Novi Mayor November 2 Election Candidate Guide

Voters head to the polls on November 2 to cast their votes for local leaders, ballot proposals and more. 

Get to know the candidates running for local office in your community with 101.9 FM WDET’s Candidate Guides. Surveys were distributed to candidates to complete and you can see the responses for candidates for New Baltimore Mayor below.

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Courtesy of Bob Gatt

Bob Gatt

Age: 71

Current job: Manager, Oakland County Animal Shelter and Pet Adoption Center

Education: B.S. Degree/Marketing, Wayne State University; Master’s Degree/Technology, Public Administration, Eastern Michigan University

About Bob Gatt: I am seeking re-election as Novi Mayor at the November 2, 2021 election. I was elected to my current position in November 2011. I’m currently serving my fifth, 2-year term as the leader of the Novi City Council.

I served two, 4-year terms on the Novi City Council from 2003-2011. In 2008, I was appointed as the Mayor Pro-Tem of Novi.

Currently, I am the Manager of the Oakland County Animal Control Division in Pontiac. Before this position, I was the Chief of Field Operations for Oakland County’s Community Corrections Program. I held that position since 2002 before earning the promotion to the Animal Control Division in 2012.

Before joining Oakland County in 2002, I served a distinguished 27-year career in the Novi Police Department. I am still known by many residents as “Officer Bob.”

Why are you running for Novi’s Mayor? Political strife, conflict and extremism continues to be part of our daily lives, especially at the national level in Washington D.C.

That’s not what I’m about. And, most importantly, that’s not what our great City of Novi is all about.

I am proud to report that I have stayed “above the fray” as I continue to focus on improving the quality of life for Novi residents.

I am a Uniter. I truly dislike partisan politics. The difficult struggles – and anger – should not be part of what we’re trying to accomplish in the great City of Novi.

I love this city. We’ve got wonderful people on City Council – making important (and correct) policy decisions that help make Novi the greatest city in the state. Novi’s never been in better shape under my leadership! I feel engaged, energetic, excited, optimistic, and full of promise as I enter this year’s general election on November 2.

I can’t wait to lead this great city and to serve Novi citizens for two more years. Novi has a great future, and I’m so grateful to be a part of it.

“I am proud to report that I have stayed “above the fray” as I continue to focus on improving the quality of life for Novi residents.” — Bob Gatt

What is the most important issue facing Novi? I have always maintained that the most important issue facing Novi is public safety. If the residents, business owners and visitors are not safe, then NOTHING else that we do will draw people to Novi. We enjoy the finest schools, the most gorgeous parks, our streets are smooth, and our tax rate is one of the lowest in Oakland County. We grew by 20% during the past decade while most municipalities either declined or grew much slower. Yet, if people were not safe in Novi, we would quickly diminish our standing as one of the best places to live in the entire USA as declared by Money magazine just a few years ago.

How would you address that issue? Each year during budget deliberations, my number one priority is to ensure that the police, fire and DPS needs are taken care of. If additional staff is required, those matters take precedent over all others.  Novi is fortunate to have the finest police agency in the state with a group of brave men and women who keep us safe. Our police department is in the top 3% of the nation by virtue of their accreditation from CALEA (The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies). It’s an honor to be so and as Mayor, I am extremely proud of our police agency. Our Fire Department is an exemplary unit consisting of Full Time, Paid on Call, and Auxiliary firefighters. Cities from around the state have called, hoping to duplicate our model of fire fighting protection. And finally, our DPS earns kudos from citizens for their hard work and determination to keep our city clean, safe, and free from obstacles including snow! Novi is very fortunate to have such a great cadre of people employed!

What are you proud of accomplishing in your tenure as mayor? I am proud of SO MANY different things. Even my opponent in the current race for Mayor, who three years ago applied to be appointed to a vacant city council seat, said at the time, “Didn’t think there was anything they (City Council) haven’t been doing. He thought that what we’ve accomplished as a community since the downturn has been phenomenal.” He was correct. What we have accomplished in Novi since I have been Mayor is nothing short of phenomenal!  We have one of the lowest tax rates for any city in Oakland County. Our schools are second to none. Our parks are gorgeous and plentiful. We’ve added 80 acres of green space, equivalent to 60 football fields, since I’ve been Mayor. Our crime rate is next to nothing. We have grown by 20% since the last census. Our citizen satisfaction rate is nearly 100%! Novi is a mecca for smart, planned growth, and I am proud and privileged to be its Mayor!

Maria Taylor

Ajay Raman

Age: 45

Current job: Owner and Clinical Director at Mobile Anesthesiologists of Motor City

Education: Bachelor of Science, Benedictine University; Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Midwestern University; Anesthesiology Residency, Rush University Medical Center

About Ajay Raman: I am a physician, business owner, first-generation Indian-American, and proud Novi resident running to serve our citizens as Novi’s Mayor. I became a doctor because I believe in serving all people in the times when they need it most. When my wife and I looked for the perfect city to raise a family over a decade ago, we were drawn to Novi’s cultural diversity, community programs and abundant green spaces. We set up our medical practice in Novi after that and we put down strong roots in this community because we believe in it so much. We now have two beautiful children in the Novi Schools whose futures we think about all the time. Like many residents, I am concerned with the direction our city has been heading over the last few years. I am running to preserve and enhance the attributes that make Novi an appealing city while shining a much-needed light on some of the problems and poor decisions being made by our local government.

Why are you running for Novi’s Mayor? I am running to be Mayor of Novi because I believe in the value of giving back to those who give to you. At this point in my life, I am in a position to help lift up voices in our community that are not being heard – and I feel strongly that I should. Our city deserves leadership with a true pulse on the community and a proactive desire to address the needs of its residents. I believe my personal and professional experiences have prepared me to be a Mayor who is transparent, honest, and dedicated to listening to Novi citizens and always being their advocate.

“Our city deserves leadership with a true pulse on the community and a proactive desire to address the needs of its residents. I believe my personal and professional experiences have prepared me to be a Mayor who is transparent, honest, and dedicated to listening to Novi citizens and always being their advocate.” — Ajay Raman

What is the most important issue facing Novi? My team and I have knocked thousands of doors throughout Novi over the past several months and the answer is almost always the same: Residents are tired of the poor city planning and overdevelopment that are drastically reshaping our city, and they don’t trust that our current city leadership is really looking out for the people anymore. They believe our city leaders are still living in the past and don’t have a real cohesive vision for what the Novi of the future looks like. This feedback is supported by the results of the annual City of Novi Resident Survey which found that in 2020, less than half of Novi residents supported the current Mayor’s vision of overdevelopment. Green spaces have been cut down indiscriminately, our roads are crumbling without repair as a result of increased traffic, and we are not planning with the future in mind. Novi voters deserve better.

How would you address that issue? The answer is actually easier than some might think. We would fix these overdevelopment issues by simply following the Novi City Ordinances and the City Master Plan as they currently exist. Most residents are shocked when they find out that our city already has laws on the books requiring city leadership to consider things like traffic congestion, infrastructure impacts, and housing density. The problem is that these laws have been ignored, and Novi residents, as well as our city’s resources, have paid the price. My opponent famously said in 2018 that he refused to deny a project approval because of traffic concerns. By committing himself to ignoring our city ordinances and neglecting his duty of planning oversight, the current Mayor shows his concern is for the developers and builders – not Novi residents. I would also support exploring how best to implement an Ethics Ordinance in Novi to require disclosure of contributions our elected officials receive from businesses who are benefiting from our tax dollars.

What actions/decisions by the current mayoral administration or city council have you disagreed with? I am greatly disturbed by the level of pay-to-play politics that we have seen from our current Mayor. Throughout his recent tenure in office, Mayor Gatt has taken more and more campaign money from developers and those with business before City Council. In most cases, the Mayor will receive a contribution from a developer or a business seeking a contract, and then shortly after, the Mayor will vote to approve that project or contact. This kind of policymaking has completely eroded the confidence that people have in our local government, and residents see the impacts of these decisions right in their own neighborhoods. In the Mayor’s campaign finance reports, we continuously see that his campaign is funded by developers and not people who live in our City. I am proud to be running one of the biggest grassroots campaigns in the history of our City, and unlike our current mayor, over 97% of all donations to my campaign have come from Novi residents, my friends, and my family.