by P.D. Lesko
Sheriff Alyshia Dyer’s frequent travel has been criticized by present, as well as former employees who worked under former Sheriff Jerry Clayton. The County Administrator, County Prosecutor, County Treasurer and County Water Resources Commissioner have all complied with the tightened Washtenaw County travel transparency policy adopted by the County Commissioners after the A2Indy and then MLive reported on the extensive and questionable travel of former Racial Equity Officer Alize Asberry Payne. While County employees, including those who work in the courts, submit travel reports which show the total cost of their trips and justify the benefit to the taxpayers of the travel, public records show Sheriff Alyshia Dyer, nor any of her staff, has submitted a single travel report in 2025.
The County’s PCard records and checkbook registers show that in 2025 Dyer and her employees purchased airline tickets (American Airlines, Delta Airlines and Southwest Airlines), paid for stays at luxury hotels costing upwards of $1,000, charged stays at Florida beach resorts and Michigan golf resorts. In total, Dyer and her staff made 236 charges to their county-issued credit cards for travel-related purchases between Feb.-Sept. 2025. Not one trip by the Sheriff and her employees is disclosed in the County’s 2025 Travel Report made available to the public.
County credit card records don’t show any airplane ticket purchases by Dyer, but the County’s 2025 checkbook register shows Dyer has collected multiple per diems paid for travel. The newspaper submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the names of the travellers for whom each of the airplane tickets was purchased by Sheriff’s Dept. administrative assistants throughout 2025.
The Sheriff, while campaigning, admitted she had no financial management experience or skills. The County’s 2025 check register shows that Dyer pays a financial management consulting firm $4,000-$9,000 monthly to help her manage the Sheriff Dept.’s $68.8 million budget (operations, emergency services and corrections).
In June 2024, the A2Indy and then MLive reported that then Sheriff’s candidate Alyshia Dyer had been sued by her credit card company for defaulting on $20,958.98 in debt.
3 A.M. Lyft Rides, Pricey Hotels and Beach Resorts
The Sheriff Dept.’s county credit card records reveal while the County’s rank and file employees have curbed their travel and travel-related expenditures between 2024 and 2025, the new County Sheriff missed the memo. Sheriff Alyshia Dyer’s staff has enjoyed $1,000 stays at luxury hotels, stays at golf and beachfront resorts, casino spending, 3 a.m. Lyft rides and hefty per diems (the Sheriff included). While the County’s 2025 Travel Report documents 160 trips by County employees—each travel report including a purpose for the travel—the Sheriff Dept.’s extensive travel is being hidden from the public.
Dyer’s 2024 campaign website states that, “We deserve a Sheriff’s Office that is focused on accountability, transparency, and true systemic change.”
The newspaper asked Sheriff Alyshia Dyer why her Dept. had not submitted any travel reports in 2025 despite County credit card records showing over 230 travel-related credit card charges having been made by the people in her Dept. The Sheriff has not yet responded.
The newspaper asked the Chair of the County Board of Commissioners, Katie Scott, whether she saw Dyer’s failure to adhere to the County’s travel policy as undermining the authority of the Commissioners, whose travel policy now requires travel reports from all County employees.
Jeremiah Richardson
In violation of the powers granted her by the Michigan Constitution, shortly after she was sworn in Sheriff Dyer appointed her former boyfriend Jeremiah Richardson as the Sheriff Dept.’s HR Manager. Dyer was required to conduct a public hiring for the position and did not. In public comments, the Sheriff said it was her right to appoint her former boyfriend to the position.
Richardson’s policing records (MCOLES) provided to the newspaper by the Michigan State Police revealed that in Dec. 2022 Richardson resigned from his position as a Sheriff’s Deputy.
However, a letter dated May 9, 2024 and signed by WCSO Undersheriff Mark Ptaszek states, “We recently discovered that the reason for his (Richardson’s) separation was incorrectly noted on the requisite MCOLES electronic form as ‘Resigned in Good Standing.’ That is not accurate.” The letter goes on to state that Richardson “Resigned While Under Investigation” and that “The likely outcome would have resulted in terminating his employment as a matter of progressive corrective disciplinary action.”
Dyer made Richardson, whose licensure as a police officer is inactive, and whose MCOLES record is flagged, her staffer in charge of hiring and training Sheriff’s deputies.
- County credit card records show that shortly after he was hired, on Feb. 24, 2025 Richardson charged $871.03 at the Atlanta, GA Hilton with his County credit card.
- The next month, on Mar. 6 and 7, Richardson used his County credit card to charge four hotel rooms at a Comfort Inn.
- In April, Richardson’s county credit card was used to make two more charges at a Hilton hotel.
- On June 9, 2025, Jeremiah Richardson charged a $481.80 stay at a Staybridge Suites hotel. He also collected a $120 per diem payment on June 3, 2025.
- In July, Richardson charged $78.23 at the Monte Carlo Casino and Hotel during a trip that took him to the Las Vegas strip. In 2025, Jeremiah Richardson was the only Washtenaw County employee to spend taxpayer funds at a casino.
In 2024, the newspaper published “Puttin’ on the Ritz (Hilton, Hyatt, & Crowne Plaza): County Employee Credit Card Records.” County records from 2024 showed that taxpayers paid $509.89 for someone in the Circuit Court Administration Dept. to stay at the Silver Legacy Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Circuit Court Administrator Steven Matthews was asked in an email and a phone message to explain the charge. Matthews said in an email that he would reply but did not. In 2025, no Circuit Court employees charged any casino stays to taxpayers.
On Aug. 20, 2025, Jeremiah Richardson charged his county credit card for a $583.57 stay at a Hilton hotel. Six days later, he charged a $240.69 stay at a Comfort Inn. On Sept. 10, 2025, Richardson charged $491.60 and $122.90 at Treetops Resort, a golf resort in northern Michigan. On Sept. 15, 2025, Richardson charged a $384.20 stay at a Candlewood Suites hotel. Seven days later, Richardson charged a $550 stay at a Fairfield hotel as well as a $263.52 charge at a Hilton hotel.
No reports from Jeremiah Richardson required by County policy as per a vote of the Washtenaw County Commissioners were included in the 2025 Travel Report available to the public to explain Richardson’s spending on trips, and almost monthly hotel charges.
Richardson was asked about his hotel expenditures in an email, but has not yet replied.
Richardson’s County credit card also revealed two charges he made to auto body repair shop MAACO.
Cynthia Harrison
Like Jeremiah Richardson, Sheriff Dyer’s “Dir. of Innovation” Ann Arbor City Council member Cynthia Harrison, was appointed and did not participate in a public hiring process. Harrison’s appointment was not included in the Sheriff’s Constitutional powers and violated Washtenaw County hiring policies.
Harrison holds an undergraduate degree from EMU. Her bio. on the Sheriff’s website describes Harrison’s job as one “with a focus on reentry programming, Cynthia’s professional experience includes managing the EmpowerYou Entrepreneurial Program at the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living (since 2023), where she developed and implemented wraparound services for underserved populations. Her work in reentry and equity aligns with her mission to dismantle systemic barriers and improve community outcomes.”
Cynthia Harrison’s bio also says, “Cynthia actively seeks opportunities to learn and apply best practices from other communities. She has visited PAD Atlanta to tour their facilities and learn about their Law Enforcement Diversion program, annually attends the Annual Consortium on Criminal Justice Health, and participated in events hosted by the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE).”
The County’s 2025 credit care records show two $225 charges in Jan. 2025 to the 2025 NOBLE conference, and five unidentified additional charges to NOBLE in Jan. 2025 made by Sheriff’s Dept. employees. Records also show two Delta charges for plane trips to the NOBLE conference in Jan. 2025, one for $1,056.97 and a second one for $753.97.
County 2025 check register records show that between Feb. and Sept. 2025, Harrison collected reimbursements for “employee development” and per diems, both of which suggest Harrison travelled and used taxpayer funds to pay for her travel. Check register records show that in April and July 2025 Harrison was reimbursed for travel and “employee development” from the Sheriff’s Millage proceeds.
Harrison’s county credit card records, like those of former Racial Equity Officer Alize Asberry Payne, show puzzling charges for Lyft rides, including rides at 3 a.m., 4 a.m., a ride at 10 p.m. on a Friday, a ride at 6 p.m. on a Saturday and a 4 p.m. ride on a Sunday. One Lyft charge in June 2025 shows Harrison giving an additional $15.14 tip to her Lyft driver.
No travel reports required by County policy were included in the 2025 Travel Report available to the public to explain Harrison’s spending on travel and how her travel benefitted taxpayers.
Between Jan-October 2025, Washtenaw County’s 3,100 non-Sheriff employees booked just over 300 stays at hotels. During the same period, the Sheriff Dept.’s 325 employees booked 129 hotel stays. No County non-Sheriff employee has booked any limo service in 2025 to date, but County Sheriff’s Dept. employees booked limo rides (OPTIME TRANSPORTATION in Phoenix, AZ) three times, according to public records.
Because the County Sheriff is almost 11 months out of compliance with producing required public travel reports, County Administrator Greg Dill was asked why he has not ordered the County’s Finance Dept. to stop Sheriff Dyer and her employees from using their County credit cards to book travel-related services, and why he has not stopped the Sheriff and her employees from being reimbursed for travel-related per diems. Administrator Dill has not yet replied.
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