This week, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard will get an award often given to metro Detroit’s corporate execs.

The Detroit Executives Association will honor this public servant as its 2008 Executive of the Year during a luncheon at the Detroit Athletic Club on Thursday.

It is only the second time in 27 years that the association has given the award to someone in the public sector. In 1991, then-Detroit City Council President Maryann Mahaffey received the honor.

The award is presented to a business or community leader who exhibits exceptional leadership and devotion to the betterment of the Detroit area. Previous honorees include Compuware Corp. CEO Peter Karmanos and General Motors Corp. Vice Chairman Robert Lutz.

“This year we chose Sheriff Bouchard because of the high level of efficiency he has demonstrated in running one of the nation’s largest sheriff’s offices, with a budget of $128 million and 1,200 employees,” said Michael Wanstreet, the association’s president.

Wanstreet said under Bouchard’s leadership, the sheriff’s office has privatized some noncore functions, such as county jail food service, and is revamping its law enforcement fleet toward more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Bouchard was re-elected last week.

For more on the Detroit Executives Association luncheon, call 519-252-4234.

Inforum split on vote
Speaking of the election, Inforum CEO Terry Barclay said Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton will inspire other women to consider politics.

Though Inforum — a women’s business organization — is nonpolitical, the conversation in recent months has centered on politics.

Barclay said the group polled its members.

“We did a survey of our members last week just before the election and found our membership was really split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats,” Barclay said, adding that “ultimately 60% of them said they would be voting for Obama.”

About 25% of Inforum’s 2,000 members are small-business owners, Barclay said.

She said many voted for Obama despite having concerns about how his tax policy would impact their businesses.

Social concerns
Others say they fear that an Obama administration won’t be able to focus as much on human needs because of the crisis on Wall Street, a languishing auto industry and plummeting home values.

“With changes in the administration at the local, state and national level, we see it as an opportunity to educate new leaders and their teams about better ways to support people in their homes and their communities,” said Jim Dehem, president and CEO of Community Living Services in Wayne, which offers services and counseling to 3,000 people living with disabilities acrossmetro Detroit.

Tom Nerney, executive director for the Center for Self Determination, a national organization based in Wayne, has been working on a report to offer long-term solutions to Medicaid programs for people with disabilities.

Peter Bittel, president and CEO of Futures Health, which provides services to people with disabilities in Michigan and other states, said he sees value in a fresh examination of how we use public dollars for long-term care and services to seniors and disabled people.