Region One Education Seminar Highlights

The Michigan Municipal League Region 1 Seminar, held in Wixom on April 18, 2008 was a huge success!  Speaker Dave Asker, Senior Consultant for Plante & Moran CRESA: Real Estate Consultants, spoke about what businesses look for when choosing where to locate.  He shared components of an economic development scorecard that they use to determine if a company is the right fit for a community.  Phil Bertolini and Dan Hunter of Oakland County spoke about ways to use your community website as an economic development tool.  Speaker Michael Wilczynski of DEQ talked about Michigan's economic development program and how it is currently at risk due to limited funding.

Representatives Andy Meisner (D-Oak Park) and Craig DeRoche (R-Novi) answered audience questions about current events at the Capitol.  They discussed revenue sharing and encouraged League members to push for increases and to support even greater increases than the 4 percent that is currently being discussed.  They also shared information about new filmmaker incentives and other relevant issues at the state level. 

Community Excellence Award
The votes are in!  After many excellent presentations by officials across the region, attendees chose the city of Oak Park as the Region 1 Community Excellence Award winner.  This win places Oak Park in the running for the ultimate win—the 2008 Community Excellence Award Cup!  The final competition will be fierce, pitting the winner from each region against each other for the BIG win, which will be announced at the 2008 Annual Michigan Municipal League Convention on Mackinac Island, October 1-4, 2008.  Don’t miss out—register early (June 2) to come out to vote for your favorite project.  Congratulations to the City of Oak Park!