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Candice Miller for Macomb
oters zero nvinotan’s l its
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C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // O C T O B E R 1 0 , 2 0 1 6
Candice Miller has drawn donors from a range of industries; some contractors say they have felt shut out of the process. Marrocco has a reliable group of donors.
Employer
Donors
Total
C-suite donors included
2012 donations
The Webber Group, Clinton Twp.
3
$14,200
Joan and Wayne Webber, owners
$0
Dan’s Excavating Inc., Shelby Twp.
3
$10,114
Chris Peyerk, President
$1,875 to Marrocco
L. D’Agostini & Sons Inc., Macomb Twp.
3
$8,500
L. Robert D’Agostini, sons Michael, Antonio $0
Urban Science Inc., Detroit
2
$7,067
Jim Anderson, Founder-CEO
$0
Edward C. Levy & Co., Dearborn
2
$6,000
S. Evan Weiner, CEO; Edward C. Levy Jr.
$0
Robert Clancy Contracting, Casco Twp
2
$5,884
Robert Clancy, CEO; Christine Clancy, treas. $0
Mauro Engineering, Shelby Township
2
$4,600
Simone Mauro, owner
$0
Abaris Great Lakes Counseling, Troy
1
$4,500
n/a
$0
Spalding DeDecker Associates, Roch Hills
3
$4,500
Steve Benedettini, president
$3400 to Marrocco
Midwest Steel Inc., Detroit
1
$3,800
Gary Broad, President-CEO
$0
C-suite donors included
2012 donations
Citizens for Anthony Marrocco Employer
Donors
Total
United Auto Workers Michigan V-PAC
1
$22,500 n/a
$2,500 to Marrocco
Hubbell, Roth & Clark Inc., Bloomfield Hills 14
$15,000
George Hubbell, president; Thomas Biehl, EVP $3,400 to Marrocco
Metco Services Inc., Detroit
5
$15,000
Rajaram Vijayendran, president
$3,400 to Marrocco
Lakeshore Engineering & related cos., Detroit 4
$12,500
Avinash Rachmale, Lakeshore Global CEO
$0
Wolverine Strategies LLC, Plymouth
1 (10 rec) $7,399
Michael Radtke Jr., owner
$0
O’Reilly Rancilio PC, Sterling Heights
1
$5,000
Lawrence Scott, board of directors
$0
Giffels-Webster Engineering Inc., Detroit
5
$4,500
Scott Clein, president; John Redash, treas $6,790 to Marrocco
Kirk, Huth, Lange & Badalamenti, Clinton Twp 2
$3,300
Rob Huth, Raechel Badalamenti, partners
$0
Anderson, Eckstein & Westrick Inc., Shelby Twp 5
$2,500
Roy Rose, CEO
$3,400 to Marrocco
Jay Dee Contractors Inc., Livonia
$2,500
Thomas DiPonio, co-owner
$0
1
Source: Macomb County Bureau of Elections All entries reflect donations by election cycle to a candidate committee, from individuals, sorted by employer, or by a corporate PAC. Donations in different election cycles may be by separate employees of the same firm, and some sums here include in-kind, non-cash contributions to the committee. Sums listed only reflect the two public works candidates’ committees, and may not reflect contributions where a donor’s employer was not specified.
FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
Ltd. and a business partner.
Hackel said he wants to be sure there is no conflict of interest, or use of public funds for any private litigation. The FOI response indicates about $1.3 million of public works funds were spent on the Interceptor lawsuit, but had no specifics on a separate Mauro lawsuit brought earlier this year, officials said. Mauro, Marrocco and several other former co-owners of Burning Tree Golf & Country Club in Macomb Township have been in litigation since 2011, after Marrocco and Anthony Fanelli recovered the golf course property from a foreclosure by Fifth Third Bank. The Michigan Court of Appeals found in 2014 that a lower court should have required Marrocco and Fanelli to compensate Mauro and former partners Salvatore DiMercurio and Sergio
BLOSSOM FROM PAGE 3
Another project is planned in Sterling Heights, the Verandas, which is expected to include 807 townhouses, condominiums and luxury apartments at the 288-acre Maple Lane Golf Club off East 14 Mile
Gesuale for their share of a liquor license held by the golf club company, and for a past tax refund. Mauro, who also provides civil engineering and building design services for developers at Mauro Engineering, also brought a new suit in 2016 alleging Marrocco abuses his office, and said he sees an uneven competitive landscape compared with companies who are Marrocco supporters. “If he doesn’t like you, he doesn’t approve your project. He’s the kind of person where either you go along with his program and his rules, or there can be consequences for you,” he said. In the Interceptor lawsuit, meanwhile, Marrocco is challenging the Interceptor Drain Drainage District board’s decisions and seeking to get himself appointed secretary and project manager of the district’s $170 million, seven-year repair project set to wrap up this year.
Rob Huth, partner at the Kirk Huth firm, said the cases are managed separately and did not expect a FOIA request to uncover anything fruitful for Hackel. “There categorically is no commingling between those cases — the files are not commingled, the time billed is not commingled, and nothing improper is occurring,” he said. Mauro Engineering executives and Mauro attorney Cindy Rhodes Victor of Auburn Hills-based Kus Ryan & Associates PLLC together donated more than $6,000 to Miller this year, according to county records, while attorneys at Kirk Huth have donated more than $3,000 to Marrocco. Hackel and Marrocco again locked horns in 2012 when the Board of Commissioners halted a $24,000-plus pay raise for Marrocco, days after a finance committee of all 13 commissioners had already approved it — along with
Road east of Van Dyke Avenue, which Moceri Cos. bought last year from the Roehl family. The Verandas is supposed to begin construction after the 2018 golf season and cost $300 million. Maple Lane is expected to be redesigned as an 18-hole resort-style golf course and a nine-hole practice course, ac-
cording to a news release. The designer is Raymond Hearn. About 500 units in Auburn Hills; 800 units in Clinton Township; 500 units in other Macomb County locations; 160 units in downtown Rochester; and 160 units in Orion Township round out the mix of projects. “The demographics are very strong in our market; they are absolutely showing growth in the 55 and over crowd,” Scheer said. “This is a growing group of people that are going to need these.” The population of those 35 to 59 is expected to fall by about a quarter-million by 2040, according to SEMCOG, but those 65-74 is expected to increase by 175,000 and 75 and up by 345,000. Dale Watchowski, president and CEO of president and CEO of Bloomfield Hills-based American House Se-
INDEX TO COMPANIES
These companies have significant mention in this week’s Crain’s Detroit Business: Anderson Eckstein & Westrick ......................... 36
Jackson National Life Insurance ...................... 26
Beaumont Health ..................................................7
Lansing Economic Area Partnership ............... 26
CBRE Martin ........................................................ 26
MeridianHealth of Michigan ................................7
Deshler Group ..................................................... 29
Michigan State University ................................. 26
Detroit Tigers ........................................................ 4
Moceri Cos. .............................................................3
General Motors ................................................... 26
Superfly Manufacturing ..................................... 31
Gillespie Group .................................................... 26
V5 Partners LLC .....................................................3 Wolverine Solutions Group ...............................30
ering
Global Strategic Supply Solutions LLC ........... 29 Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP .........3
Zoup! Systems LLC ............................................. 31
AGE
Hubbell, Roth & Clark ........................................ 36
raises of $14,000 each for top executives Nancy Ryan, Chief Deputy Public Works Commissioner Bill Misterovich and Engineering Operations Manager Dino Bucci. Hackel said the vote had gone to the committee without his knowledge.
Public-facing battle Hackel and Miller both told Crain’s it was her idea, not his, to take on Marrocco after she announced in March she was not seeking an eighth term in Congress. But the executive enthusiastically supported that idea when they met earlier this year to discuss her options in the November election. “My job as a leader in the county is to connect the best-qualified people with positions to use their abilities, and make sure we hire the most qualified person,” Hackel said of his cross-party endorsement of Miller. Marrocco, for his part, has taken to television and online advertisements on his commitment to the environment and on Miller’s congressional record, while Miller has approached several media organizations and made some high-profile local appearances for her campaign. Many of Miller’s supporters were also water-sewer contractors on the opposite side of a lawsuit Marrocco brought in his capacity as chairman of the Macomb Interceptor Drain Drainage District in 2011. They include Macomb Township-based L. D’Agostini & Sons Inc. President Luigi Robert D’Agostini, and sons Michael and Antonio, for nearly $9,000 combined this year; and Anthony Soave, President-CEO of Soave Enterprises in Detroit, who gave $1,000 to Miller ahead of the primary. Both were on the opposite side of Marrocco’s Macomb Interceptor district suit. But Mark McAlpine, president of McAlpine PC and attorney for several water-sewer contractors including L. D’Agostini & Sons, said much of the contractor community also supports Miller as a known commodity on both business and the environment. “The contracting community on the whole will breathe a breath of fresher air if they found to be working for a more open and transparent community the way Miller is promising.” Chad Halcom: (313) 446-6796 Twitter: @chadhalcom
nior Living Communities, which is partially owned by Redico LLC, said
many developers and investors look at senior living as sound investments. For example, last year Southfield-based real estate investment trust Sun Communities Inc. closed on the final phase of a $1.32 billion deal with Green Courte Partners LLC that increased Sun’s portfolio share of age-restricted manufactured housing communities from 13 percent of its approximately 89,000 residences at the time to 24 percent. “I know the Moceri family and they ... have had a history of delivering nice developments,” Watchowski said. American House has 51 communities with more than 5,500 units across the country. Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412 Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB
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