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Oakland County chair's call for moratorium on Road Commission headquarters draws pushback from staff and contractors
Summary
After Oakland County Board Chair David T. Woodward expressed support for a moratorium on the Road Commission for Oakland County's new headquarters, RCOC officials and local contractors argued halting the project would cost taxpayers and jeopardize federal grants.
Chair David T. Woodwardof the Oakland County Board of Commissioners drew public pushback after comments in which board support for a moratorium on construction of a new Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) administrative headquarters was reported to have been expressed.
The dispute surfaced during public comment at the board's meeting when Mary Gillis, director of central operations for the Road Commission for Oakland County, said the project has been years in planning, that RCOCmanagement saved non-road revenue to fund it, and that stopping work would be costly. "The cost of unnecessarily halting this project exceeds $10,000,000 and could possibly be more depending on the legal disposition of this action," Gillis said. She also warned that a federal grant of $5,000,000 has been obligated for the project and that suspending work could put that funding and future grants at risk.
Why it matters: RCOC officials told commissioners the contract was unanimously approved by the full RCOC board on Aug. 26, 2024, and that a groundbreaking ceremony took place last fall. The proposed facility would consolidate administrative staff, a traffic operation center and field operations into a single location, RCOC said, which it argues would improve collaboration and efficiency.
Gillis described staffing and planning investments for the project: she said the research and development for the plan required many hours of staff time, and estimated she personally spent "over a thousand hours" on the effort. She told the commissioners the consolidation would bring the Beverly Hills traffic operation center and other operations together and would house inventory, mechanics, traffic signals and signing personnel under one roof.
Local contractors and residents who spoke in support of the RCOC project included Laurie Doren, who identified herself as a resident of Auburn Hills, and Scott Sentowski of Waterford Township. Doren listed Oakland County firms she said had signed contracts to work on the project, naming Frank Reewald and Sons, Hubbell, Roth and Clark, Spalding to Ducker, Integral Blue and Royal Oak Companies, and urged commissioners to allow the project to proceed.
Commissioner concern: Commissioner Tim Hoffman asked how Chair Woodward obtained the authority to speak at an RCOC meeting and request a moratorium, saying the Road Commission is an independent entity and that the board had not discussed or voted on intervening. "Where do we get the authority to go to a separate entitya stand-alone who has nothing to do with us and interject in there and we never had a discussion about this?" Hoffman asked.
RCOC officials told the board the county had been aware of the project for years and that the RCOC board unanimously approved the contract. Gillis said the suspension was already affecting local contractors and employees who were preparing to start work.
The board did not take formal action on the RCOC project during the meeting. Public comment covered the matter before the board adopted its consent agenda and adjourned. The board scheduled its next regular meeting for March 18.
