Patterson, board chair pick five for OC art authority

All five members have been appointed to the new Oakland County Art Institute Authority, the panel tasked with submitting ballot language for an Aug. 7 primary election tax proposal for the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA).

Commerce Township certified public accountant (CPA) and former state representative Barbara Dobb; Dr. David L. Roberson, the West Bloomfield Township pastor of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church; and Bloomfield Hills attorney Alan Ackerman were appointed to unpaid two-year terms by Oakland County Board of Commissioners Chairman Mike Gingell (R-Lake Orion) on Tuesday, May 22.

“I am pleased to be able to appoint these very qualified individuals,” Gingell stated in a press release announcing their appointment. “I am confident that they will serve in the best interest of Oakland County and that their breadth of experience and exceptional backgrounds will be very valuable to the Arts Institute Authority.”

Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson appointed Jennifer Fischer, a member of the DIA Board of Directors, and Thomas Guastello, a former state lawmaker who served in the state House of Representatives and state Senate as a Democrat from 1969 until 1982.

Fischer and Guastello will serve four-year terms.

“I’ve appointed two intelligent, well-informed, and community-minded individuals who will be leaders on the authority,” Patterson said. “I’m sure they will lead the DIA successfully going forward.”

County Treasurer Andy Meisner will serve as a non-voting member of the county’s Art Institute Authority, which was supposed to by yesterday, Tuesday, May 29 after press time submit ballot language for a 0.2-mill, 10-year levy to go before voters in Oakland County during the primary election.

Voters in Wayne and Macomb counties will also be deciding the fate of the millage proposal that the DIA anticipates would generate about $23 million per year in revenue for the 127-year-old museum located on Woodward Avenue.