L. Brooks Patterson says he won't run again, calls Duggan 'a creep'

L. Brooks Patterson is ready to give up his longtime reign as Oakland County executive at the end of his current term, according to an online news site, which also says that in the same interview Patterson called Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan “a creep.”

Wait, Patterson and his chief spokesman said Tuesday, walking back the comments attributed to the 79-year-old Republican in an interview with veteran Detroit journalist Charlie LeDuff and published Friday by Deadline Detroit. The article is accompanied by a photo of Patterson sitting in a wheelchair and flipping the bird.

LeDuff writes that Patterson, who was critically injured in a 2012 auto accident that forces him to use a wheelchair most of the time, told him he will retire on Dec. 31, 2020, the last day of his current term.

"Seven terms as the Oakland County executive is enough," LeDuff quotes Patterson as saying. "I don't want to be carried out on my shield wearing a dirty diaper. There's nothing glorious about that."

But Patterson’s communications director, Bill Mullan, insisted Tuesday the door remains open for Patterson to run again.

“Brooks has validated everything in that story except that," Mullan said. "He has made no decision on running again. He has told every reporter, many times as you know, ‘Never say never.’ Yeah, Charlie got that wrong. It’s something that they discussed as a possibility, speculating about the future.”

On Tuesday, Patterson attended a news conference in Macomb County, where he and Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel urged voters to support passage of what is essentially a renewal of the SMART millage on the August ballot in Macomb and parts of Oakland and Wayne counties.

When asked about the recent story by LeDuff, Patterson said the journalist "took a few liberties."

Patterson said he never said he would quit at the end of this term but that he was undecided, waiting to make up his mind at the right time. Patterson said he remembered using the phrase that he didn't want to be a lame duck for 2½ years. He said he's not declaring one way or another at this junction.

"Everything else I stand by," Patterson said in regard to the Deadline Detroit article.

But when asked why he called Duggan a "creep," Patterson said: "I really didn't."

He said LeDuff taped it, and "you'll never hear the word creep."

The rancor toward the Detroit mayor in LeDuff's interview came in a discussion over the long-simmering battle over regional transportation.

"Mike Duggan is a creep," Patterson is quoted as saying. "The collegiality is gone because Mike's on the muscle and I'm not going to give him the money. Screw you."

When asked Tuesday about his relationship with Duggan, Patterson said it's "professional." He said when former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was in office, their get-togethers were lighthearted and never became personal. He said Duggan's making it personal, particularly in regard to the transportation issue.

When he was asked by a reporter whether he thought Duggan was a bully, Patterson said "he's tryin' to be a bully."

Patterson, who won political fame as a prosecutor, won re-election to his seventh four-year-term as county executive in 2016. Patterson beat Democrat Vicki Barnett, the former mayor of Farmington Hills, by 7 percentage points.

Free Press staff writers Christina Hall and Bill Laitner contributed to this report.