Abdul El-Sayed left his job as Wayne County’s health director to run for the U.S. Senate. The county still had work for him, apparently. His company, AME Higher LLC, billed $9,000 a month under a consulting deal worth as much as $72,000.
Thirty hours of work a month, at roughly $300 an hour. A fairly comfortable landing after leaving public service.
The Washington Free Beacon reported October 2 that Wayne County retained El-Sayed to help with the leadership transition at its Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services. He had led the department for about two years. They had him down for eight months of consulting, ending in December 2025. The contract was never put before the Wayne County Commission for approval, and it was not disclosed to the public.
Sure, a new director might need help from the person who just left. There will be things to sort out. But eight months? With another $9,000 on the tab every month, taxpayers are entitled to ask what took so long.
Four invoices showed up in the August report. They were submitted between August and December 2025, for $9,000 each. That is $36,000 in billings, with room under the contract for another $36,000. How much was paid out is still a separate question. The report did not account for the full $72,000.
Wayne County was not the only client. He also pulled in over $82,000 from One Health Partners, a Chicago-area company whose owner, Ali Karim, is among his biggest campaign donors and was sanctioned by Wisconsin regulators for defrauding an investor.
Local watchdog Kayleigh Lickliter obtained the paperwork through a public-records request. Among the assignments: data advising, media support, and work for County Executive Warren Evans. El-Sayed also billed for calls involving RxKids, which provides cash assistance to pregnant women and families with babies.
Some of that work put him in front of cameras, and footage from those appearances ended up in his Senate campaign. Lickliter described one appearance this way:
“In August, the same month he and other public officials spoke at a press conference about toxic hazardous waste at Wayne Disposal, Inc. in Van Buren Township, he billed taxpayers for “WDI-related correspondence” and 4.5 hours of media-related support. The media reports that followed referred to El-Sayed as a candidate for U.S. Senate, not a consultant for the county.”
RxKids came up again in December: four hours billed for calls about funding its expansion into Detroit. In January, El-Sayed credited his work with Dr. Mona Hanna in bringing the program to Wayne County. Clips from events connected to that work also made their way into his Senate campaign, the report said.
Naturally, he talked about RxKids while asking people to vote for him. A candidate would. But a county bill was attached to some of this work, and that is where somebody needed to pay attention. Who was checking those hours?
His spokeswoman, Roxie Richner, answered the Free Beacon’s question about the deal by talking about Mike Rogers. And, for some reason, where he lives:
“While Abdul was improving services and making government more efficient for Michigan taxpayers, Mike Rogers was spinning through the revolving door, cashing checks from the same industries he used to regulate in Congress. Mike Rogers repeatedly voted to increase his own salary in Congress before retiring to his Florida mansion as a multimillionaire.”
Rogers’ finances can withstand scrutiny. They do not explain an invoice submitted to Wayne County.
All of it ran through AME Higher. His latest financial disclosure shows he paid himself a $64,000 salary from the company and took an additional $103,000 as a “member draw.” Accountants told the Free Beacon that structure is commonly used to minimize payroll taxes, because member draws are not taxed as regular income. He has talked on the campaign trail about getting money out of politics. So yes, people will ask about his own $9,000-a-month arrangement.
Wayne County could clear up much of this by showing what it paid and what work it received. The invoices are already public. Put the rest beside them. If El-Sayed earned the money, the county should have something to show for it. Taxpayers do not need another paragraph about Mike Rogers’ house.
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