The Aug. 5 primary ballot in some communities reflects an increase in interest in running for local office.

In Pontiac, for example, six candidates have filed to run for mayor, up from five in 2021. In Southfield, three candidates are running for mayor.

Pontiac

Six filed for the Pontiac mayor’s seat being vacated by Mayor Tim Greimel, who is running for the District 10 Congressional House seat.

Pontiac’s mayoral candidates:

•  Gill Garrett, Oakland County Sheriff’s deputy and former school board president.

•  Mark E. Holland, Sr., a former city councilman and former deputy mayor who ran for the District 9 commission seat in 2017 and for Pontiac’s school board in 2012.

•  Mike McGuinness. Current city councilman and board president.

•  Deirdre Waterman, former two-term Pontiac mayor.

•  Kermit Williams, Oakland Forward’s executive director and former city councilman and board president.

•  Wendell Woods, former teacher

Three are running for Pontiac’s new at-large council seat: Adrian Austin, Marcus Bowman; Rev. William Parker, Jr., an incumbent councilman; and Sennel K. Threlkeld, an Oakland County Sheriff’s deputy who works in Pontiac.

Sixth District candidates are Cassandra Bradford, Regina K. Campbell and Troy F. Craft. Craft is currently a Pontiac school board trustee.

Southfield

Long-time Mayor Ken Siver has two opponents for the next 4-year term: Sylvia Jordan who has served 17 years on the council and has previously run for the mayor’s seat, Ryan Foster, who has run for council twice, state senator once and last year campaigned for Congress.

Early voting starts Saturday for a handful of Oakland County communities with measures on the Tuesday, May 6, ballot.

Voters can cast ballots in person on Election Day, early at municipal sites or by absentee ballot.

There will be no county-run central voting site for this election at Waterford Oaks County Park.

Early voting hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday through May 4. Thursday’s early voting hours are noon to 8 p.m.

Election day hours are 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. All absentee ballots must be returned to the municipal clerk’s office by 8 p.m. on election day.

Clawson

Voters will decide two city charter amendments.

Proposal 1, if approved, would maintain the city council at four members plus the mayor. If the proposal is defeated, the council will expand to six seats plus the mayor, as stated in the city charter approved in 2023.

Proposal 2, if approved, would set terms of office for the city council members to four years, with elections every two years. If defeated, the three candidates with the most votes win 4-year terms and the candidate with the fourth highest vote wins a 2-year term of office.

Early voters can cast their ballots at the Troy Community Center, (use the east entrance), 3179 Livernois Road in Troy.

Ferndale

City voters will be asked to approve a 10-year, 5.4 millage to replace money lost through the Headlee Act rollbacks. If approved, the city would receive nearly $5.4 million starting in 2026.

Taxes on a property with a state-equalized value of $150,000 would increase by $174 a year, or $14.52 each month.

Voters in the Ferndale public school district will decide a 30-year, $114.8 million bond question. The money would be used to pay for additions and renovations to Ferndale’s middle/high school buildings as well as for new equipment, furniture and upgrading fine art spaces and athletic fields and improved technology.

The district serves Ferndale, Oak Park Precinct 9 and Precinct 10, Pleasant Ridge, and Royal Oak Township Precinct 1.

Early voters can cast their ballots at the Hazel Park Community Center, 620 W. Woodward Heights Blvd. in Hazel Park or Oak Park Community Center, 14300 Oak Park Blvd. in Oak Park.

Madison Heights

Voters in Madison Heights’ Lamphere school district – those living in Precincts 5 through 9 – will decide a 30-year, $85 million bond proposal.

If approved, the bond will increase property taxes on a home with a state-equalized value of $200,000 by $415.00 a year or $34.58 each month.

The district will use the money for remodeling facilities, buying new equipment and furniture, upgrading playgrounds, athletic fields and adding secure entrances at school buildings. A gym will be added to the high school and district technology will be upgraded, including equipment for the middle-school robotics program.

Early voters can cast their ballots at the Leo Mahany/Harold Meininger Senior Community Center, 3500 Marais Ave. in Royal Oak.

Learn more at https://www.oakgov.com/government/clerk-register-of-deeds/elections-voting/voter-information or contact your municipal clerk’s office.

Waterford Township hired two companies to complete its $33 million community center.

In back-to-back votes Monday evening, township trustees voted unanimously for the architecture-engineering firm Neumann/Smith of Southfield and construction manager Frank Rewold & Sons of Rochester.

The two other finalists, IDS of Troy and Clark Construction of Auburn Hills, could be reconsidered should contract negotiations with Rewold and Neumann/Smith fall through.

Voters approved a $36.4 million bond for the project in November.

The township purchased 51 acres of land on OCC’s Highland Lakes campus at 7350 Cooley Lake Road. The community center outdoor space will include accessible restrooms, a playground, softball field, shuffleboard and bocce ball courts, a dog park and trails connecting to Hess-Hathaway Park.

Most classes continue at OCC’s Highland campus through the end of the fall semester. Health science classes continue through the end of 2027. Work starts in 2026 to convert the existing building to a community center.

Waterford Twp. trustees to sign community center contracts

The Trump administration abruptly cut just over $3 million in healthcare funding for Oakland County Tuesday.

The money was COVID-related public health grants to Oakland County through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

County Executive Dave Coulter said five nurses were told Tuesday night not to report to work Wednesday. They had been hired last year to assist the county’s 146 long-term care facilities with coordinated outbreak response efforts. Since the program started on Sept. 25, 2024, the nurses responded to 123 COVID, 25 norovirus and 126 influenza outbreaks. This program was funded by a $2.5 million federal grant, with $2.1 million unspent.

At least $1 million from the county’s $1.24 million federally funded wastewater disease surveillance program must be returned. Wastewater was initially tested to track outbreaks of COVID-19 but expanded to include norovirus, influenza, and RSV in nursing homes and other facilities for seniors and people with disabilities. This year, county officials planned to expand testing to include mpox, polio and measles.

Coulter said the orders by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are reckless and not based in science.

“He’s not explaining why he’s picking infectious diseases and wastewater detection,” Coulter said. “Viruses don’t stop when these kinds of sweeping decisions get made.”

Statewide, the cuts amount to $379.3 million that pay for mental health and substance abuse services, infectious disease control and vaccinations for children and vulnerable adults.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined 23 states and the District of Columbia Tuesday to sue the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for the cuts, which total nearly $11 billion nationally.

Coulter said he supports the state’s lawsuit. It’s unclear what other cuts will be made because the Trump administration’s decisions have been so unpredictable, he said.

The two county programs canceled this week had been funded through Sept. 30, 2025.

“It’s beyond reckless and shortsighted move by the Trump administration that puts Oakland County residents at risk, especially our seniors,” Coulter said. “Wastewater surveillance and infection prevention efforts are not relics of the pandemic, but critical tools to continue protecting public health today and in the future.”

Oakland County Health and Human Services Director Leigh-Anne Stafford said the cuts undermine the county’s ability to prevent outbreaks, care for vulnerable people and respond to emerging health threats.

“These programs have been instrumental in preventing outbreaks and protecting our community,” she said.

The five nurses who signed contracts last year to help with outbreaks also helped investigate 382 cases of reportable infectious diseases. They made hundreds of phone calls to residents exposed to such diseases as ebola, bird flu, measles and rabies.

The first COVID-19 death in Michigan happened in Oakland County in 2020. In 2022, the state’s first mpox illness was diagnosed in Oakland County. This year, Oakland County identified the first measles case in the state in March. Michigan health officials have reported two cases of humans infected with the bird flu, but the county wasn’t identified.

Coulter said eliminating the wastewater surveillance program and the five nurses dedicated to infectious disease prevention does nothing more than increase the risk of illnesses in county residents.

Part of the reason the money was unspent, he said, is that the programs had to be put in place before people could be hired to support them. The money was initially granted as part of the COVID response but as the virus abated, Congress and the Biden administration agreed that the money could be used for other health programs.

“People can disagree about the need for these federal funds, but it’s the chaos – it’s hard to think ahead,” he said. “We don’t have a Plan B for grant-funded programs. When the money ends, the program ends. That’s our policy.”

The Pontiac that goes below the Phoenix Center is closed. It’s a beginning step in a long-term plan that will reconfigure downtown Pontiac and reinvent the Ottawa Towers. It’s just one issue on Tuesday’s city council agenda.

Already, drivers headed west on Auburn Road and east on Orchard Lake Road are being detoured to the north- and southbound lanes of Woodward Avenue. The two roads meet under the Phoenix Center, which is about to be demolished.

The road will remain closed for an estimated 12 to 18 months, which include rebuilding the road.

Pontiac’s city council will hear a presentation on demolition and construction plans at Tuesday’s meeting. The council will also consider adding 74 parking spaces, including three accessible spaces for people with disabilities, on Judson Street.

The temporary parking spaces will be used by tenants at 51111 Woodward Ave. and their visitors. The building is used by the state and Oakland County officials plan to occupy some of the offices once the renovation is complete.

Adding parking spaces will reduce Judson Street to two lanes of traffic. The city will post a “No Through Traffic” sign for westbound drivers to prevent them from using the street as a shortcut from southbound to northbound Woodward during the next two years. During that time, the traffic light at Judson and Saginaw streets will be off and traffic will use a four-way stop.

Once demotion is done, construction will start on a parking deck. It’s part of a long-term plan to move an estimated 700 county employees to downtown Pontiac after the county purchased the former General Motors building at 31 E. Judson St. and 51111 Woodward Ave.

The overall project will cost an estimated cost of $120 to $130 million. The county has committed $10 million in American Rescue Plan Act money to the project; the state granted $50 million for the work.

The Phoenix Center demolition will open eventually up Saginaw Street to the downtown’s south end. The city will get a park and entertainment space as part of the deal.

Tuesday’s council meeting will also include a presentation on creating a bonding authority for the city, in part to pursue a $15 million capital improvement bond to finance part of the construction for a youth recreation center. The council will also discuss using the bonding authority for other capital projects, according to the board’s president, Mike McGuinness.

The council meets at 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 1, for a closed session about a real estate matter, followed by a public meeting at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at city hall, 47450 Woodward Ave. in Pontiac. The complete agenda and packet are online at https://www.pontiac.mi.us/government/city_council/agendas___minutes.php.

Contractors hired by the Oakland County road commission to construct a $43 million administration building are worried. Road commissioners put the project on hold in February.

“There is a huge effect on our business, both in terms of manpower and income. And it is not just our business but those of many other contractors that were counting on this project to be a place for their manpower and to produce income,” said Mike Gagnon, who is overseeing construction as vice president at Frank Rewold & Sons in Rochester.

The road commission approved the delay at the request of Oakland County Commission Chairman Dave Woodward on Feb. 20. The road commission and county commission operate independently and are funded separately.

Woodward wanted road commissioners to consider alternatives to bring together employees who have worked for decades at locations in Beverly Hills and Waterford. The new administration building planned at 2420 Pontiac Lake Road in Waterford Township would have brought them under the same roof in 2026.

Road Commissioner Nancy Quarles voted against the delay on Feb. 20.

“I didn’t have enough information. The motion was put in front of us just minutes before the vote,” she said. “The project is too large for me to agree to a delay until I have more information.”

Her concerns include additional costs the road commission might incur whether the project goes forward or is canceled – and what a cancellation would do to the companies that signed construction contracts.

But she’s heard nothing from McPherson or Woodward about the decision-making process since Feb. 20.

“The project has been in the works since last August and we, along with all the other contractors, were counting on it,” Gagnon said.

“We and all those contractors must find new work to keep employees busy and to produce the income needed to keep the doors open and the company profitable,” he said. “That is not easy to do when projects take such a long time to develop.”

He said the suspension of work throws the project schedule into question. If completed on time, the building would have been ready by August 2026.

“We are in a very challenging economic climate and prices are changing daily, what does that mean to our contracts and our ability to fulfill the contract?” Gagnon said.

He wants to get the project back on schedule as soon as possible.

Others who signed contracts for the project did not respond to The Oakland Press calls and email or, like engineer Stan Richard, assistant vice president at the transportation-tech company Integral Blue, declined to comment.

Charles Hart, a Hubbell, Roth & Clark vice president and engineer, responded to The Oakland Press email to explain that his company’s work on the new administration building started in December and is expected to continue for several years, through the design and construction phases. He declined to elaborate on the effect of the delay.

Woodward said he is mapping out a plan and talking to the sheriff’s office, administration officials in homeland security and county commission staff.

He said he expects a decision before the end of May, if not sooner.

“It’s better to make a decision before we drop $40 million,” he said.

Road Commission Chairman Eric McPherson said he hasn’t talked to Woodward about the project. He’s been talking with the road commission’s managing director, Dennis Kolar, adding that he and fellow commissioners will make a final decision once they have more information.

He said he has not talked to Quarles or the third road commissioner, James Esshaki, because he doesn’t want to violate the state’s open meeting rules.

“Once we’re together, we’ll have a discussion,” he said.

Oakland County road commission delays $43 million new building

He said the issue has made it clear that road commission meetings should be documented with audio or video recordings and possibly livestreamed, but that decision won’t be final until later this year.

Craig Bryson, the road commission’s spokesman, said the board didn’t discuss the new building at their March 6 meeting and there have been no internal staff discussions on the project’s future.

County Commissioner Bob Hoffman tried to add a discussion on Woodward’s road commission request to Tuesday’s county commission meeting agenda, but the motion failed on a voice vote.

“I want to know by what authority Dave Woodward made his request,” he said.

The next road commission meeting is 9 a.m. Thursday, March 20, at the Beverly Hills administration office. The meeting agenda includes nearly two dozen items. The new administration building is not specifically listed but may be discussed under the agenda’s new business. The agenda is online at https://www.rcocweb.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_03202025-332.