Endorsements in Washtenaw County Political Races Hide Political Truths From Voters

Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton has endorsed Ann Arbor City Council candidates, as well as County Commissioner Sue Shink, who’s in a three-way primary race for a seat in the Michigan Senate. It is, evidently, an open secret that Clayton has, since 2015, along with another full-time county employee, run a personal business (The Cardinal Group II, LLC, training and consulting) along with his job as the County Sheriff. County insiders claim that Clayton makes use of his own employees, including command staff, to work on his personal business. No evidence of this has been uncovered, yet.

Under Clayton’s not-so-watchful eye as a member of the Board of SafeHouse Center, the local domestic violence shelter had a non-functioning security camera system for years, including a non-functioning camera “monitoring” the entrance to the shelter side of the building. Clayton’s laxity put domestic violence survivors and their children in danger–for years. It took an outside investigation of the shelter’s management to get the security camera system fixed. As a direct result of Clayton’s negligence as a SafeHouse Board member, domestic violence survivors and their children were forced to eat moldy, out-of-date food, inhabit a filthy building, sleep in rooms with blood on the walls and use bathrooms that were dirty and moldy.

Clayton has endorsed: Cynthia Harrison (Ann Arbor City Council Ward 1), Crystal Lyte (County Commission, District 2) and Sue Shink (State Senate 14th District).

Sue Shink, Chair of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners, under whose “leadership” the debacle at SafeHouse Center played out for months without any action from the BOC, is running in a three-way Democratic primary race for the Michigan Senate in District 14. Shink, when she finally acted, managed to allocate $75,000 to help women and children who had been wrongfully evicted from SafeHouse and made homeless. Shortly thereafter, at a public meeting, Shink said that she had been told her future political career (her run for the Michigan Senate) would suffer if she continued her efforts to clean up the mess at SafeHouse. So, Shink turned over management of the situation to the County Administrator, Greg Dill. Dill has been on the SafeHouse Center Board for years.

As a direct result of Shink’s ineptitude as Chair of the County Board of Commissioners, coupled with Dill’s unchecked negligence as the County Administrator, SafeHouse (the building is owned by County taxpayers) was allowed to moulder into a filthy, unsanitary, unsafe facility. This adversely impacted the most vulnerable in the County.

As VP of the SafeHouse Board, Dill did nothing for months after it was revealed that domestic violence survivors and their children were forced to eat moldy, out-of-date food, inhabit a filthy building, sleep in rooms with blood on the walls and use bathrooms that were filthy and moldy. When the SafeHouse whistleblowers and their children were made homeless by SafeHouse’s former Executive Dir. Barbara Niess-May, Dill housed the women in a one-star Wayne County motel, without security, money for food, or any way for the women to get services, help, or their kids to school in Washtenaw County.

Sue Shink is lending her good name and record as a politician who “puts people first” to Crystal Lyte (County Commission, District 2), Justin Hodge (County Commission District 8), Jason Morgan (State Representative, District 23) and Carrie Rheingans (State Representative, District 47).

Jason Morgan has served on the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners for six years. He’s running to represent Ann Arbor (District 23) in the Michigan House to bring his “bold, progressive agenda” to Lansing. His bio on the County website states that, “Given the state of politics today, it is more important than ever for our local elected leaders to stand up for our residents.”

Like Shink, between August 1 and October 2021, when it was revealed that mostly minority domestic violence survivors and their children at SafeHouse were being victimized by SafeHouse staff, including being thrown out of the shelter after coming forward to reveal serious managerial and operational problems at the shelter, Jason Morgan did not “stand up for his residents.” Quite the opposite. After it was revealed in October 2021 that SafeHouse Center, funded with money from County taxpayers, was refusing to shelter domestic violence victims and their children by telling DV victims that the almost empty shelter was “full,” Morgan did nothing in his capacity as a County Commissioner. Under Morgan’s not-so-progressive leadership, domestic violence victims made homeless lived with their pets in their cars, in 10 degree winter weather. One victim was stalked by her assailant for nine months after she was evicted from SafeHouse.

Jason Morgan is endorsing Cynthia Harrison (Ward 1 City Council), Jenn Cornell (Ward 5 City Council) Sue Shink (Michigan State Senate), Carrie Rheingans (State Representative, District 47), Crystal Lyte (County Commission, District 2) and Justin Hodge (County Commission District 8).

Washtenaw County Commissioner Andy LaBarre is running unopposed for re-election. LaBarre is sprinkling around his endorsement fairy dust liberally, even after allegedly making promises not to endorse in certain races. It is an understatement to say that the members of the Washtenaw County Commission are individually and collectively responsible for the SafeHouse Center debacle and the human price paid by the victims and children involved. Andy LaBarre bears more responsibility than most.

Phone records obtained by The Ann Arbor Independent show that days before the July 31, 2021 expose about SafeHouse Center was published, at 12:39 a.m., Dill (a SafeHouse Board member) called former SafeHouse Exec. Dir. Barbara Niess-May. On August 2, Dill called Niess-May twice. Then, on August 3, phone records show Dill called Ann Arbor Commissioner Andy LaBarre. County Administrator Greg Dill didn’t call the Chair of the Board, Sue Shink a single time in July or August, but rather called Shink at the end of September, the same day the newspaper published this: “Elected Officials Must Ask The Michigan AG To Launch An Investigation Into SafeHouse.”

Between July and December 2021, shortly after the publication of each of The A2Indy’s articles about the SafeHouse Center scandal, Council Administrator Greg Dill called Ann Arbor Commissioner Andy LaBarre. LaBarre, in turn, protected Dill by refusing public calls to investigate the allegations of mismanagement of the county-owned and funded domestic violence shelter.

Nicole Beverly is a domestic violence survivor, an advocate and the CEO of The Enough Initiative, a non-profit that educates teens about domestic violence. She went to college with LaBarre and says she reached out to him to urge action on the part of the Board of Commissioners on behalf of the SafeHouse clients. Beverly says that LaBarre questioned her motives in contacting him, as well as the accuracy of the reporting.

LaBarre is being endorsed by Jerry Clayton, Jason Morgan and Christopher Taylor, among others.

If Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor’s 2022 endorsements were carpet runners, they would be old, inauthentic, threadbare, stained, yet passed off by Taylor as “true Persian beauties.” Taylor is endorsing Council candidates Cynthia Harrison (Ward 1), Dharma Akmon (Ward 4) and Jenn Cornell (Ward 5). He is also endorsing Jason Morgan, Crystal Lyte, Sue Shink and Carrie Rheingans, among others.

Taylor has a long history of demonstrating poor judgement ethically. His critics on City Council say “the truth eludes him.” Taylor’s problems began with his first year on City Council in 2009.

Taylor was recruited to run by then Ward 3 Council member Leigh Greden. Together with ringleader Greden, months after he was sworn into office, Taylor participated in conduct during open meetings that violated the Michigan Open Meetings Act. His actions triggered a lawsuit against the City which the City Attorney was forced to settle. Public records obtained by the Ann Arbor News revealed, among other inappropriate behavior, that Taylor had sent a “joke” email to then Ward 5 Council member Carsten Hohnke during an open meeting in which Taylor called Hohnke’s Ward 5 constituents “dim bulbs.” Along with his Council email conspirators, Taylor made fun of residents speaking before Council, and mocked other Council members excluded from the group emails.

In June 2009, The Ann Arbor News published a scathing editorial in which the newspaper castigated Council members Taylor, Greden, Hohnke and Margie Teall as having engaged in unprofessional and childish conduct during open meetings: “For crying out loud, the council members should simply pay attention to what’s happening during the meeting. If what’s being said while these e-mails are providing background entertainment is so unimportant, then why bother saying it at all? Expecting council members to actually listen to whoever’s speaking is setting the bar pretty darn low. But even that seems to be too high for some.”

The newspaper conveniently let itself off the hook for having endorsed Taylor in 2008 against incumbent Stephen Kunselman. Taylor, the newspaper’s editorial board had assured the voters, would bring “professionalism” to the Council table.

Since that inauspicious beginning:

• Taylor has tried to sell public land all by himself, without a vote of the public or City Council (he was sued by then Ward 1 Council members Anne Bannister and Sumi Kailasapathy and stopped).

• Taylor tried to illegally “caption” a 2018 ballot question put to the public to vote to keep the Library Lot public land (he was sued and stopped). Anne Bannister, who is challenging Taylor for the Mayor’s office, voted in opposition to the illegal caption.

• For 14 years Taylor fought and voted against EPA involvement in the clean-up of the three-decades old 1,4 Dioxane Gelman Plume that has reached the city’s drinking water source in Barton Pond. On his campaign literature this summer, he claims that we need to “press the EPA to accelerate 1,4 dioxane monitoring and cleanup.”

• Taylor is presently being investigated by the Michigan Secretary of State Elections Bureau for multiple campaign finance violations that allegedly happened between 2018 and 2020.

• Public records obtained by The Ann Arbor Independent in 2022 revealed that over a period of years, Taylor has used city staff to secretly “harvest” resident email addresses. The public records showed lists containing thousands of residents’ private email addresses were sent in “copy and paste format” to Taylor’s a2.gov and Hooper Hathaway work email addresses. This was done without the residents’ knowledge or permission. The Michigan Secretary of State’s Elections Bureau is, once again, investigating Taylor.

• On April 14, 2022 Taylor signed an affidavit of identity when he filed to run for re-election. In that affidavit, Taylor swore his campaign finances were in order. Weeks after the filing deadline and after he signed the affidavit, Taylor submitted 11 amended campaign finance statements. In May 2022, the Washtenaw County Clerk was asked to remove Taylor from the ballot, based on the allegedly fraudulent affidavit and amended statements. The Michigan Secretary of State’s Elections Bureau is investigating. The Ann Arbor Independent filed a public records request to obtain the March 2022 letter from the Elections Bureau to Taylor about the violations and Taylor’s response in which he allegedly acknowledged the campaign finance violations.

• The Michigan Bar Association is investigating a complaint against Taylor by former Ann Arbor City Attorney R. Bruce Laidlaw. Laidlaw’s complaint alleges Taylor engaged in “unprofessional conduct” related to Taylor’s involvement in the dismissal of former City Administrator Tom Crawford.

Among other endorsers in local office, is Jen Eyer (D-Ward 4). Eyer is endorsing Crystal Lyte, Dharma Akmon, a Library Trustee who is challenging Ward 4 incumbent Elizabeth Nelson, and Jenn Cornell, who is challenging Ward 5 incumbent Ali Ramlawi.

Eyer lied about owning a business when she ran for City Council to represent Ward 4 in 2020. In March 2021, Eyer was then accused by a dozen women of facilitating their sexual victimization in the workplace at the company Eyer told voters she owned.

Linh Song (D-Ward 2) is endorsing Ward 1 candidate Cynthia Harrison and Andy LaBarre. Harrison and LaBarre are, evidently, unaware that there are photos circulating of Song’s children dressed in blackface for Halloween. Also being circulated are apologies posted to social media by Song for having posted the photos of her children in blackface to social media (though not for having dressed her children in blackface).