Election: Meet Your Huntington Woods City Commission, Mayor Candidates

Huntington Woods voters will go to the polls Nov. 8 to elect a mayor and two City Commission members – all uncontested races – and Berkley Patch has the scoop on the candidates.

Incumbent Ronald Gillham is running for a four-year term as mayor and incumbents Jeffrey Jenks and Mary White are running to fill two four-year terms on the City Commission.

Below are responses the candidates provided to questions asked by Berkley Patch, in alphabetic order.

Ronald F. Gillham

Age: 76

Education: Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering.

Political career: 34 years as commissioner and mayor of Huntington Woods.

Professional career: 37 years as engineer with General Motors.

Personal: Married to Shirley, with three children and seven grandchildren, all in Huntington Woods.

Website: hwcity@ci.huntington-woods.mi.us

Contact information: rgillham@comcast.net

What inspired you to run: Desire to keep serving the residents of Huntington Woods.

What are your priorities if elected?: Maintaining Huntington Woods "place" in the southeast Michigan community.

What is your favorite thing about Huntington Woods?: The people.

What is the biggest problem facing the city?: Maintaining service levels with the current economic climate.

Jeff Jenks           

Age: 72

Education: In 2007 I was awarded a competitive Taubman Fellowship by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments and I completed the Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Leadership program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government. In 2004 I graduated from the Michigan Municipal League’s three-level Elected and Appointed Officials Academy program where I have also served on their advisory board. In 2003 I completed Michigan State University’s Citizen Planner Program in Land Use. In 2002 I was awarded and completed a one-year fellowship at MSU’s Michigan Political Leadership Program and I currently serve on their Alumni Advisory Board. (The MPLP fellowship program annually brings 24 people together from both political parties, for one year, to learn about the major issues facing the state, how government should work, how to run campaigns and work with the media, and how we can work together across political lines, to improve our communities, our state and our country.) My original Bachelor of Arts degree was in economics and political science. I have also done graduate work in Applied Anthropology, Asian Studies, Management and Public Policy.

Political career: I have been a Presidential Elector. I was first elected to the Huntington Woods City Commission in November 1999 and was re-elected in 2003 and 2007. At the state level I was elected president of the Michigan Municipal League and served from 2009 to 2010. MML represents 521 cities and villages and about 6.5 million Michigan residents. I worked for free on behalf of cities for more than 100 days during that time period. 

Professional career: Although I worked my way through college I began my formal post-college work experience with the U.S. Peace Corps as an original Kennedy volunteer in 1962. I served as an elementary school teacher on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines for two years and then with the Philippine government for six months. I have stayed connected to many of my colleagues for the past 49 years, providing community and individual help and supporting low-income students through high school and college. I have been a teacher of math and science in southeast Michigan public schools. I subsequently served as assistant director in the Office for Research Administration at Wayne State University, raising funds primarily from the federal government for university programs in medicine and the sciences. I then worked as assistant to the dean in the WSU College of Education, managing college-wide projects. In 1969 I moved to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights where I served as Research Director for many years, and then district executive in the Muskegon and Flint areas.  My job as D.E. involved working with the community, the city, civic organizations and businesses to prevent or resolve civil rights conflicts. In 1994 I moved to the Michigan Department of Transportation and became the Metro Compliance Supervisor in the Office of Equal Opportunity where I supervised a staff enforcing civil rights contract law statewide. I retired in 1997 from paid public service. I have worked for Huntington Woods since 1999, at $1 a year.

Personal: I am a widower. I have lived in Huntington Woods since 1976. I am active in the Jewish, Filipino, travel and general communities. I serve on the executive committee of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments; the executive committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council; the board of the Filipino American Community Council of Michigan; the board of the Philippine American Community Center of Michigan and am their PRO; the board of On My Own of Michigan, working for and with mildly developmentally disabled adults; the board of the Tri-Community Coalition; the Alumni Advisory Board for the Michigan Political Leadership Program; and am president of SKAL International – Detroit, an organization made up of leaders in travel. I am the past president of the Southeast Michigan Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. I have owned Travel Is Fun, a travel agency, since 1988.

Contact information: travelisfun@wowway.com

What inspired you to run: I love public service and adding public value.  Huntington Woods is an outstanding example of both with its historically outstanding elected leadership and its outstanding employees and programs.  I want to give back!

What are your priorities if elected?: (1) Expand services to seniors, including the addition of senior housing, and I serve on the Senior Advisory Committee,  (2) see Burton Park replaced with an INCLUSIVE new park that welcomes children and ALSO welcomes seniors, those with autism, and those with disabilities so that everyone can fully enjoy the park, (3) see a light rail or bus rapid transit system implemented along Woodward Avenue from Eight Mile Road to at least Birmingham, that connects to the Detroit Woodward light rail from the river to Eight Mile, and I am working on the Oakland County committee, and at the regional and state level, (4) achieve greater cooperation between the and the cities it serves, as well as with the cities in our region, and (5) bring creative new ideas and resources to our city so that we can continue being the city of choice in southeast Michigan.

What is your favorite thing about Huntington Woods?: I like the people, the physical beauty of the city, the uniqueness of our homes, the outstanding quality of , the high creative quality of our services, and our location – near Detroit and wonderful other communities.

What is the biggest problem facing the city?: The greatest problem facing Huntington Woods is continuing the high level of services given actions at the state level that limit our revenues, by cuts in statutory revenue sharing, shifting K-12 school aid funds to other programs, failing to deal with the need for road and transit funds and recent legislation that takes away “local control” by limiting our ability to determine wages and benefits for our employees.

Mary White

Age: No response provided

Education: Registered nurse degree, Macomb Community College; bachelor of science in nursing degree, University of Detroit Mercy; master of science in nursing degree, University of Detroit Mercy; doctorate in nursing from Wayne State University.

Political career: City Commissioner since 1995.

Professional career: Registered nurse, University of Detroit-Mercy instructor.

Personal: No response provided.

What inspired you to run: No response provided.

What are your priorities if elected?: No response provided.

What is your favorite thing about Huntington Woods?: No response provided.

What is the biggest problem facing the city?: No response provided.