Dear President Obama:
I read this article today and wondered why can’t the rest of the country be as innovative, dynamic and fiscally responsibly as Oakland County, MI. Please remember that Oakland County is near the epicenter of economic destruction called Detroit and auto. Oakland Couny is also directly adjacent to Macomb County which is running a huge deficit. I guess you could call this a tale of two counties. I invite you to visit Oakland sometime to see that good governance does help weather an economic tsunami.
Signed,
A Republican Taxpayer In Macomb County
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Financial wiz Bob Daddow keeps Oakland County out of the red
Deputy county exec is hard-nosed, step ahead
Deputy Executive Bob Daddow
When the economy still was humming along in 2005, Bob Daddow was troubled by a bar graph showing property tax assessments in Oakland County.
They continued to rise, but the growth rate had slowed three years in a row, and foreclosures were threatening to turn them negative, reducing money for county government. As Oakland County’s chief money man, he urged spending restraint and later ordered monthly reports to track home sale prices.
Last fall, when the data showed his fears were coming to pass, the county froze hiring, engineered the retirement of 150 employees and gave department heads orders to cut their budgets. The county budget is balanced through 2010, and Daddow and others are working on 2011.
“He was way ahead of everybody else on the declining revenue,” said Louis Schimmel, a retired financial manager who supervised the receiverships of Ecorse and Hamtramck. “He’s a hard-nosed finance guy.”
Daddow’s critics are less complimentary to the man who has been a chief architect of Oakland County’s AAA bond rating and gatekeeper of the public dollar, working beside Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson for 16 years. But even his critics acknowledge his smarts.
While Patterson is a household name in metro Detroit, Daddow has been his unheralded yet reliable deputy, serving as Patterson’s envoy on contentious issues, like the finances of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and the Cobo Center expansion talks.
When the Cobo discussions began, Patterson assigned Daddow to examine the financial details. Daddow wrote a 38-page paper questioning costs for everything from pensions and health care for Cobo retirees and litigation to hundreds of millions in deferred building maintenance that will drive up costs for any regional group taking it over.
“But nobody wants to talk about that,” Daddow said.
Playing defense
Daddow, 57, of Oakland Township is a former partner in the accounting firm of Ernst & Young and is known for his mastery of government finance and his blunt demeanor. He wears bulletproof-thick eyeglasses and has the skin to match.
The Southfield native’s leisure reading includes local government financial statements.
Daddow analyzes the reports, gauges their impact on Oakland County and summarizes them in pithy e-mails to Patterson and other officials. He’s not bothered by his penny-pincher reputation.
“I sometimes don’t get invited to meetings,” he said. “A lot of people don’t like the way the message is delivered, but the message gets delivered.”
Often Daddow’s message can be summed up in a single word: “No.”
Expand Cobo without full financial details? No.
Hire more employees? No.
Wait to make budget cuts? No.
Daddow insists that Patterson sets county policy while he and others carry it out. But does he ever say no to Patterson?
“All the time,” Patterson said. “I hired him to play defense.”
Daddow spent years going over the books of cities — rich and poor — spotting trouble in odd places. When the Detroit Pistons played at the Silverdome in the 1980s, Daddow was auditing Pontiac’s books and found a contract required the city to keep the floor temperature at 72 degrees for games. Problem was, the Silverdome roof is more than 200 feet above the floor and hot air rises.
“They lost a fortune on the heat bill,” Daddow said.
Other accountants say Daddow is well-respected in their circles, in part for his willingness to voice unpopular views. He’s not a yes-man, and he doesn’t sugarcoat things. Oakland County routinely wins national awards for excellence in financial reporting.
“I think it’s a real strategic asset to have someone of his background and training and raw intellect,” said Frank Audia, a partner with Plante & Moran who heads the firm’s government auditing practice.
Patterson met Daddow in 1992 when a deputy, Doug Williams, recommended him for the finance post in Patterson’s incoming administration.
“I had breakfast with him, and I hired him halfway through the scrambled eggs,” Patterson said. “After talking to him, I just put down my fork and said, ‘You’ve got the job if you want it.’ ”
Daddow remembers the meeting, too, though he recalls Patterson missed an appointment. “He stood me up,” Daddow said.
When they did finally meet, they hit it off immediately.
Daddow’s reputation preceded him with county employees.
“We’d heard all these things about him and how he never smiles,” said Laurie Van Pelt, the county’s director of management and budget. “But he’s actually wonderful to work for.”
Van Pelt said that while she was completing a project several years ago, she stayed at the office until 10:30 p.m.
“He drove by and saw my car in the lot and came in and told me to go home,” Van Pelt said.
A voice for privatizing
Patterson’s administration, with Daddow’s urging, has privatized the county nursing home, food service in the jail, the bump shop that repairs county cars and other functions. It’s a governing approach advocated by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank in Midland, with which Daddow has long been associated.
“He and the Mackinac folks would privatize everything they can get their hands on,” said County Commissioner David Coulter, D-Ferndale. “I think it’s all the small-government, no-regulation philosophy that has just been repudiated at the national level.”
Daddow counters that the moves save the county millions annually and provide better services.
When Daddow was named liaison to an outside group, Coulter quipped: “Are we going to put money in the budget for charm school?”
“He’s smart as hell,” Coulter said. “But sometimes Bob likes to flood you with information to try to make you feel less than smart.”
Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, who is spearheading the latest Cobo talks, said Daddow is a good accountant, but not necessarily a great negotiator.
“From a philosophical standpoint, we like to hear people who won’t just tell us how we can’t do something, but how we can,” Ficano said. “It’s one thing to say no, but it’s another skill level to get to the yes.”
Patterson said Daddow can intimidate, but his advice has been invaluable.
During those early Cobo talks, Daddow demanded detailed financial information on Cobo, which he never received. Patterson suspects that was because two former Cobo directors, who have since pleaded guilty, were taking kickbacks from a contractor.
“Bob would have spotted that in a New York minute,” Patterson said.
Contact JOHN WISELY at 248-351-3696 or jwisely@freepress.com.
