Morris Goodman, a Dearborn attorney, past president of the Dearborn Democratic Club, a longtime political activist and observer and regular reader of Deepsaidwhat.com, provided us with a column today on his thoughts about Dearborn’s mayoral race.

His column begins below:

Morris Goodman

Mayor O’Reilly has been confronted with the perfect storm of economic woe – (1) plunging residential values leading to plunging property taxes; (2) increasing stress on neighborhoods due to foreclosures; (3) huge cutbacks in state revenue sharing; and (4) visibly growing commercial vacancies. He has led the city in a fiscally prudent way to maintain as many of the quality services Dearbornites have grown to expect, with a shrinking workforce due to a hemoraging budget.

If ever there was a person literally born to be Dearborn’s Mayor now, it is Jack O’Reilly. Not only was his father Mayor, but he spent his professionally formative years after graduating from law school absorbing what government is all about working for Congressman Dingell in Washington and as a committee staffer in Lansing. Moreover, as we all know, prior to becoming Mayor, he learned everything there is to know about Dearborn by serving on the City Council for nearly 2 decades, mostly as President.

Of equal importance to his education to be an effective at Dearborn’s helm is the decade Mayor O’Reilly spent as the CEO of SEMCA (Southeast Michigan Community Alliance) prior to becoming Mayor. He administered tens of millions of dollars in federal and state workforce development and substance abuse prevention and treatment funds. With Dearborn’s unemployment problems and resulting substance abuse spin off, isn’t it fortuitous that our Mayor is so familiar with the relevant programs and agency heads.

Also as SEMCA’s CEO, Mayor O’Reilly worked with a governing board composed of the region’s business, labor, and civic leadership. Certainly knowing these people and his way around Lansing and Washington has been invaluable in his efforts to build on and develop Dearborn’s assets. The proposed new Amtrak train station at Greenfield Village on the new high speed rail link from Detroit to Chicago and the proposed new convention center at Fairlane Town Center are both due to the Mayor’s drive, vision, and contacts.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O'Reilly, Jr.

While I am a long time supporter of the Mayor and worked with him as a consultant for several years at SEMCA to leverage combining the 7 regional Michigan Works agencies, I am no apologist for him. He clearly does not need to be lauded by me to secure a huge re-election victory. What is important however is that Dearborn residents understand that Jack O’Reilly is not your usual politician. So many voters are turned off by the constant bitter partisan state and national battles. In 2009 the choice here simply is not “the lesser of two evils” or “we could have done worse.” No, in Dearborn on November 3 when we re-elect Mayor Jack O’Reilly, we can truly feel, “We could not have done better.”

Dearborn school officials say they are canceling the flu shot clinic scheduled for Friday, October 16 and Tuesday, October 20, because of vaccine shortages.

Due to the increased number of people getting the seasonal flu vaccine, the City of Dearborn Health Department will not have enough doses available to supply the flu shot clinic scheduled for those two dates, Dearborn schools said in a release Thursday.

School officials say when the City’s Health Department has a new supply of seasonal flu shots the District will work with them to reschedule a seasonal flu shot clinic.