to the existing jails, at least, until we can

open a new jail on Gratiot. And in conjunction with a new Gratiot jail, we must

spend tens of millions of dollars to renovate the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice.

One of the reasons for a new jail on Gratiot was its proximity to the Criminal

Division of the Wayne County Circuit Court. Therefore, renovating the Frank

Murphy Hall of Justice is the most fiscally prudent course and funds must befound for this purpose.

We are presently preparing, with the assistance of the State of Michigan, to

move the Juvenile Division of the Wayne County Circuit Court, into the State

owned Cadillac Place. This move will greatly improve our Juvenile Court

facilities and save the County money.


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We are also in the preliminary stages of reviewing plans to solve the facilitiesneeds of the Civil Division of the Wayne County Circuit Court. And wecontinue to assess whether there is a more cost effective location than theGuardian Building for County offices.

To succeed with these facilities challenges, we must stay vigilant in ourdedication to fiscal responsibility. Unless, we can create additional revenuesources, the money to solve these facilities problems must come from futuresurpluses. These surpluses can only be achieved by continuing to manageCounty government efficiently.

And that brings me to improving County services while saving money. Wehave no other choice in Wayne County. We must do both. Although we have along way to go, we have already traveled a great distance.

As I look around the room tonight at a number of people in myAdministration, I am struck by the many, who come in early, stay late, answercalls and emails at all hours of the night and on weekends. That doesn’thappen by accident. That happens when the people at the top lead byexample.

There is one person at the top, who’s been most responsible for the progresswe’ve made in improving County services. She’s an affable, smart, quietly-determined individual, who was the first African-American woman to leadDetroit Metropolitan and Willow Run Airports as CEO. Rising from in-houseCounsel, she became a skilled administrator. She is a consensus builder whostrives for excellence. Ladies and Gentleman, please recognize another keymember of my executive team, Assistant County Executive, Genelle Allen.

Under Genelle’s leadership, we consolidated and reorganized several

departments. To streamline health and wellness operations, we consolidatedthree Departments into a new Department of Health, Veterans andCommunity Wellness. This consolidation, responsibly cuts costs andimproves service.


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Residents used to have to navigate a bureaucratic maze to obtain services.Case managers are now trained to conduct complete resident assessments.We call this service delivery model “No Wrong Door.” And it is now ourresponsibility to see that the resident finds the County service they need, notvice-versa.

Nearly 11% of Wayne County’s residents still don’t have health insurance.That number represents 25% of the entire uninsured population in Michigan.Later this year we plan to launch a new initiative to assist immigrants andother vulnerable populations in securing health care coverage.

Half of the one hundred and twelve thousand residents in Westland, Wayne,Romulus and Inkster are low income.

Within these four cities, there is only one primary care doctor for every 4100residents. The barriers for this population to secure quality healthcareservices are high. We will lower these barriers by making it easier for WayneCounty residents to receive adequate healthcare.

To assist with increased access to health care for residents, we recently

opened the new full service Wayne Health Center. Through a partnership withBeaumont Health, this new health center offers primary care services tofamilies in Western Wayne County.

Physicians and health care professionals from the Family Medicine program ofBeaumont Health are working side by side with Wayne County’s public health

nurses. With us tonight, our partner in this endeavor, Dan Spatafora andJudith McNeely of Beaumont Health.

Later this year, dental services will also be offered at the Wayne Health Center

through a partnership we established with the University of Detroit Mercy’sSchool of Dentistry. With us tonight is the school of dentistry’s Dean, Dr. MertAksu.

I thank you Beaumont Health and University of Detroit Mercy for supportingour effort to increase healthcare for Wayne County residents.

This reorganized Department will also benefit at-risk young people.


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This year we will launch a new job training program for young people who arereleased from the Juvenile Detention Facility or otherwise considered at-risk.I’ve spent the better part of my career watching youth detention facilitiesserve as the single largest gateway for youthful offenders into our costlyCounty adult correctional system and then to the even more costly Stateprison system. Our failure to identify and effectively treat these youth hasharmed generations, while nearly bankrupting state and local governments.

We know it is more expensive to incarcerate a prisoner than provide a collegeeducation. Yet, we do little when it comes to providing the sort of youth

services we know can be effective in leading youth to college or skilled tradeschools instead of prison. We should not lock away their potential topositively contribute to our communities.

I know we have criminals we can’t help. But, many, perhaps most, can behelped and deserve a second chance. An ounce of prevention is worth apound of cure. Money spent to reduce recidivism is the ounce of prevention.Money for bricks and mortar is the more expensive pound of cure.

Helping at risk youth is a priority, and I found a wonderful partner with an

excellent track record of transforming the lives of Wayne County’s youth. Shehas championed the cause of young people. She is the President and CEO of“Black Family Development.” Ladies and Gentleman, please recognize AliceThompson.

For 38 years, “Black Family Development ” has committed itself to the ideathat every young person should have the opportunity to flourish. Herorganization has helped thousands of area youth discover their gifts, honetheir skills and become successful in worthwhile endeavors. Together, with“Black Family development” Wayne County plans to launch a job trainingprogram. This program will provide career readiness and placement services.I’m optimistic the Wayne County Commission will agree with me and approvethis engagement.


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In order to continue and expand our efforts in these vital areas of at-riskyouth and wellness, we must remain vigilant in our efforts to streamlineCounty government. Only by making County government more efficient, canwe find the money for these essential services. To accomplish this, we will belaunching a number of significant projects.

This year we will completely transform Wayne County’s antiquatedPurchasing system. It may not sound like it, but this is a big deal. We areinstalling a state of the art e-Procurement system. This system will creategreater transparency in contracting, generate long-term savings and make it

easier to do business with Wayne County.To accomplish this important improvement, I’ve lured an extremely talented

individual to lead this transformation. His name is James Colangelo and hecomes by way of JetBlue Airways.

The Wayne County Commission has approved the contract, and we are on ourway to having Wayne County’s new e-Procurement System up and runningbefore the end of the year.

We are partnering with the Michigan Association of Counties, or MAC, to help

us in this Procurement transformation. MAC has developed a substantialexpertise in this area and their assistance will be invaluable. With us tonightfrom MAC are the two key people who will assist us with this project, SteveCurrie and Sean Carlson. Thank you for your partnership and expertise.

And there will be an added benefit to this new Procurement system. It willallow us to fairly ask Wayne County vendors to help alleviate our financialproblems. They will be given an opportunity to share in the sacrifice.

In the coming weeks, County vendors will receive a letter from Mr. CoAngelo.

It will propose a reduction in the cost of goods or services they provide theCounty. We will ask that they join Wayne County retirees, my appointees andunion employees who have sacrificed on this difficult road to recovery. Byworking with our vendors, we can reach a fair agreement that will furtherstabilize Wayne County’s finances.


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It’s now time to talk about roads and bridges. Wayne County has 739 miles ofprimary roads that run across our 43 communities. When I took office, Ilearned that a lot of road and bridge maintenance issues remainedunaddressed.

Recognizing the limited resources, I directed my Assistant County Executive,June Lee, and the Roads and Engineering Divisions to work collaborativelywith our local communities to find solutions for the hardest hit communitiesthat needed road repairs.

In a thriving business district of Hamtramck, t here’s a one-mile stretch onConant between Carpenter and Holbrook that hadn’t been adequatelyrepaired in 39 years. Working with the local community we got it repaired.

Working with Brownstown Township Supervisor, Andy Linko, we providedtemporary relief to motorists in his Township by overlaying asphalt on twobad stretches of Sibley Road. And we will be back out there this year to finishthe job.

We worked with former Commissioner Richard LeBlanc, who now serves asWestland’s City Clerk, to prioritize the resurfacing of Cherry Hill Road. This

resurfacing will begin in July.

The County maintains a drawbridge on Jefferson Avenue. It is an importantthoroughfare for the residents and businesses of two downriver communities:River Rouge and Ecorse. This bridge was inoperable for two years before Itook office. Last fall we started to fix it.

The Jefferson Avenue Drawbridge is on target to be open and fully functioningin August of this year. Mayor Bowdler, my friend, as the sign says, we arefixing the damn bridge!

This year we will complete 16 capital improvement projects in 15 differentcommunities. We will continue to work in partnership with our cities andtownships to fix our roads and bridges.


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Please allow me to change gears at this point. We have taken concrete steps inWayne County to eliminate wasteful spending while remaining focused ondelivering quality services. But we have had to go beyond merely institutingreasonable cost cutting measures. We needed to make some painful cuts.Our employees and retirees were required to make huge sacrifices.

Many local governments have been required to make similar painful cuts.These cuts are to the muscle not just the fat of local governments.

This is evidence of a larger fundamental problem. Like Wayne County, our 43

cities and townships, must manage their financial affairs under a brokensystem of local government financing.

During the Great Recession that began in 2008, property values tumbled,reducing property taxes that are used, primarily, to finance local governments.

Because of this drop in property values Wayne County received $418 millionless dollars in property tax receipts from 2008 to 2014. Likely, all localgovernments in Michigan, collectively, received billions less in property taxreceipts during this period. Local governments can’t sustain that kind of loss

without significantly affecting the quality of the essential services they arerequired to deliver. So the heavy reliance on property taxes to fund localgovernments, by itself, is of major concern.

In Michigan, however, our laws exacerbate the problem. When propertyvalues recovered, local governments, due to the restrictions contained inProposition A and the Headlee Amendment, were unable to recover the totallost taxes. Of the $418 million in lost tax receipts during this period, $240million were the result of these tax limitations.

Wayne County must operate within its means. And we will continue todemonstrate the necessary discipline to do that. But I have a correspondingobligation to identify structural threats to the fiscal integrity of not just countygovernment, but all the local governments with whom we regularly work.Fixing this is necessary to ensure that Wayne County remains a place peoplewill want to call home.


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Our system of funding local governments threatens the financial stability ofcounties and local municipalities. Just look 70 miles to the north to see whatkind of results this broken system of local funding produced. While wesupport alleviating the suffering of the people of Flint, we, also, must bemindful that the chronic disinvestment in local units of governmentthroughout the state has made it difficult for many communities to fund arange of basic services.

We can and must do better. We cannot continue to underfund localgovernments. For too long, resources needed for schools and communities

have not found their way into these budgets that provide vital services. Thatis until disaster strikes.. We can’t afford to just be reactive. We need to investin townships, villages, cities, schools, and counties. Our residents expect aresponsive public safety department. Our parents expect quality schoolsregardless of zip code. Our communities need a safe infrastructure.

The first step in solving any problem is to acknowledge it. The number andvariability of communities experiencing financial distress provides perhapsthe best evidence of the seriousness of this problem. We need to start downthe road to a solution. In the coming weeks, I will organize a summit ofelected officials, community leaders, leading economists, business leaders andothers, who can aid in devising a solution to this broken system of localgovernment financing.

Tonight I’ve identified a few of the key members of my executive team. There

are a couple others I’d be remiss not to mention. Because he lost a close

Congressional election in 2014, I got to benefit from his tireless effort and

sharp acumen over the last fourteen months. Ladies and gentleman please

recognize my Chief of Staff, Rudy Hobbs.

I’ve also had the benefit of one of the best legal minds around, a tireless

worker and amazing manager. Keeping her on as my Corporation Counsel

was one of my best decisions. Ladies and gentleman, please recognize Zenna

Elhasan. Other members of my staff have been critical to our success and I

thank them all.


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But to all my staff, don’t forget; be back in the office at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

We’ve got a lot of work to do.

Allow me to close with these observations.

Government can work as it should or government can be riddled with

incompetence and even corruption. We’ve seen both kinds. As a Democrat, I

like to say that Republicans often run for office claiming government doesn’t

work and then when elected, go on to prove it.

I believe government can work. I believe government has an important role toplay in leveling the field. I believe government has a role to play in caring for

those who can’t care for themselves. I believe government has a role to play in

giving an opportunity to succeed to those who would not, without the

outstretched hand of government. I’ve dedicated my professional life to these

beliefs.

What people often don’t understand is that these beliefs can go hand and hand

with fiscal responsibility. If you’re fiscally responsible, you free up more

resources to meet more real needs. Some say use it for tax breaks for the rich.

I say use it to help a deserving fellow citizen. Government should create

programs for those deserving of assistance. Such programs benefit not only

the individual but, also, our community. And just because Government get it

wrong sometimes, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continue to try.

To me, government is a calling not a business. And I get a kick out of running

an efficient government that is able to provide more for the citizens we serve.

In fact, if you really think about it, the greatest, long-lasting happiness any ofus experience comes from doing for others. Whet her it’s a family member,

friend, stranger or worthy recipient of government services, we feel good if

our actions benefit others.


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It takes competence and honesty to make government work. And whether it’s

a Republican or a Democrat, if the leader of the government is competent and

honest and cares about good government, chances are the citizens will be well

served. Voters it seems, however, tend to focus on a candidate’s political

views significantly more than their competence to manage. And that is, often,

unfortunate.

Don’t get me wrong. Ones political view can be important. It was important

when I found a million dollars for rape kits in a tight budget. It was important

when I had a chance to use my bully pulpit to try to help keep the air andwater in Wayne County cleaner. But, frankly, more important is the question

of whether an elected official, who will be charged with running a

government, is competent, honest and cares about good government.

Some disagreed with steps we’ve taken to solve our County’s problems. But

no one, I believe, can question our motives or integrity. And no one can

question that we’ve done it with a diverse team of men and women,

Caucasians, African-Americans, Middle Eastern, and Asians. And this team was

more effective than the sum of its parts because of that diversity. And I don’t

think anyone should fairly question the competence of this amazingly diverse

team In the County executive offices found on the 31st floor of the Guardian

Building, the pursuit of honest, fiscally responsible, good government, really is

our mantra. And that has not always been the case in Wayne County.

So it’s been an eventful year for me, my staff and Wayne County government.

I hope you agree we’ve made things better. But we’ve got a lot left to do and

we intend to do it.

Thank you all for coming and God bless.

Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans State of the County Address

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Transcript of Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans State of the County Address