In blunt letter, Brooks Patterson attacks CEO group helping Detroit

John Gallagher | Detroit Free Press

Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, who has long feuded with the City of Detroit over regional issues, is now sparring with a group of top CEOs trying to rebuild the city.

In a bluntly worded letter typical of Patterson's often pugnacious style, the Oakland leader accuses DTE Energy CEO Gerry Anderson and other top business leaders of being "self-appointed saviors" trying to steal Oakland County-based businesses for the city.

Patterson sent the July 26 letter to Oakland County Chamber directors, inviting them to a meeting in Patterson's office Thursday afternoon to oppose the business leaders' efforts.

A spokesman for Patterson said Wednesday that the county executive would let the letter speak for itself, but confirmed that the meeting with Oakland Chamber officials would take place Thursday.

In his letter, Patterson takes aim at DTE's Anderson, who, about two years ago, convened a group of major corporate leaders in metro Detroit to work on economic development issues. The group includes Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans, and Christopher Ilitch, head of the Ilitch family network of pizza, sports, entertainment and real estate companies, among many other top leaders.

The group has promoted regional transit as well as other economic development efforts.

"You don't have to read between the lines, it is clear what is happening: these self-appointed saviors for southeast Michigan are in the process of forming an 'economic partnership' to direct business investments to the City of Detroit," Patterson wrote.

"They will have no hesitation about coming into your community and snatching business leads in the righteous cause of 'rebuilding Detroit.' "

In the letter, Patterson attacked the group's legitimacy.

"I am going to challenge their egotistical assumption that these 23 Detroit CEOs can develop Oakland County better than we can," he wrote.

Patterson also takes a swipe in the letter at Sandy Baruah, president and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber, saying that Anderson convened his group of business leaders only because Baruah's "leadership ... has been questioned and his effectiveness is up for debate."

Reached late Wednesday, Anderson downplayed any idea of a disagreement over the goals of the CEO effort, saying that after multiple talks with region-wide leaders, "it’s very clear that everybody wants this focused on the region, not the city, the region. This is about regionalism and understanding that everybody in the region wins when one part of the region wins."

He added, "I fully expect to get out and talk to Brooks and with some discussion he’ll better understand what we’re up to."

"The Detroit Regional Chamber has been working closely with the Regional CEO Group for the past two years to drive business and economic investment as well as job creation in all 11 counties in southeast Michigan," said Ray Telang, chair of the Detroit Regional Chamber Board of Directors. "The Chamber’s CEO Sandy Baruah has been a driving force behind this effort."

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The letter is the latest chapter in Patterson's decades-long sparring with city interests over regional development. Patterson's opposition has helped stymie passage of a regional transportation plan. And he has often derided the City of Detroit and the city's leaders and residents in language many view as racially tinged.

In describing one of the most inflammatory incidents, the New Yorker magazine in an early 2014 article quoted Patterson as saying of Detroit: “I made a prediction a long time ago, and it’s come to pass. I said, ‘What we’re gonna do is turn Detroit into an Indian reservation, where we herd all the Indians into the city, build a fence around it, and then throw in the blankets and corn.' ”

He later apologized for the remark. At the same time, there is no doubt that downtown Detroit's revival has advanced to a significant extent with Oakland County businesses relocating downtown. There was the Little Caesars move downtown in the 1980s, Gilbert's Quicken Loans in 2010 and the Detroit Lions and Detroit Pistons sports teams that left Oakland County to return to the city they had left decades ago.

But even against that backdrop, it's rare for a regional political leader to break so openly with major business leaders.

And it's also rare today, when urban leaders across a wide spectrum of party, ideology and geography agree that regional partnerships are key to economic development, for a county leader to take such a parochial go-it-alone stand.

Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep.