Expenditure of Mental Health Millage Money to Fund Sheriff Candidate’s Run for Office Must End

by P.D. Lesko

Over the past months, I’ve received photos of Derrick Jackson’s face plastered on the side of Ann Arbor buses and Jackson’s face plastered on billboards along I-94, ads paid for with Mental Health Millage money and funds from the budget of the Community Mental Health Dept. Michigan campaign finance laws are clear: candidates for office who work for government can’t use public resources to campaign. To do so is the definition of public corruption.

• No phone calls to donors from the work office, or campaign calls from a cell phone paid for with public money.

• No using a car paid for with public money to drive to and from campaign events.

• No sending campaign emails from a work email address.

However, under the ethically-suspect administrations of Washtenaw County Administrator Greg Dill and Sheriff Jerry Clayton, campaign finance laws have been repeatedly and flagrantly violated to benefit a county employee running for office.

Public records obtained by The Ann Arbor Independent show that Washtenaw County officials have spent many hundreds of thousands of dollars from Washtenaw County’s Mental Health Millage and funds from the budget of the county’s Community Mental Health Dept., including among other expenditures, to the benefit Derrick Jackson in his bid to be elected Sheriff in 2024.

The expenditure of public money to benefit Jackson and his campaign for public office is brazenly dishonest. Jackson’s participation in the scam to use public funds to “brand” his candidacy is billboard-sized evidence that he lacks judgement and scruples. This might come as a surprise to some. However, even a cursory comparison of Jackson’s public claims with available public records shows his self-serving, dishonest participation in the use of public money for his own political benefit should not come as a surprise to anyone.

Ken Magee is running for Sheriff. He noticed the billboards featuring Derrick Jackson. Magee contacted the Community Mental Health Dept. to ask about the expenditures. Magee also asked for information about any other campaign materials that Community Mental Health money was used to buy. The inquiry met with stonewalling.

The A2Indy used public records requests to obtain the information withheld from Magee. The billboard, below, was paid for with public money. The composition of the billboard is worth a close look.

The headshot of Jackson? What does he have to do with “THE CYCLE?” His job is community engagement–establishing connections between police personnel and the public. The billboard? It’s a campaign ad for a county employee running for Sheriff, a “branding” opportunity on the public dime.

One community activist who saw the billboard quipped, “Derrick Jackson has impacted the spin cycle.”

According to public records, Mental Health Millage money and funds from the budget of the Community Mental Health Dept. have paid for multiple ads (the County’s contract calls them “vignettes”) featuring Derrick Jackson on and in AAATA buses, and to purchase billboard ads along local highways that, like the one above, feature Derrick Jackson. This corrupt practice must stop, and the misuse of public funds also needs to be investigated.

You Keep Lyin’ When You Oughta Be Truthin’

“These Boots Are Made For Walkin'” was Nancy Sinatra’s one big hit. In her song she sings the line, “You keep lyin’ when you oughta be truthin.” It’s good advice from a 60s diva to 21st century diva Derrick Jackson.

Worse than Jackson’s ethical lapse thanks to his participation in the county-paid ad campaign featuring his photo and name, a cursory fact check of his professional background shows Derrick Jackson makes professional fibber U.S. Rep. George Santos look like Honest Abe Lincoln.

For starters, in a TEDTalk Derrick Jackson identified himself to the audience as a “social worker who runs a police agency.” In the same public talk, Jackson went on to claim with a straight face: “I’m the director at the Sheriff’s office.” Derrick Jackson does not “run a police agency.” The County Sheriff runs a police agency, and Jackson works for Sheriff Clayton as Clayton’s spokesman.

On his LinkedIn profile, Jackson claims a 2012 Schoolcraft College course led to him being a “Certified Law Enforcement Officer – Homeland Security, Law Enforcement, Firefighting and Related Protective Services – MCOLES recruit of the year.”

Records show in 2012 Derrick Jackson completed a four month course at Schoolcraft College that led to a law enforcement certificate, but not certification in any other fields. Schoolcraft College officials could find no evidence that Jackson was “MCOLES recruit of the year.” The Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES) is the agency in Michigan that oversees training programs such as the one offered by Schoolcraft College.

Jackson’s claim to have been the MCOLES recruit of the year is akin to a Washtenaw Community College student claiming to have been the Higher Learning Commission of NCA recruit of the year. Washtenaw Community College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of NCA.

On his campaign website, Jackson embellishes this fairytale and goes from “MCOLES recruit of the year” to “in 2012 Derrick graduated with multiple distinctions from the police academy at Schoolcraft college.” Schoolcraft officials could find no records that Jackson graduated with “multiple distinctions” from any program at the college.

The truth about Derrick Jackson is simple:

• Derrick Jackson has no policing or investigatory experience. His opponents do: Ken Magee has 30 years of leadership and law enforcement experience. Alyshia Dyer has seven years of experience as an enforcement officer, including patrolling the Huron River by boat.
• In his bio. posted to the County website Jackson writes: “Derrick came on with the Sheriff’s Office in 2009 and many have come to know him as the Social Worker that became a police officer.” Jackson in his LinkedIn profile claims, “As a social worker now helping to run a police agency I often merge those two worlds.”
• Unlike Alyshia Dyer, Jackson has never had a license from the State of Michigan as a social worker. To gain a license, an individual must complete at least 4,000 hours of post-degree supervised social work experience over at least a two-year period. Dyer has a limited license and does clinical social work under supervision.

Jackson isn’t only lyin’ when he oughta be truthin’ about his professional qualifications. He can’t even tell the truth about how many votes he got in an election. He claims in his bio on the County website that, “In 2004 Derrick set his eyes on elected office where he ran for the Ypsilanti Township Board of Trustees, and although he would lose by one vote….”

County voting records show the top candidate in that election got 3,033 votes and Jackson got 2,424 votes.

Here’s some more reality:

The number of unsolved murders in our county has hit an all-time high. Over the past half a dozen years, more than 25,000 crimes, including murder, rape, home invasions, armed robberies, and felonious assaults perpetrated throughout Washtenaw County, and reported to the Sheriff’s Dept., have gone unsolved. This has left tens of thousands of victims in Washtenaw County without justice. Sheriff Clayton has had a significant and deleterious impact on community violence over the past half a dozen years.

Between April 1 (the Sheriff’s community violence intervention panel discussion in conjunction with the Washtenaw County Dems) and May 1 (the County’s Community Violence Intervention Summit), within the area policed by the Washtenaw County Sheriff, there were 653 crimes. There were 222 assaults, including with weapons, 14 sex crimes, including criminal sexual conduct with children and rape, 22 burglaries, one murder, and 74 larcenies.

On his campaign website, Derrick Jackson writes, “As a certified law enforcement officer with a background in social work, Derrick knows what it means to implement restorative and rehabilitative practices, while keeping our community safe.”

A certified law enforcement officer who participates in a scheme to abuse public funds for his own benefit, and who habitually lies to the public, is little more than a menace to the community.