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L. Brooks Patterson

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Lewis Brooks Patterson (born January 4, 1939), American politician, is the County Executive of Oakland County, Michigan. He attended the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and received a Bachelor's degree from the University of Detroit Mercy, and his Juris Doctor in 1967 from its law school. In 1968 he was hired by the Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney office as an assistant prosecutor. He left that office in 1971 and shortly thereafter ran for his former boss's position as Oakland County Prosecutor. He won the 1972 election and served as Prosecutor until 1988, when he left to practice law in the private sector. In 1978, he was a candidate in the Republican primary for U.S. Senator from Michigan. In 1992, he was elected Oakland County Executive, and was re-elected in 1996, 2000, and 2004. In December 2006, he will be awarded a Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Kettering University in Flint, MI.

Oakland County is an affluent suburban county which includes the northern and northwestern suburbs of Detroit; its population is over one million.

Controversies

Patterson has been a major figure in Michigan politics for more than three decades, noted for his idiosyncratic brand of populist conservatism.

In the 1970s, he was a leader in the fight against court-ordered cross-district school busing for racial integration.

Patterson has launched several drives to amend the state constitution. More than once, he tried to collect enough signatures to put a proposal for the death penalty on the Michigan ballot. In 1978, his proposal to abolish prisoner time off for good behavior was adopted by voters. In 2006, he has announced a petition drive for a ballot proposal to abolish the state's single business tax.

In recent years, he has attracted attention for his defense of urban sprawl as positive economic development. On his official web site, he writes: "I love sprawl. I need it. I promote it. Oakland County can't get enough of it."

In June 2003, Patterson was stopped by sheriff's deputies while driving. He was charged with reckless driving, admitted responsibility to a civil infraction (careless driving), and was sentenced to six months probation. The officers who failed to give him a Breathalyzer test (which might have been the basis of more serious charges) were suspended.

In early 2006, a fight over funding and control of the Detroit Zoo, which is located in Oakland County, led to public verbal clashes between the Oakland County Executive and the Detroit city council. Patterson was quoted as saying that the council members were "paranoid" and "dysfunctional" and belonged in the zoo. Detroit City Council member Kwame Kenyatta referred to Patterson as the "Grand Dragon of Oakland County", a title associated with the Ku Klux Klan.

See also

Selected news stories

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