CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE

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Name: Fred A. Bolden

City/Town of Residence: Detroit

Occupation: Computer Consultant at Hewlett Packard – Pontiac, Michigan

Education: BS Pre-Law Theology Sacred Heart Seminary/University of Detroit MS Computer Information Science University of Detroit

Masters Classes in Public Administration Western Michigan University

Community Involvement: Board Member and Counselor St. Charles Youth and Family Services 1985 – 1987

Board Member Mettetal Airport (Plymouth-Canton) 1992 – 2007

Republican Delegate (Canton and Detroit) since 1992

MYFFL and GCYBSA Board Member and Coach 1999 – 2010

Human Relation Commissioner 2000, Canton Township

Secretary and Member of Wayne 11th & 13th Republican Committee

Member of the Down River Grassroots Organization (DRGO)

Graduate U of D/Sacred Heart Seminary, BS Criminal Justice

Graduate University of Detroit, MS Computer Science

Adjunct Professor Baker College, St. Mary’s College and the University of Detroit Mercy

Leadership Canton Graduate 2005

Member of Our Mother of Devine Mercy – St. Joseph, St. Josaphat, and Sweetest Heart of Mary Churches

General Contact info for your Campaign Headquarters:5569 Joy Road Detroit

Website:

Facebook: FredABoldenforWCExecutive

Questions:

  1. Why should New Americans like Arab, Asian, and Muslim American voters in your district vote for you? What expertise will you bring to this position sought?

My expertise is managing a multicultural team of people in many industries that I have worked in. I also feel that I have the management skills in finance and bringing people together to complete projects and assignments.

In addition you must surround yourself with people that understand people and what it is to work in a multi-cultural society and make sure they get your message across. One of the first persons on my team will be Steve Miranda. Steve Miranda is Managing Director for Cornell University’s Center for Advanced HR Studies (CAHRS) as well as the Founder and President of “Four Forces Consulting, LLC.” Prior to joining Cornell, Steve was the Chief HR Officer for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the world’s largest professional HR association, serving over 260,000 members in over 125 countries. Before SHRM, Steve was a HR VP at Lucent Technologies (currently Alcatel-Lucent). At Lucent, Steve spent 3-1/2 years in Hong Kong providing HR leadership for Lucent’s 14,000 person Asia-Pacific business. Steve and I worked together at Bell Labs I led the Research and Development while Steve led the development of HR strategies for Bell Laboratories, the world famous R&D engine that has generated seven Nobel Prizes over the past 70 years.

  1. Do you believe schools are inclusive and meet the needs of immigrants and economically disadvantage families? If not, why not and what solutions would you propose?

Since 95 percent of all children of immigrants and 91 percent of students who are limited-English proficient attend urban schools, the challenge of responding to immigration-led demographic change falls primarily to increasingly diverse schools in major urban areas. They are becoming more inclusive. I just read an article that in some schools in southwest Detroit they will be offering ½ your classes in Spanish and ½ in English. This is a start we as Americans have not found the formula of embracing languages as a plus in our lives. As a student in a racially balanced elementary school I found the best way to get to know your friends is to learn something about their culture. Growing up in southwest Detroit you either embraced your friends and neighbor and their culture or you were an island to yourself. I would propose that multi-cultural classes be taught in high school starting in 9th grade as well as multi-lingual classes from 9th – 12th grades. I would also find an economical way to have children receiving free or reduced rate breakfast and an extended school year starting the first Monday in September ending the last Friday or day in June. In addition to school on Saturday until the student feel comfortable enough in the English language.

How can we help immigrant students excel in school? How can we take advantage of their strong motivation to succeed?

Promising Practices for underschooled Immigrant Students:

  1. A coherent, articulated sequence of courses which helps students move from English language and literacy, through academic concept and skills development, into sheltered and mainstream classes;
  2. Additional instructional time provided by after-school tutoring and summer school, where individual attention can be given and educational gaps filled;
  3. Peer and cross-age tutoring by more academically advanced or older students, preferably from the same countries and languages, who can receive community service credit and improve their own skills as they are helping others;
  4. Content-area instruction from teachers who have developed a sensitivity to these students and acquired appropriate strategies for helping them "catch up" on many years of interrupted education; and
  5. Parental outreach and family support through frequent communication by bilingual interpreters working with classroom teachers.

While all of these are important, perhaps the most critical is the provision of special courses focused on the development of academic language and literacy skills.

  1. Is it important for Michigan to be a welcoming state for immigrants? Please comment. How familiar are you with current “welcoming” initiatives and what else should be done?

There is always more to be done and can and should be done. This State more than any State in the Midwest was built with immigrant workers, knowledge and strength. In Michigan, there is no doubt that immigrant entrepreneurs and innovators play an important role. Immigrant entrepreneurs bring in additional revenue, create jobs, and contribute significantly to the state’s economy. Highly skilled immigrants are vital to the state’s innovation economy, and to the metropolitan areas within the state, helping to boost local economies. Furthermore, local government, business, and non-profit leaders recognize the importance of immigrants in their communities and support immigration through local “welcoming” and integration initiatives. What most of us fail to realize is that Immigrant entrepreneurs contribute significantly to Michigan’s economy?

  • From 2006 to 2010, immigrants founded 30,223 businesses in Michigan, and in 2010, 10.4 percent of all business owners in Michigan were foreign-born.
  • In 2010, new immigrant business owners had a total net business income of $1.8 billion, which is 9.2 percent of all net business income in the state.
  • Michigan’s foreign-born were more than three times as likely as the native-born population to start a new business between 1996 and 2007.
  • In particular, 32.8 percent of high-tech startups in Michigan between 1990 and 2005 had an immigrant founder, which places Michigan third out of all fifty states and means that Michigan’s immigrants are six times more likely to start a high-tech firm than U.S.-born residents. Highly skilled immigrants are vital to Michigan’s innovation economy. This is where the County Executive can help reinvent Wayne County and bring in high paying skilled labor jobs.
  • High-skilled immigrant workers contribute to the success of many Michigan-based companies and institutions with a significant presence in the state, including Henry Ford Health System, Wipro Limited, General Motors Company, Miracle Software Systems, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University.
  • In 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor certified 7,411 H-1B labor certification applications in Michigan, with an average annual wage of $68,113, which is higher than Michigan’s median household income of $48,669 or per capita income of $25,482.
  • Wayne County metropolitan area had 3,653 H-1B high-skilled visa requests in 2010-2011, with 65.9 percent of H-1B visa-holders working in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations. These skill workers should be coming from Detroit, Dearborn, and Highland Park. I will present to the board of directors several programs and developments that we will be able to supply these corporations with the skilled labor force by 2020.
  • In southwest Detroit, Jordi Carbonell, originally from Spain, opened a coffee shop founded on the basis that in order to create a strong community, the community needed a central gathering place. Today, the bustling café is integral to the life of the neighborhood. As the president of the agency responsible for managing the commercial district notes, “It’s the kind of place where you know immediately you’re part of a community – of residents, high school students, travelers in cyberspace, and young and old hatching plots to save the world!” In southeastern Michigan, Basil Bacall, a Chaldean immigrant, along with his brother, started and grew a business of successful hotels. Today, they own and operate several hotels, real estate, and shopping mall properties which all create jobs for Michigan residents. Bacall also founded a non-profit in 2007, the Adopt-a-Refugee program, that matches donors with persecuted families in the Middle East and has helped about 80,000 people and distributed $1.5 million.
  • Welcoming Michigan is a statewide initiative that seeks to build mutual respect among foreign-born and native-born people residing in Michigan. The organization works to support Michigan’s “receiving community” members, the U.S.-born who live in communities with growing immigrant populations, in creating welcoming communities where immigrants can integrate into their adopted hometowns. Steve Tobocman, Director of Global Detroit, describes Welcoming Michigan as an organization that “not only represent the values (hospitality, kindness, and friendliness) of the Midwestern state in which I was raised, but it actually creates the kind of welcoming environment essential for economic growth in a global economy. If Michigan is to compete, we have to welcome the investment, the jobs, the workers, and the ingenuity of immigrants and refugees. Welcoming Michigan is the foundation of a global economic growth strategy to return prosperity to our state.”
  • Global Detroit. Detroit, Michigan is an example of a Rustbelt city that has experienced severe post-industrial population decline. Yet, due in part to a growing immigrant population, areas of the city are experiencing growth and revitalization. Local leaders, through the Global Detroit initiative, recognize that immigrants play an important role. Global Detroit’s strategy includes acknowledging that immigrants are essential to urban population growth and stability, and immigrants provide neighborhood revitalization benefits and can play a crucial role in rejuvenating neighborhood commercial retail districts that might otherwise succumb to blight or abandon. Specifically, the initiative recognizes that “welcoming cities” understand that immigrant populations help to stabilize residential neighborhoods, revitalize commercial retail corridors, bringing a diversity of culture, food, language, goods, and services, all of which help decrease blight, decay, and abandonment, increase job creation, employment, and property values, improve neighborhood quality of life, and foster a greater vibrancy and richness for the urban experience throughout a city. Local leaders involved with Global Detroit realize that “nothing is more powerful to remaking Detroit as a center of innovation, entrepreneurship and population growth, than embracing and increasing immigrant populations and the entrepreneurial culture and global connections that they bring and deliver.”
  1. What are your views on ensuring equal access to the polls and voting materials for voters of all communities regardless of English speaking and reading ability?

The laws are clear any US Citizen, at least 18yrs of age. A resident of the city, village or township where applying to vote and not currently serving a prison sentence and residency 30 days before an election. A photo id is required or sign a letter of affidavit acknowledging you don’t have a photo id.The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) is a law that prohibits discriminatory voting practices that have been responsible for the denial and prevention of the voting rights of racial, ethnic and language minority voters. Since the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Supreme Court has acknowledged that racial discrimination in voting had been more prevalent in certain areas of the country. Voting Rights matter greatly to Latino and Arabic voters and the Latinoand Muslimcommunity. In order to ensure that we continue to progress toward a more inclusive government and country, it is critical that Congress stand behind its steadfast commitment to strong protection of the equal right to vote for every eligible citizen in the country. If we are not doing enough to help immigrants vote then the entire system is a failure and we are no better than

  1. What are your views regarding access to in-language, culturally appropriate healthcare?

The National CLAS Standards Click here to learn more about the National CLAS Standards and access The Blueprint with guidance and implementation strategies. The National Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards in Health and Health Care are intended to advance health equity, improve quality and help eliminate health care disparities by establishing a blueprint for health and health care organizations to: Principal Standard 1) Provide effective, equitable, understandable and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to diverse cultural health beliefs and practices, preferred languages, health literacy and other communication needs. Governance, Leadership and Workforce 2) Advance and sustain organizational governance and leadership that promotes CLAS and health equity through policy, practices and allocated resources. 3) Recruit, promote and support a culturally and linguistically diverse governance, leadership and workforce that are responsive to the population in the service area. 4) Educate and train governance, leadership and workforce in culturally and linguistically appropriate policies and practices on an ongoing basis. Communication and Language Assistance 5) Offer language assistance to individuals who have limited English proficiency and/or other communication needs, at no cost to them, to facilitate timely access to all health care and services. 6) Inform all individuals of the availability of language assistance services clearly and in their preferred language, verbally and in writing. 7) Ensure the competence of individuals providing language assistance, recognizing that the use of untrained individuals and/or minors as interpreters should be avoided. 8) Provide easy-to-understand print and multimedia materials and signage in the languages commonly used by the populations in the service area. Engagement, Continuous Improvement and Accountability 9) Establish culturally and linguistically appropriate goals, policies and management accountability, and infuse them throughout the organizations’ planning and operations. 10) Conduct ongoing assessments of the organization’s CLAS-related activities and integrate CLAS-related measures into assessment measurement and continuous quality improvement activities. 11) Collect and maintain accurate and reliable demographic data to monitor and evaluate the impact of CLAS on health equity and outcomes and to inform service delivery. 12) Conduct regular assessments of community health assets and needs and use the results to plan and implement services that respond to the cultural and linguistic diversity of populations in the service area. 13) Partner with the community to design, implement and evaluate policies, practices and services to ensure cultural and linguistic appropriateness. 14) Create conflict- and grievance-resolution processes that are culturally and linguistically appropriate to identify, prevent and resolve conflicts or complaints. 15) Communicate the organization’s progress in implementing and sustaining CLAS to all stakeholders, constituents and the general public.2 - See more at:

  1. What are your views on preventing discrimination in the workplace? How will you address workplace issues generally? Step 1

Work with a business attorney with experience in discrimination policies to develop a discrimination policies and procedures manual for all employees. Make the manual as comprehensive as possible, follows all state and federal discrimination laws, and work with the attorney once a quarter to make any appropriate changes. Review the manual with the management staff, and explain the company policies regarding discrimination to all managers. Encourage managers to ask any questions, and have all manager’s sign a form saying they took the discrimination training and they understood it. Require all employees to review the discrimination policies and procedures manual, and attend a mandatory quarterly training on discrimination in the workplace. Have every employee sign a form stating that they took the discrimination training and understand it. Encourage cooperation and equality in the workplace by creating diverse work groups and departments throughout the company. Set up a way that employees can report discrimination to a human resources professional. It is helpful to have a human resources professional that is experienced in handling discrimination complaints, as they require a level of candidness that other human resources issues do not require. Alert managers of the employees mentioned in discrimination complaints that their employee will have to answer the complaint. Schedule a meeting that includes the manager, the human resources representative and the accused employee. Make a quick decision on disciplinary action to be taken on discrimination complaints. As CEO of Wayne County I would articulate the goals for diversity and make sure that employees understand the benefits and risk of inclusiveness. As CEO you have to let your subordinates know that you walk the walk and talk the talk. I would conduct discrimination policy training at every level. Analyze the diversity in the county employment ranks and customer base. Teach employees more about one another, especially male/female and cultural differences and