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

BY JOHN WISELY • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • January 5, 2009

December photo by PATRICIA BECK/Detroit Free Press

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.

Real Estate

America’s Most Educated Small Towns

Jacqueline Detwiler, 01.05.09, 12:01 AM EST

These 20 towns boast the greatest concentration of residents with advanced degrees.

For decades, most people’s idea of the American small town likely resembled something out of Little House on the Prairie: crumbling farmhouses and one-room schools. By November’s election, with all the talk of Main Street, it was easy to forgive anyone for associating the American small town with rural locales, modest incomes and Joe Six-Packs.

Whether or not that’s true, the best-educated small towns contain just the opposite. Almost all are suburbs near major universities or research centers, and the jobs–from IT in Silicon Valley to government work in McLean, Va.–are anything but blue collar.

In Depth: America’s Most Educated Small Towns

Take the most-educated small town on our list, Bethesda, Md. The city hosts the National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as well as the corporate headquarters of Marriott (nyse: MAR - news - people ), Lockheed Martin (nyse: LMT - news - people ) and COMSAT. Bethesda also boasts the highest percentage of residents with advanced degrees in the country, with 51.5% of residents over 25 who have master’s degrees or Ph.D.’s.

“Of my friends who are not employed at the NIH, almost all of them have a master’s degree,” says Laura Thomas, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health and a Bethesda resident. “It’s almost like the entire town is the campus of a top-tier research institution.”

Wellesley, Mass., which ranks second, sets the paradigm for many of the other towns in the top 10. It’s home to one of the top colleges in the U.S., Wellesley College, and is close to a major metropolitan area known for its culture and high property values. The remaining top five–Palo Alto, Calif., McLean, Va., and Los Altos, Calif.–post similar profiles. All three are close to a larger city and are within commuting distance of a university or major research institution.

Towns ranking 11th to 20th were also close to universities, which tended to be larger, like State College, Pa., at No. 15, which is near Pennsylvania State University, and Blacksburg, Va., at No. 14, which is near Virginia Tech. Plush suburbs, like Cupertino, Calif., and Brookline, Mass., also figured prominently in the second half of the list.

Behind the Numbers
To determine America’s most-educated small towns, we used data from the U.S. Census 2005-2007 American Community Survey, which polled more than 2,500 regions with 20,000 to 65,000 residents about their educational attainment. The number of graduate degrees–including master’s degrees, Ph.D.’s, professional degrees, bachelor’s degrees and associate degrees–were each divided by the population of the town over age 25 and then weighted to give a final average for each location. High school diplomas were excluded from our analysis since it’s safe to assume that most residents with bachelor’s degrees also have high school degrees.

Because college graduates make about $22,000 more per year than those who stopped after high school, and people with graduate degrees bring home an additional $37,000 to $57,000 per year, highly educated residents are the ones who boost the property values and median incomes in the towns in which they live.

More..

December auto sales: Chrysler drops 53%, GM 31%

Scott Burgess / The Detroit News

December marked the end of the worst U.S. automotive sales year for carmakers in more than two decades.

Detroit and Japanese carmakers that make up the collective Big Six all reported double digit sales drops for December. General Motors Corp. reported December sales dropped 31 percent; Ford Motor Co. reported a drop of 32 percent; Chrysler LLC reported sales plummeted 53 percent; Honda Motor Co. said its sales fell 34 percent; Nissan North America said its sales fell 30 percent and Toyota Motor Co. said its U.S. sales fell 37 percent.

While the monthly sales reports were collectively abysmal, many carmakers tried to cull good news out of it bad numbers.

GM said that it expects to have gained market share in December, as its share in the U.S. market jumped from 20 percent in November to around 24 percent for December. It expects to have about 22 percent of the market for 2008 by the time the final figures are tabulated. However, annual deliveries were down 23 percent when compared with 2007 sales. According to Automotive News, a trade publication, GM 2008 sales numbers, which totaled less than 3 million units, were at their lowest level since 1959.

“It’s not a number I’m going to put into my scrapbook, but it’s certainly better than the industry,” said Mark LaNeve, vice president of GM North America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing. “There were a lot of really ugly red numbers out there across the industry.”

Chrysler reported 2008 sales fell 30 percent compared with 2007.

The troubled company said sales increased slightly when compared to November but remain down.

“Last year, Chrisler and all of our stakeholders persevered through extraordinarily difficult economic conditions, made the adjustments and always kept our focus on serving our customers,” said Jim Press, president and vice chairman at Chrysler. “As a result, our company and our dealer network start this year stronger and beter positioned to succeed in today’s marketplace.”

Ford Motor Co. reported its 2008 sales fell 21 percent.

While the carmaker struggles in a vicious market, the company reported its redesigned F-150 pickup accounted for 8,600 vehicles sold in December, a jump of 84 percent compared with November. The F-Series finished the year with 515,513 total sales, down 25 percent compared with 2007.

While the market on the whole has shrunk during 2008, Ford noted it has gained market share for the last three months — something the company hasn’t done in more than a decade.

“This is a strong ending to end a very challenging year,” said Jim Farley, Ford’s group vice president, marketing and communications, in a statement.

The compact Ford Focus was the only vehicle in Ford, Lincoln and Mercury’s lineup to show a year-over-year increase in sales, jumping 13 percent for the year.

Honda Motor Co., while having a bad December, has weathered the market better than many carmakers. For the year, Honda reported sales falling 8.2 percent compared with 2007.

Toyota reported its 2008 sales fell 16 percent compared with 2007 sales figures. The Japanese automaker noted it sold more than 240,000 hybrids in the U.S. over the year.

“Our New Year’s resolution is to shift the focus back to where it belongs, to the consumer,” said Toyota Motor Sales president Jim Lentz.

You can reach Scott Burgess at (313) 223-3217 or sburgess@detnews.com.

More..

There’s a glimmer of hope for auto sales in 2009

Despite dire auto sales predictions for 2009 — some analysts are forecasting the worst year in more than two decades — there are glimmers of hope that the market might begin stabilizing after a tough first half.

Year-end auto sales scoreboard

CHRYSLER

30%

0% financing deals announced

HONDA

8.2%

Optimism isn’t shaken

GM

22.7%

An improvement over Nov.

FORD

20.7%

F-150, Flex sales strong

TOYOTA

15.4%

Dec. sales of each brand fall

By JEWEL GOPWANI • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • January 5, 2009

Despite dire auto sales predictions for 2009 — some analysts are forecasting the worst year in more than two decades — there are glimmers of hope that the market might begin stabilizing after a tough first half

Automotive analysts expect consumers, who are still wary over the shaky state of the economy, to buy between 10 million and 12.4 million new cars and trucks in 2009.

That’s down substantially from the 16.7 million in annual sales the industry has averaged over the past decade. And it’s even lower than the dismal 13 million or so in sales expected for 2008.

But there are bright spots on the horizon.

More than $23 billion in federal assistance is now on its way to General Motors Corp., its lending arm, GMAC, and Chrysler LLC. The money for GMAC, in particular, could begin thawing the credit market, which has been rejecting auto loans in droves. And that could help loosen consumer demand for cars and trucks, which has been pent up for months by the lack of credit and general caution over the economy.

“The first half is going to be quite a struggle, with some improvement in activity starting around spring,” said Jesse Toprak, senior analyst at Edmunds.com. “The things that need to be done to jumpstart demand in the marketplace are happening little by little.”

December freeze

Despite that, most analysts still expect auto sales in 2009 to be almost as bad, or worse, than in 2008.

For 2008, analysts predict that light-vehicle sales will drop to between 13 million to 13.2 million, which would be a decline of at least 18% compared with 2007 and mark the worst sales year since 1992.

Automakers are expected to release their sales for December and 2008 on Monday.

Industry-wide auto sales are expected to be down about 40% in December compared with the same month a year earlier, according to predictions from several automotive analysts.

Analysts expect Chrysler to lead the decline with a drop of about 45% to 50% in sales. GM’s sales likely will decline by about 35% to 40% in December, based on a range of analyst estimates.

Analysts credit both drops not only to weak demand but to the prospect of both companies filing for bankruptcy protection. The auto companies have repeatedly warned that consumers would not want to buy vehicles from a bankrupt company for fear of not having their warranties honored.

“GM and Chrysler should still show the effects of consumer’s balking at buying their vehicles based on bankruptcy fears, though the effect should be diminished relative to prior months,” Chris Ceraso, auto analyst at Credit Suisse, wrote in a note to investors this week.

Ford’s sales are expected to drop by about 33%.

Cars beat trucks in 2008

Last year is expected to mark the first time in seven years that passenger car sales surpassed light-truck sales, said George Pipas, Ford’s U.S. sales analyst.

The shift reflects a rise in gas prices, the first of several waves of volatility that hit the industry this year, leading to a steep sales decline throughout 2008.

The industry’s collapse started in May, when gas prices topped $3.50 a gallon and the housing market, already in crisis, began to worsen.

In the fall, the credit crisis became acute as the nation’s financial institutions required a $700-billion federal bailout. Car and truck buyers were left without lenders to supply credit. The economy continued to deteriorate, with the nation’s unemployment rate reaching a 15-year high in November and consumer confidence reaching an all-time low in December.

Even Japanese automakers, whose sales increases continued even as gas prices spiked, saw severe sales declines toward the end of the year.

“It’s been a really challenging year to say the least,” said Pipas, who expects light-vehicle sales in 2008 to come in at about 13.2 million.

Despite that, truck sales, which tend to be important profit indicators for Detroit’s automakers, are thought to have ticked upward in December, compared with November levels.

Part of that is seasonal. Pickups and SUVs usually sell better as winter sets in. In recent months, however, they also have benefited from a drop in gas prices and near-record incentives that automakers offered on those vehicles, Toprak said.

More of the same

Pipas and most other automotive analysts believe that the beginning of the new year will be just as difficult as 2008.

“The first quarter is still going to be pretty rough. A lot of people are losing their jobs right now,” said Erich Merkle, lead auto analyst at Grand Rapids consulting firm Crowe Horwath. “But there are people who are still working that are going to hold on to their jobs that aren’t buying a new car either.”

Automakers have maintained a conservative and pessimistic outlook for the first part of 2009, and most have announced plans to slash production through the first quarter.

Compared with 2008, GM is expected to cut production by half during the first three months of 2009, according to Credit Suisse. Ford is expected to cut production by 42% during that same period.

Those production cuts could help automakers gain some pricing power if consumers who’ve been holding back on vehicle purchases begin shopping again.

Toprak expects lower inventories to allow automakers to raise prices in 2009, starting this spring.

“If you’re a consumer in the marketplace to buy a car, this is probably one of the best times to buy a car,” he said.

Contact JEWEL GOPWANI at 313-223-4550 or jgopwani@freepress.com.

More..

Volkswagen moves plant groundbreaking

Associated Press

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant has moved its groundbreaking back two months to March to fit with board members’ schedules.

The Chattanooga Times Press reports that the German automaker’s board member want to take part in the groundbreaking but can’t do it this month.

Company spokeswoman Jill Bratina says the Volkswagen plant is “still on schedule.”

The building pads for the 1.9 million-square-foot facility are nearly ready. Workers continue to move dirt at other parts of the 1,340-acre site.

Link to story

Sunday, January 4, 2009
Richardson withdraws bid to be commerce secretary
Nedra Pickler / Associated Press
WASHINGTON — New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has withdrawn his nomination to be President-elect Barack Obama’s commerce secretary amid a grand jury investigation.

Obama’s transition office said Sunday that Obama has accepted Richardson’s withdrawal.
A federal grand jury is investigating how a California company that contributed to Richardson’s political activities won a lucrative New Mexico state contract.

A person familiar with the proceedings has told The Associated Press that the grand jury is looking into possible “pay-to-play” dealings between CDR Financial Products and someone in a position to push the contract through with the state of New Mexico

Rallying to the cause

Rallying to the cause

Jan 4th, at 6:10am

Autoworkers and retirees joined current and former elected officials and ordinary taxpayers in a rally Saturday to defend the domestic auto companies…

Hot Italian showgirls: Sara Varone’s 2009 Calendar

posted: Monday 29 September 2008 by Giorgio in: People

Here we are with a brand-new pin-up calendar that will delight men of all ages; we’re talking about Sara Varone‘s sexy calendar that will soon appear in For Men. It has been shot on a farm near Orbetello in Tuscany and to me it looks very hot.

The famous showgirl and heartbreaker told Tgcom that she was initially embarrassed to pose naked for the photographer but she got quickly used to it. She also added that she likes her body, but she must pay close attention to her diet as she tends to put on weight; yes, good food is one of her weaknesses!

Source | Tgcom where you can enjoy a preview of her 2009 calendar shoot

Link here

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Salute The Inauguration Of President Barack Obama by lemacks
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