Ficano ready to put his stamp on county

By Rick Schulte
HPR Media Services

He wants to be fair.

He wants to save money.

He wants to bring in new business.

Other than that, there’s not much on the plate of newly-elected Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, is there?

Ficano spoke recently to members of the Greater Romulus Chamber of Commerce at the group’s monthly meeting, held at the Romulus Marriott.

His speech to the group touched on a wide variety of subjects, but gave the same basic message.

Ficano is ready to put his administration’s stamp on the county.

“The one thing we want to leave everyone with is a sense of fairness,” he said. “We want a level playing field. If you’re a contractor or a vendor, it’s not whether you get the contract or not. It’s whether you thought it was fair. That’s what I want to establish.”

Ficano bristled at the idea of comparing himself and his ideas to that of his predecessor, Ed McNamara. Instead, he preferred to outline what some of his plans were.

“The airport needed a new terminal. I don’t think anyone doubted that,” Ficano said. “Ed McNamara did a lot of good things.”

Ficano focused the desire to bring in new businesses and fully use the resources available locally.

“It’s up to us to make it as attractive as possible. It’s important everyone works together,” he said. “We have to maximize the efforts to have them locate here.”

As he sees it, there’s plenty of technology involved with building automobiles. With General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. both headquartered in Wayne County, Ficano believes this is a good area for suppliers as well.

While looking for a major relocation of a long-standing company sounds great (a “grand slam,” as Ficano put it), “It’s up to us to work with the auto industry, to help out auto suppliers,” he said.

Ficano also pointed out the top two universities in the nation, as far as biotechnological grants, sit about 30 minutes from the airport (University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Wayne State University in Detroit).

He also stressed the need to tackle a budget deficit. A $55 million debt greeted Ficano when he began his term about three months ago.

Aside from cutting the pay of appointees across the board by 14 percent, he also sees an opportunity to save money with new purchasing practices.

“There’s bureaucracy in all 43 communities in the county,” Ficano said. “If we can get them all to act together, there are standard things we all use (tires and office supplies were some of the examples he listed).

“If all 43 get involved, we could buy in bulk and drive the price down.”

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