Joe Palamara is serving in his 14th term and 28th year on the Wayne County Commission. He currently serves as Vice-Chair and “Dean’’ of the Commission. A lifelong resident of the Downriver area, he is a 1971 graduate of Wyandotte Roosevelt High School and, in 2018, was inducted into his high school's Distinguished Graduate Hall of Fame.

He attended Michigan State University on an Evans (caddy) Scholarship and was a walk-on member of the varsity baseball team. In his senior year, in 1975, Joe led the Spartans in hitting, received his team's Sportsmanship Award and was named to the All-Big Ten and All-America teams as a second baseman. He graduated from MSU in 1975 with a bachelor of arts degree in business. In 1985, Joe received his juris doctorate degree from the Detroit College of Law, and as a member of the State Bar of Michigan, has been licensed to practice law as an attorney in Michigan since the mid-1980s.

Joe was first elected to serve Downriver residents as a state representative in 1984, and he served for seven terms in the Michigan House of Representatives until term limits first took effect. In 1998, Palamara was elected to the Wayne County Commission, where he is an ardent champion of the Downriver communities he proudly represents in District 15. Joe also serves on the Michigan Association of Counties Board of Directors, is a member of the Wayne County Airport Authority (Metropolitan Airport) Board of Directors and is a lifetime member of the Michigan State University Varsity Alumni Club.

During his tenure as an elected official, he served as the Master of Ceremonies during President Bill Clinton's visit to Wyandotte. He has also served as a guest lecturer at the Detroit College of Law (now at Michigan State University) and at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. A Grosse Ile resident, Joe and his wife, Aline, have three children and seven grandchildren. 

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Martha Toth and James Toth
(313) 224-0880

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