Huntington Woods

Woods businessman to challenge Patterson for county executive

By Jeremy Selweski
C & G Staff Writer

HUNTINGTON WOODS — For aspiring public officials, taking on a candidate with decades of experience can be an intimidating task, but Kevin Howley is not afraid of a challenge.

The 52-year-old Huntington Woods resident is entering the race as a Democrat to dethrone five-term Republican incumbent L. Brooks Patterson later this year for the role of Oakland County executive. But despite the difficult odds that he surely faces, Howley is mostly unfazed.

“This is exciting because I’m eager to get out there and show people that I can be a strong leader for Oakland County,” he said. “I don’t see any correlation between name recognition and being able to do a great job for the people of this county. But at the same time, it’s also daunting because I know that I’m competing against a major brand.”

Still, the successful business executive believes that he has a strong vision for the future of the county and can bring a fresh perspective to Pontiac. “I definitely don’t see myself as a politician,” he said. “I just see myself as someone who’s applying for a job — a really important job.”

Howley feels that Oakland County is now at a crossroads. He would like to see the region diversify its economy, increase its median income level, and add new jobs for its workforce, which he hopes to fill with young, intelligent college graduates.

“I don’t really see the current county administration articulating a strong vision for Oakland County in 2025,” Howley said. “I don’t see them creating a lot of job opportunities that will make young people want to stay here in the future. We’re being complacent in relying too much on the auto industry and not looking for new ways to reinvent ourselves. There also has been no strategic thought in the way that we’re balancing our budget. We really need to take a closer look at how we’re allocating our resources.”

In addition, Howley feels that officials need to do a better job of attracting new businesses and venture capital investments to Oakland County. He argued that recent “partisan bickering” and “political games” in Pontiac have only hurt the county’s reputation in this regard.

Howley grew up in Farmington Hills and was a product of Farmington Public Schools, graduating from North Farmington High School in 1977. He later became the first person in his family to go away to college and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and political science from Kalamazoo College. After spending a few years working for General Motors in New York and Detroit, he continued his education with a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School and a Master of Public Policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School.

From the time he graduated until 2003, Howley focused on his private-sector career, serving executive-level positions in both entrepreneurial settings and larger corporate environments. He then made the decision to change careers and sought to bring his skills to the nonprofit sector. Eight years later, he has served as interim CEO for more than a dozen nonprofit organizations looking to build their capacity and identify sustainable business models.

Howley has moved around quite a bit during his career, but ultimately decided to return to metro Detroit. He and his partner have lived in Huntington Woods for the past four years, where their two children, ages 5 and 13, attend school in the Berkley School District.

“I’ve lived in other places,” he said, “but I chose to come back to Michigan because I love the public school system here, and I wanted to be closer to my family. This is really where I want to be.”

Howley has already earned the support of a handful of local officials, including state Rep. Vicki Barnett, D-Farmington Hills.

“The time is right for a candidate like Kevin,” she said in a statement. “Kevin’s background and skill set and energy level are exactly what we need today in Oakland County. In light of our county’s unprecedented loss of 90,000 jobs in the last three years, it is time for a fresh and capable new leader who understands our global economic challenges.”

While Howley knows that he is a major underdog in the race to be the next leader of Oakland County, where Republicans have held power for decades, he feels like he has nothing to lose. Like Barnett, he also believes that now could be the ideal time for a shift in the county’s political landscape.

“The bottom line is that we haven’t had a lot of changes in Oakland County over the last 10 years,” he said. “I definitely feel like I’m someone who can help bring some positive changes to this area.”

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Jeremy Selweski at jSelweski@candgnews.com or at (586)218-5004.