PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) — Months after the Oakland County Executive demanded improved financial disclosure and ethics standards in the county, commissioners finally introduced those resolutions in the final committee meeting of the year. But Commissioner Charlie Cavell (D-Ferndale) told the committee during public comment that the proposal doesn’t come close to the kind of reforms needed.
Watch Heather Catallo's video report:
“How dare you. People deserve better,” said Cavell.
Tuesday’s Legislative Affairs and Government Operations (LAGO) Committee meeting was the last chance this year for commissioners to get something on the books about financial disclosure, but what they offered is very different than what the County Executive demanded earlier this year.
Read the amendment below:
Motion to Amend the resolution, as follows: by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit
Oakland County Commissioners added those proposals in the final moments before the LAGO meeting began Tuesday morning. The last-minute changes sparked outrage with some.
“You removed the spouse requirement for reporting, you removed the real estate and personal property requirement for reporting, you removed the debt requirement for reporting,” said Cavell.
He also accused Committee Chair Brendan Johnson (D-Rochester Hills) of violating the Open Meetings Act. Johnson denied that and said they didn’t have to put every single item on the agenda 18 hours in advance.
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After months of reporting about Oakland County Commission Chair Dave Woodward’s outside employment with the Sheetz gas station chain and news that the county gave one of its own employees a $450,000 IT contract, Coulter demanded what he called “sweeping ethics reforms.”
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“Oakland County is better than this,” said Coulter in an October 3, 2025, taped video press release.
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Woodward has maintained he does not have a conflict of interest but refused to disclose how much money he makes from Sheetz and refused to disclose the other clients of his Woodward & Associates consulting firm, or his Pivot Point political consulting company.
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The county later canceled the IT contract for the employee, but so far has refused to release the results of the outside legal investigation into how the contract got awarded in the first place.
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On Tuesday, Commissioner Ann Erickson-Gault (D-Troy) proposed significant changes to what Coulter requested, making many financial disclosures voluntary and giving county elected officials until 2028 to report their outside employment.
“This is about conversations I've had with other commissioners and concerns that they've expressed,” said Gault during the LAGO meeting.
At a previous Democratic caucus meeting, Commissioner Yolanda Smith Charles (D-Southfield) called the work on the proposed ethics and financial disclosure rules a “waste” of time.
“It's unfortunate to me that our executive took time even to talk about this publicly. I think it was a forced, a forced hand in some ways for him, and I think it's a distraction, quite frankly, from the work that we've done, that we're trying to do. And it's disappointing that families now have to have the conversation, Do I stay on the board? I've got kids, adult kids who live with me. Now they have to potentially disclose what they're doing with their financial business,” said Smith Charles about the reforms Coulter requested. “I just feel like this is a disrespect to each and every one of us.”
Cavell said the resistance to reform is alarming.
“I think it's terrible. I think that Oakland County residents deserve better, especially in light of all the scandals that's been coming out over the last six or nine months,” said Cavell after Tuesday’s meeting.
“In an age of distrust in government, from local to state to federal, I think that transparency is important and that the public that's tuning in can become educated and really learn all that they can about all issues and who's representing them,” said Commissioner Karen Joliat (R-Waterford).
“What passed today is a gutted version of the financial disclosure resolution I introduced back in May. I cannot support a version that strips out the substance needed for real transparency. The public deserves real transparency and accountability, not a hollow policy,” said Commissioner Kristen Nelson (D-Waterford).
Nelson and Cavell introduced their own ethics and financial disclosure policies back in May, but no hearings were ever held on their proposed resolutions.
Executive Coulter had also asked for an Ethics Ombudsman to receive ethics-related referrals from the public, but as of right now, there is no plan for that.
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