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| Wayne County Commissioner and candidate for county Treasurer Phil Cavanagh |
One candidate who has reached out to the Arab American community is current Wayne County Commissioner Phil Cavanagh.
The son of former Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh, the 9th District Commissioner promises major changes in the way things are done at the treasurer’s office, with plans to emulate methods taken on in Washtenaw and Genesee counties, which have received national-level awards for innovative techniques.
In an interview with The Arab American News, Cavanagh made some sharp criticisms of 32-year incumbent Treasurer Raymond Wojtowicz, who was interviewed in last week’s issue of this paper.
He took aim at, among other things, legal trouble Wojtowicz’s office has faced as a result of some hasty foreclosures, and a lack of proper notification of at least one property owner, resulting in a costly state Supreme Court case that went against the county.
Cavanagh said he considers Wojtowicz a friend, but a friend who is too inflexible and too set in his ways to go on serving as treasurer during evolving, uncertain times.
The Arab American News: Is the main, general message you have for the people that your campaign is about change — that you represent change?
Phil Cavanagh: Yes. Times are changing. In these turbulent times, people are looking for something different. My campaign is about implementing the best practices. Things that actually work elsewhere that I think we should be implementing here in Wayne County.
TAAN: One simple example of a change you’ve said you want to make is establishing satellite offices around the county to improve customer service. Is that right?
PC: Yes. The sheriff has satellite offices. And the clerk does. They’re working very, very successfully. I don’t see why the treasurer’s office can’t, especially in this time of computerization. And municipal offices, city or township offices, I think, would welcome the fact of donating an office to the treasurer, even if it’s two or three days a week, so that their citizens can come in and pay their taxes or handle tax bills, etcetera. We are in the constituent service business. These aren’t our dollars. They’re taxpayer dollars. So we should make it as easy as possible.
TAAN: For some people, in these scary times, you want the guy who’s been there for a long time — the guy who’s seen it all. And the incumbent has been there for 32 years. What do you say to those people? The people who feel that way, who say ‘This guy knows what he’s doing. We should stick with him during these hard times.’
PC: I don’t think it has anything to do with tenure of service or age or anything else. It’s inflexibility. There are other practices that are working in other counties, that we’re not implementing in Wayne County, and I’m not sure why. But let’s speak specifically — the tax foreclosure. The state law was changed seven years ago. And county treasurers have been auctioning off properties of people who have been delinquent on their taxes for three years. Other counties are doing things differently. But specifically, in our county, our county treasurer rushes off and sells everything he can. And what that does is allow land speculators to come in and cherry pick the best properties. And what the county treasurer is left with in our case, are properties nobody wants. So over seven years he has 9,000 parcels. The problem that everyone in Wayne County should be upset about is — these 9,000 parcels, there’s about 1,000 homes on these — the grass has never been cut. There’s never been a house demolished. There’s never been a house rehabbed. We need to put these properties into productive use. Other county treasurers are. Our county treasurer isn’t.
TAAN: The incumbent also takes pride in his ability to collect delinquent taxes. Would you have a different approach toward collecting or would you go as hard after delinquents as he does?
PC: I think you do it up front before they’re delinquent. And currently he has an ad campaign that says “We can help,” and it says “Pay your taxes on time.” Now, we know who these people are who are delinquent on their taxes. A billboard or your name on a bus or a TV ad — tens of thousands of taxpayer money — because it’s an election year. How is that a benefit to the Wayne County residents to have the treasurer’s name attached to the Red Wings Parade? His advertising budget in ’03-04 was 45,000, ’04-05: 50,000. Even last year it was 80. In the first six months of this year — from December through May — he’s spent over $1 million in advertising. He’s said that ‘We did an analysis in 2006,’ and he said that ‘We saw this coming. We saw this perfect storm of mortgage, bank and tax foreclosures coming two years ago.’ Why does he wait until six months before the election to put out his outreach program? It’s not about a flashy ad. It’s about knocking on the door and talking directly to those people.
TAAN: So you would be more like Washtenaw County, where the focus is more on directly guiding people through the process than on aggressively collecting?
PC: In Wayne County, we follow the letter of the law to its nth degree, and if it says you have to pay your taxes by this time or you lose your property, that’s all that’s done. You need to do whatever it takes to keep someone in their property. Other counties are doing it. Wayne County should be also, by simply following best practices of what’s working. I have an MBA. I have a law degree. But what I’m most proud of is I am Vice Chairman of SEMCOG — Southeast Michigan Council of Governments — SEMCOG sent me to Harvard University and I took a course in executive officials in state and local government. One of my classmates was Dan Kildee — the treasurer of Genesee County. He started a land bank and helped write the state land bank law. What he’s doing as a county treasurer is bringing Flint back. He took money out of the County Treasury and for $3.5 million he demolished 454 homes. It brought up property values in Flint by $112 million. By spending money demolishing a building, it’s going to bring up everyone’s property values. If we have a county treasurer, that just because he’s not in tune with the times, doesn’t want to spend the money or all the money is locked into this outstanding legal litigation because he’s not doing the process right, whatever the reason, he’s not demolishing houses. It’s causing everyone in Wayne County’s property values to go down. I’m not saying it’s all the county treasurer’s fault, but I’m saying the county treasurer could do more.
TAAN: When you talk about demolishing buildings and keeping up foreclosed properties, is the money there to be able to do that? How would you manage to fight blight — particularly in the inner city of Detroit — when no one else has managed to do so for decades?
PC: The county treasurer has been selling properties since 2001. We never knew what pot of money he had until June 30 of this year, when he had to, by state law, present to the Commission his findings. Most of this money either went to administration or it is contingent for legal fees. The bottom line is there’s $31 million in auction proceeds. He is transferring $3.4 million to the general fund. This is what other county treasurers use — these auction proceeds — they use to demolish buildings, they use to rehab buildings.
TAAN: The incumbent does work with nonprofit groups to help people struggling with their taxes, but you believe you can do it better. Can you tell us how?
PC: He announced Operation Normandy (a project to form alliances with several nonprofits) in May or April of this year. He said in your interview that he saw this tax foreclosure crisis coming two years ago. Where was his activity two years ago… He didn’t start spending money on his outreach program until it’s an election year. He didn’t align himself with nonprofits until there’s an election year.
The County could have been far more proactive. You have tax assessors for personal property that are out in the field. Those tax assessors can also, as they’re driving by, stop at a house that is in jeopardy of foreclosure and say ‘What’s the problem?’ And you get it started there: ‘I lost my job. I don’t have childcare.’ So you’re putting somebody in contact with somebody from childcare or job training.
TAAN: An email was sent by your campaign a while back that makes a joke about the incumbent’s Polish last name, Wojtowicz. Can you explain that? Because some people were offended by it.
PC: The Piast Institute, which is a Polish think tank out of Hamtramck, did communicate with me, and I did say ‘If I offended anyone, I apologize.’ It was meant in jest. It was part of 15 different items (reasons to vote for Cavanagh), 13 of which are very, very serious in impact. The other two were trying to be lighthearted. (One poked fun at Wojtowicz’s age, 79. The other read ‘You can pronounce and spell Phil’s name.’) The irony of it is the day that came out was the day that the Wayne County treasurer produced his only ad paid for by his campaign — (a radio ad featuring) a little girl in a spelling bee, and at the beginning it said ‘How do you spell Wojtowicz?’ And then she spells it at the end and she wins the spelling bee. People have a hard time pronouncing his name. I wasn’t pointing out anything racially biased or anything else. I have one assistant on my staff and she’s 100 percent Polish. Prior to her I had one assistant and she was 100 percent Arab American. My campaign is run by — three out of the five on my team are African American. My father marched with Martin Luther King. I have huge respect for every ethnicity.
TAAN: Is there anything else you want to add — any other message you want to send to the Arab American community?
PC: These issues are real. And it’s time for change. Cavanagh for change.
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