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It's on and sizzling between two outspoken native Detroiters with firm views about accountability, leadership and integrity.

On one side is the 54-year-old editor-publisher of Crain's Detroit Business, Ron Fournier (from the east side; University of Detroit '85), who slaps a fellow alumnus for opposing regional transit cooperation.

His target is L. Brooks Patterson, 79-year-old Oakland County executive, northwest Detroit native and 1964 UD graduate. Fournier calls him "a follower, nodding to his constituents' baser instincts rather than leading them to higher ground."


Sons of Detroit: L. Brooks Patterson and Ron Fournier

Patterson has a spokesman push back by saying the journalist "ignores both Patterson's record on transit as well as some fundamental facts. . . . Oakland County already pays the most for regional transit."

The back-and-forth plays out over two days at the publication's site, starting Thursday with a column by the boss, headlined "Playing games instead of leading on mass transit." Fournier reacts to a State of the County address in which Patterson vowed to oppose any regional transit plan requiring participation in a property-taxing district across three counties.

Here's more from that 670-word opinion essay by Fournier, who joined Crain's in September 2016 after decades as a national politics writer for Associated Press, the National Journal and The Atlantic:

Given one more chance to unite metro Detroit behind a mass transit system that would fuel economic mobility and growth, the 79-year-old Republican is sticking with his tired old script. The one with racially tinged tropes propping up a politics of division and grievance. . . . Patterson knows what buttons he's pushing. . . .

The economics of a regional transit system don't work unless the entire region supports it. And the entire region needs it. 

Patterson should "persuade [constituents] to support a sensible regional mass transit system that includes everybody in the burdens and benefits," Fournier contends.

The suburban politician's response comes the next day in a 480-word letter from Bill Mullan, Patterson's communications director for more than eight years. In the reply, posted by Crain's, he writes:

Patterson absolutely and unapologetically nods to the will of Oakland County voters, because he will not ride roughshod over the Michigan Constitution. He is their elected leader and representative, not their overlord who imposes taxes against their will. . . .

Why is Ron Fournier insisting Patterson violate his oath to the Michigan Constitution and ignore the will of Oakland County voters? Does the will of the voters only count when it agrees with his point of view? . . .

At least now we know that Ron Fournier thinks constitutional rights only apply to those who agree with him: The hell with Oakland County voters.

The editor tweets a parting shot Friday:

So things could get lively, or awkward, if Patterson and Fournier are seated next to each other at a Mackinac Policy Conference meal or University of Detroit alumni event.

Read more: Crain's Detroit Business