Equity officer investigated for travel expenses resigns in Washtenaw County

WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI — A top Washtenaw County official who has been on unpaid leave as her travel expenses were investigated has resigned.

County Racial Equity Officer Alize Asberry Payne resigned effective Friday, Aug. 16, County Administrator Gregory Dill confirmed.

“I accepted her resignation, and she is moving on,” Dill said.

There is a separation agreement with Asberry Payne, but Dill declined to make it public.

Payne directed a request for comment to her attorney Robert Burton-Harris. He confirmed Tuesday, Aug. 27, that she had resigned from the county and declined further comment.

Earlier this year, it was revealed Payne had spent thousands of dollars on travel using her county-issued credit card.

“We did look into all of her travel expenses,” Dill said, “And I was satisfied that while the judgement was not the best, there was no major policy violation.”

Records received by MLive/The Ann Arbor News through a Freedom of Information Act request show Asberry Payne requested the leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act and that leave was approved starting on May 3.

She was granted 450 hours of leave as part of her FMLA request. She was able to cash in 404 hours of paid time off and sick time, records show.

Eleven days after requesting leave, MLive/The Ann Arbor News reported Asberry Payne had spent at least 80 days traveling to conferences and events in 2022 and 2023. Records showed that among those trips were visits to Germany, a wellness retreat on the Caribbean coast, and multiple four- and five-star hotel stays exceeding $600 a night.

“She didn’t violate the policy, per se,” Dill said.

“She did, I believe, exercise poor judgement in terms of where she chose to seek professional development opportunities. There are likely some better choices than some of the places that she chose. Overseas travel is not a violation in and of itself of county policy.”

Hired in 2019 to lead the county’s newly-created Racial Equity Office, Asberry Payne sought out training and conference opportunities across the country, travel records show.

MLive/The Ann Arbor News reviewed more than two years of Mastercard statements and hundreds of pages of receipts associated with spending by Asberry Payne, all obtained through FOIA requests.

The trips were for professional conferences or meetings, many with direct links to Asberry Payne’s job responsibilities, addressing racial and socioeconomic disparities within county government, the records show.

The county’s Board of Commissioners in early August amended the county’s travel policy for employees in an effort to improve transparency in spending by county employees, while placing limits on how much travel employees can take and how much money they can use for those functions.

While Asberry Payne was on leave, responsibilities of the Racial Equity Office were divided among Dill and other county employees.

“We’ll likely make some decisions,” he said. “There has not been a job posting as of yet. The ink has just become dry on her resignation.”

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