(WXYZ) — After months of controversy about county officials having outside jobs on top of their taxpayer-funded positions, Oakland County Executive David Coulter and his leadership team have posted their financial information publicly.
Last month, the 7 Investigators showed you how Deputy County Executive Sean Carlson owns Procurement Consulting Group LLC.
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It’s a private company that has provided purchasing staff to local governments, including Livingston County, the Washtenaw Intermediate School District and with neighboring Wayne County.
Carlson was hired by Oakland County in 2019 and taxpayers pay his $224,487 salary.
Records obtained by the 7 Investigators show Carlson’s Procurement Consulting Group, or PCG, has been providing Wayne County with procurement staff since 2016. In 2023, PCG landed a Wayne County contract valued at up to $8,467,961.24 for 3 years and can be extended for 7 years for up to $14,522,783.14.
In PCG’s Wayne County contract, Carlson is listed as both a principal of the company and the owner.
PCG has also had a contract with the city of Pontiac, where Coulter’s administration is spending $370 million dollars to move their headquarters. Pontiac city invoices show the city paid Carlson’s company $355,780. Carlson told the 7 Investigators he did not know PCG had pursued the Pontiac business until after it was awarded.
Coulter and Carlson have maintained Carlson’s outside employment is not a conflict of interest.
Now a county website lists the outside employment and income for Oakland County’s other deputy county executives and the county's Chief Financial Officer.
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The 7 Investigators have also shown you how Oakland County Board of Commissioners Chair David Woodward owns two outside companies: Woodward & Associates and Pivot Point Strategies, a political consulting firm. Woodward has admitted he’s a paid consultant for the Sheetz gas station chain but will not say how much he earns from them on top of his $82,500 county salary. In past interviews, Woodward would not reveal his other consulting clients but maintains he does not have a conflict of interest.
In December, the Board of Commissioners said Coulter’s corporation counsel attorneys told them they had no legal authority to require financial disclosure, so the board only passed a resolution to ask the Michigan legislature to enact a law “that establishes a uniform statewide financial disclosure framework” they can later adopt.
Coulter originally called on the commissioners to adopt financial disclosure statements similar to those adopted by state lawmakers in 2023. But Coulter said he wanted the transparency requirements to go further by extending the rules to the spouses/domestic partners of Oakland County elected officials and Coulter’s appointees.
Today his leadership team revealed the names of any outside employment and where they hold properties and investments. Specific income levels or dollar amounts were not made public.
“Transparency is essential to maintain the public’s confidence in how their government operates,” Coulter said. “While there is not yet state law requiring such financial disclosure for elected officials, I believe we should lead by example. That’s why my senior leadership team and I are making these disclosures available to the public.”
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