UPDATE: Mayor Notte transformed himself with style and wit

UPDATE: The Macomb Daily news story about Mayor Dick Notte's death includes a trimmed down version of Mark Hackel's remarks. As you can see, 

the full version shows how the mayor's death prompted an

 emotional, revealing moment for the county executive:

County Executive Mark Hackel, choked up and fighting back tears, said Notte was a

 "blue-collar guy, down to earth, with a certain personality that people just adored."

Hackel and Notte often poked fun at each other at public events, 

to the delight of the crowd, but the executive revealed that the mayor

 played a key role at a turning point for Hackel. Notte emerged shortly after Hackel's

 life was shattered by the conviction of his father, longtime

 sheriff William Hackel, on sexual misconduct charges. 

"He was the first public official after my father's situation who contacted

 me and wanted to sit down and talk. And I didn't know

 him -- he knew my father. He asked me to lunch and we went and

 he was very confident that I should run for sheriff and that I would win.

"It was an amazing moment and ... he was one of the

 people who helped me clear my head and make a decision."

My favorite photo of the mayor, taken earlier this year, with 
County Executive Mark Hackel, left, and Clinton Township 
Supervisor Bob Cannon, enjoying a moment of levity and laughter.
Photo by David Dalton.

Tributes have been pouring in all day for Sterling Heights Mayor Richard Notte, who passed away this morning. But I think I may have a different take on this little man with a big heart.
It always struck me that Notte transformed himself late in life. In his early days on the Sterling Heights City Council, when he was still a UAW foreman and then a plant chairman, Notte was a far-from-articulate politician. He was a bit gruff, definitely blue-collar, not someone who would make political wannabes green with envy.
But in time, after he had several years as mayor under his belt and he had long retired from Ford, Notte became more eloquent, more stylish, and much more of a jokester who rarely appeared at any public event without generating a few belly laughs from the crowd. 
Despite his diminutive size, he was confident and stylish -- always in a suit and tie, sporting one of his large collection of fedoras. 

Below, I offer one of my blog posts in which Notte and County Executive Mark Hackel engaged in some very public kibitzing, some rib-poking, to the delight of the audience on hand.

You can find more examples here and here and here. 

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Notte: Hackel robbing the cradle

At today's annual Heritage Tri-Community luncheon, where Sterling Heights, Utica and Shelby Township officials gave their "State of ..." messages, County Executive Mark Hackel had the misfortune of gaining a lot of attention by showing up late.
As he entered the banquet room at the Cherry Creek Golf Club in Shelby, Sterling Heights Mayor Richard Notte, Utica Mayor Jackie Noonan and Shelby Township Supervisor Richard Stathakis were already on stage, discussing the issues facing them in 2013.
Notte spotted Hackel making his way to a seat and he told the audience to recognize the county exec and give him some congratulatory applause on his recently announced engagement.

Ever the jokester, Notte noted that Hackel had proposed to his girlfriend,Tracie Damschroder, 19 years younger than he, after dating her for eight years.
"The reason why it took so long, he had to wait until she got out of high school before he could ask her to marry him," Notte said, drawing an eruption of laughter from the crowd.