MOVIN’ ON UP

Mike McCready

Speaking of Patterson, loyalty has its privileges. Former Rep. Mike McCready (R-Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Bloomfield Township) learned that first hand, when Patterson appointed McCready as Oakland County’s new director of the Department of Economic Development & Community Affairs, where the former state lawmaker began January 1. McCready, who narrowly lost an election for state Senate to Democrat Rosemary Bayer for the 12th District in November, brings a businessman’s acumen to the position. There had been talk he could have had an appointment with the new administration, either on the tax tribunal board or Department of Insurance and Financial Services, but this sounds like a pretty ideal fit. He had been a principal with McCready & Associates in Birmingham, which represented small commercial furniture manufacturers in Michigan, but word is he was in the process of selling the business. After commuting to Lansing from Bloomfield for six years before being term-limited from his seat repping the 40th District, McCready was looking forward to a much shorter commute – just up Telegraph to the Oakland County complex in Waterford.