Former longtime city councilman Kermit Williams and current city council president Mike McGuinness are running to be Pontiac’s next mayor. Pontiac Mayor Tim Greimel, a former state representative, is running for U.S. Congress.
McGuinness was the front runner in the August primary election, getting 45% of the vote in a crowded field of candidates.
He says Pontiac, which has previously faced major financial problems, is now in a "strong financial position" with fund reserves over $49 million, according to the city's 2024 fiscal year audit. He wants to rebuild public operations, like cleaner streets, unclogged drains, and trip hazard-free streets to keep moving Pontiac forward.
“We got to make up lost ground over the decades when our backs were against the wall financially, and a lot was cut down to the bone of city services," McGuinness said.
McGuinness also has plans to increase attendance at local events like the Pontiac Arts Crawl, investing in job training, increasing senior citizen services, and leading the creation of a youth recreation center.
“We are at a high watermark in terms of tens of millions of dollars for infrastructure, for recreation, for all sorts of quality of life improvements, including the movement from Oakland County, where they are bringing hundreds of county employees and expanding their footprint back into downtown Pontiac,” McGuinness said.
As chair of the Oakland County Democratic Party in 2011, McGuinness was accused of forging documents to place three Tea Party candidates under a third party to mislead voters. He was convicted of uttering and publishing and perjury in connection with the case. McGuinness was also sentenced to probation, community service, and a $1,000 fine.
McGuinness said his run for mayor was inspired by his family. In the 1990s, Michigan closed the state psychiatric facility Clinton Valley Center. When McGuinness was a teenager, he said his father had a manic episode.
“There was nowhere for him to turn to, and it had a really indelible mark on me. It communicated to me clearly that who we elect, and the resources that we prioritize impacts people's lives,” he said.
McGuinness faces Kermit Williams, who won 25% of the vote in the primary election. A lifelong Pontiac resident, Williams spent 12 years in city council during the city's financial crisis. He served as council president for four years. When he left council three years ago, Williams said millions of federal dollars from the covid pandemic were frozen.
"Most of those dollars haven't touched the regular people in the city,” Williams said. “And so, now we need my leadership to come back to the city to help make sure that our seniors and our kids are taken care of.”
His platform focuses on housing, opportunity, municipalities and infrastructure as well as entrepreneurship. Williams said he wants to build a thousand new homes over the next four years.
He also wants to fix the Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge, "the rest of the crumbling infrastructure" and "what’s down in city hall," Williams said. He will also prioritize opening a youth center with reading labs throughout Pontiac, Williams said.
Williams also wants to work on transportation and fixing the city’s roads, he said. In order to accomplish his platform points, Williams plans to use millions from Pontiac’s reserves.
Williams is a co-director of the social justice nonprofit organization Oakland Forward. The organization has worked on Michigan's 2023 extreme risk protection order law, which outlines a process to take guns away from people who might harm themselves or others. He also helped champion the Oakland County public transportation millage.
“But everything that I am, everything that I will be, is because of the city of Pontiac helping to give me the opportunity to do these things,” Williams said. “I'm a first generation college graduate. And we have a whole generation of young people that are growing up feeling like they made it despite Pontiac.”
