One open seat on the Wayne County Commission is being fought for by a Garden City woman who has a history of relationships with the Arab American community.

The fifteen-member commission serves primarily as an oversight body with control over the county budget and the authority to approve or reject contracts. The seat that represents Dearborn Heights, Garden City and Redford Township has been left open by 9th district Commissioner Phil Cavanagh, who is running for County Treasurer.

Democratic candidate Diane Webb hopes to make use of her experience in both the corporate world and local government to make a difference in the struggling county.

Voters on August 5 will choose between her and three other Democratic candidates, Janet Badalow, Roger Miles Handy and Jennifer White. The winner of the primary will challenge Republican candidate Mark Slater in November.

Webb, 42, is a former director of government and community relations in the local telecommunications industry.

She’s served on the board of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce and on the advisory board of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, where she secured corporate sponsorships for community functions like the ADC’s Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Dinner and the Dearborn Arab International Festival.

“I liked being part of the non-Arabic community that was familiar and could educate the non-Arabic community,” Webb said. “And that’s a role I still take on today — even in my personal life.”

She’s also served as a councilwoman in Garden City, which she believes, along with her 18 years in corporate management and her familiarity with various ethnic communities, put her a head above the rest.

“My diverse background and experience — professional and government experience — is what really sets me apart,” she said.

Webb has worked with federal, state, county and local governments, while dealing with both management and unions in her corporate capacity.

“I have walked in many shoes and seen the world through many views,” she said. “I know what it’s like to be the union person. I know what it’s like to be the manager with the budget in your hand…  In every role that I’ve had, the main function was cutting costs, growing revenue and improving customer service, whether I did it for a major corporation or I did it for a local government. I’ve done it in both environments. So I could hit the floor running in Wayne County in this seat. There wouldn’t be a learning curve… I’ve worked with many diverse populations. Not just the Arab American population, but I’ve also worked with the Filipino, the Hispanic — many of their organizations — the Asian community…”

Webb wants to use her experience handling budgets and overseeing contractual bidding to deal with deficits without subjecting the county to staff cuts in all departments, preventing reductions in sheriff and road maintenance divisions.

“I don’t agree with cuts across the board,” she said. “It’s lazy government that says ‘We have a deficit. Let’s just cut everything across the board.’ They need to look at, department by department, where can they operate in a more cost efficient way. You’ve got an economy that’s going to heck in a handcart right now. We all know that. When unemployment is on the rise, crime goes up. So is now the time to cut public safety? You’re going to try to draw economic development to a region that’s not safe?”

Webb said she’s ready to engage in an effort to tediously scrutinize details of how each department works, in order to find alternative means to operate, reduce expenses, re-bid external contracts and find new ways to bring in revenue.

“What I think they need to do is they need to go department by department and say ‘Where are we being redundant?’ This is my corporate background. Where are there services that we provide that could possibly be provided better by the state or by the federal government or by local government or by the private sector… What are they doing in other counties that’s working that we’re not doing here?”

Webb said that while a member of the Garden City Council, which faced a $1.9 million budget deficit when she took office, she used her background to conduct a telecommunications audit, making changes that saved the city $750,000 over five years. She also worked to refinance the city’s debt.

“We saved $300,000 a year in taxpayers’ money in our little city and our little $20 million budget. I wonder when was the last time (Wayne County administrators) refinanced their debt,” she said.

Webb said another $400,000 a year was saved by switching medical insurance administrators for city employees, without sacrificing benefits.

The job of county commissioner is also thought to entail guiding constituents through bureaucracy when they need help.

“Helping people navigate through government is something I’ve done my whole life with the phone company and as a director of government relations,” Webb said. “I know first-hand where you’re going to need to call or go for veterans’ services or senior services or children’s services, mental health care services… You’re supposed to be accessible to your residents so that they can call and you can say ‘Let me put you through to the people that you need.'”

Commissioners are only required by the charter to take on the job part-time, but the job pays $68,676 a year.

“I intend to do it full time,” said Webb. “I think that anyone that’s getting paid $68,000 a year — to me that’s a full time wage.”

She said she now works only as a consultant for AT&T and that she wants to take all the time necessary as a commissioner to learn every issue inside and out to try to provide thorough oversight on decisions of where cuts need to be made and how to generate new revenue.

“I’m a workaholic,” she said. “The phone company went from 35,000 employees when I hired-in in 1985, to 13,000 employees when I left in 2003. So ‘Do more with less’ was the mantra… I was promoted four times in four years… because of my ability to drive costs out of the budget and improve service delivery at the same time. And it can be done. You need more management people and less politicians in government. That’s where I’m coming from.”