Washtenaw County Employee Survey: County Leadership Distrusted & Ethics Lacking

Download the Washtenaw County employee survey results (all scores) below.

by P.D. Lesko

The Ann Arbor Independent received a tip that the Washtenaw County 2024 employee satisfaction survey results were being withheld from the public in order to figure out how to spin the news that 67 percent of survey respondents said that there was not open, honest communication “at this organization.” Worse still, only 39 percent of respondents said they had trust in Washtenaw County leadership. The survey results, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, showed that out of the County’s approximately 1,100 employees, 679 County employees responded to the survey.

The 2024 survey showed that among the top five areas where Washtenaw County employees felt like their employer needs to improve were (in order of importance) pay and benefits, leadership, base pay, resources and the execution of organization-wide goals. On the plus side of the survey, 71 percent of employees who responded said that the organization made good use of their employees’ skills and abilities. While top-level leadership, including Administration and the County Commissioners, was seen as suffering from a lack of honesty, ethics, and poor communication, 79 percent of those surveyed said that they had “trust in [their] manager.”

In terms of workplace safety, 78 percent of the survey participants said they felt workplace safety was sufficient. Likewise, 77 percent of employees who took the survey said that they felt respected. Overall, the survey showed that 65 percent of those surveyed said they intended to stay in their County jobs.

Another area where employees felt their employer did well was in training. Seventy-five percent of survey respondents said the County did a good job training employees. While 75 percent is three percent less than the global benchmark included in the survey results, it was 8 percent higher than the 2023 governmental benchmark.

Counties in the U.S. employ more than 3.5 million people. While it may appear that the Washtenaw County 2024 survey’s 35 percent projected turnover rate may be low, it’s not. According to Matt Chase, the Executive Dir. of the National Association of Counties (NACo), “Turnover rates in state and local governments in some places top 25 percent. It is our No. 1 [issue],” said Chase. “You can’t do anything without people.”

According to NACo research, pay and benefits rank as the number one concern for county employees. The Washtenaw County 2024 survey reflects this. However, taxpayers in Washtenaw County face the highest property taxes in Michigan. Washtenaw County residents pay, on average, $1,400 more in property taxes than the residents of Wayne County. In our county, the Median Annual Real property Tax Payment is $4,079 and the Average Effective Real property Tax Rate is 1.76 percent.

Governmental entities are forced to compete with business employers when hiring, and the best qualified and most experienced candidates often go where the pay and benefits are the most generous. This leaves counties in the difficult position of choosing among a smaller pool of top-notch talent. Indeed, as was shown with the hiring of the former Racial Equity Dir. Alize Asberry Payne, whose educational and job qualifications the A2Indy revealed were fabricated, county hiring teams and elected officials can be blinded by political optics, and driven by the desire to fill a high profile position.

Between 2019, when she was hired at a salary of $105,000 and her Aug. 16, 2024 resignation, County Administrator Greg Dill increased Asberry Payne’s annual salary to $147,000 absent any evaluations or reviews of her work. At the same time, County Commissioners increased Dill’s pay to $300,000 and he recommended increasing their annual pay. In 2016, County Commissioners earned $15,911 for their part-time jobs. On July 12, 2024 the Commissioners voted to increase their own salaries to $36,315.

While Dill’s proposed pay raise pushed his compensation over $300,000, at the July 12, 2024 meeting the County Administrator proposed Commissioners vote to direct the “County negotiating team to at least meet the basic needs as residents…and increase the hourly rate of pay for the lowest paid, regular employee to be no less than $20.50.”

This is a poverty wage for an individual with a child living in Washtenaw County. It is also a poverty wage for a couple working and living in Washtenaw County.

Since 2016, the County Administrator has recommended increasing pay for County Commissioners by 115 percent. During the same period, the County Commissioners have hiked the County Administrator’s pay over 100 percent.

Presentation documents from 2008 and 2016 surveys showed that Washtenaw County employees were of the opinion that leadership did little to correct problems and did not follow up on issues that employees surveyed said needed improvement. Today, some 16 years after the 2008 survey, the 2024 survey revealed that 76 percent of County employees were of the opinion that there was poor “survey follow up.”

The County employees’ lack of trust in County leadership (61 percent said they don’t trust County leadership), as compared to global and governmental benchmarks, stood 31 percent and 19 percent lower, respectively, than those two benchmarks.

Fifty-seven percent of the survey respondents said Washtenaw County government is focused on customers, and 45 percent of the respondents said County government is aligned with its strategic mission.