Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Sheriff Public Comments topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Residents and advocates defend Sheriff Alicia Dyer at Washtenaw County meeting
Summary
Dozens of residents and advocacy groups urged the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners to stop public attacks on newly elected Sheriff Alicia Dyer and to work with her office, citing her trauma-informed approach and urging restorative processes.
Dozens of residents and community-group representatives told the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners on Dec. 3 that elected officials should stop berating Sheriff Alicia Dyer and should instead support her stated reforms.
Public speakers — including Laura Sanders, a Dexter Township trustee, Brenda Anderson and Beth Kennedy from Ann Arbor Indivisible, and several Ypsilanti and county residents — described a pattern of public comments they said were demeaning to Dyer. "We elected her because she has a more holistic vision," Laura Sanders said, describing the sheriff as "trauma informed" and urging commissioners to back her programs, including limits on lockdowns.
The comments followed a contentious public discussion in previous meetings about the sheriff's budget and use of lockdowns. Several speakers said commissioners' social-media posts and public remarks amounted to public berating that undermines the sheriff's work. "Stop using Facebook to demean her," Sanders said. Other commenters, including Emmy Dustow, directly accused specific commissioners of treating the sheriff unprofessionally and called recent agenda items and statements "retaliatory."
Commissioners acknowledged public concern during follow-up remarks. Commissioner LaBarre thanked speakers and said the board should "stand strong" on matters such as resisting ICE requests and called out federal rhetoric that he described as racially charged. Commissioner Somerville said she had unanswered budget questions but supported action on human-resources changes based on information presented in a prior closed session.
The board did not take any disciplinary action during the meeting. The session included routine votes and the passage of a resolution to centralize human-resources functions for countywide elected offices — an action some public speakers had linked to tensions with the sheriff's office. The meeting concluded after a brief closed-session vote on bargaining strategy and litigation.
The next procedural step for matters involving the sheriff will be the implementation of the HR-transfer resolution, which commissioners said was intended to protect employees and align HR functions countywide. No further formal actions targeting the sheriff were taken in open session at this meeting.
