'Integrity matters': Ottawa County denied appeal in Hambley case

OTTAWA COUNTY — The Michigan Court of Appeals has dismissed an appeal filed Monday, May 1, by the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners after a circuit court judge granted a preliminary injunction preventing the group from firing its health officer.

Muskegon 14th Circuit Court Judge Jenny L. McNeill granted Adeline Hambley a preliminary injunction April 18, allowing Hambley to remain in her position until a trial can take place later this year over the myriad claims she made that Ottawa Impact-linked commissioners have repeatedly interfered with her ability to do her job.

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On Tuesday, May 2, the COA released an order — not even 24 hours after the appeal was filed — dismissing the request.

The appeal was dismissed, the court said, because McNeill's order is not yet final, and only final orders are appealable by right. The commission will have the right to appeal following the outcome of the pending trial, or if the courts give the board permission to appeal before then. A trial date has not yet been scheduled.

The commissioners, represented by Kallman Legal Group, claimed the April ruling was "both final and not final," in that it granted Hambley's request for injunctive relief, but not the other parts of her lawsuit that dealt with a request for declaratory judgment and punitive damages. Kallman asked the COA to dissolve the preliminary injunction.

Punitive damages are considered punishment and are usually awarded at a judge’s discretion when a defendant's behavior is found to be especially harmful. Hambley claims the demotion and “constructive termination” of her position violated Michigan public policy. A declaratory judgment allows a judge to outline the rights of parties without ordering any specific action or awarding damages.

In her lawsuit, Hambley asked the court to declare her the health officer of Ottawa County, without any “interim” designation or demotion, and find the commissioners may not appoint their preferred candidate, Nathaniel Kelly, whom they tried to install Jan. 3.

Kelly applied through the Ottawa Impact organization for the position — before the Ottawa Impact commissioners took office, according to statements made by OI Commissioner Gretchen Cosby, District 1, who said she personally vetted Kelly for the job.

Kelly is a health and safety manager at a Grand Rapids-area HVAC company. He has no previous work history in public health and said he'd recommend kits for individuals infected by COVID-19 with vitamins, ivermectin and neti pots, but not masking or social distancing.

That aligns with the beliefs and values of the founders of Ottawa Impact — Joe Moss and Sylvia Rhodea — who created the far-right fundamentalist group after clashes with the county and its COVID-19 mitigation mandates in 2020 and 2021.

Moss and Rhodea were unsuccessful in suing the previous board of commissioners and the county's former health officer, Lisa Stefanovsky, so they targeted seats on the board in 2022, recruiting like-minded candidates who agreed “traditional Republicans” weren’t enforcing true conservative policies. They successfully defeated enough incumbents in the August primary to win the majority.

McNeill granted a temporary restraining order just days after OI commissioners made a "correction" to a resolution the former board approved on Dec. 13 appointing Hambley to the role after Stefanovsky announced in August she planned to retire in the spring.

The OI commissioners argue the resolution approving Hambley’s appointment "did not accurately reflect the actual motion and vote that took place at the meeting" because there were wording discrepancies between the written resolution and the verbal motion made by one of the commissioners prior to the unanimous vote to appoint Hambley.

Kallman said the written resolution the previous board approved wasn't in front of commissioners when they voted to appoint Hambley — and further alleged former Board Chair Matt Fenske and County Clerk Justin Roebuck changed the written resolution in private, which he asserted was a violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act.

Both Fenske and Roebuck have denied the allegation.

McNeill said in her ruling that was a "misinterpretation of the events."

"The board approved the appointment of (Hambley) as Ottawa County Administrative Health Officer at the Dec. 13, 2022, meeting by a unanimous vote," McNeill wrote in her ruling. "The only remaining contingencies at that point in time were confirmation by the MDHHS and passing the county's background check process."

Howard said in her filings that Hambley's position grants her certain powers through the state and that her position is of a “just cause” nature, where the supervising authority — the board of commissioners — would need to provide a reason, or cause, to fire her, and could only do so after a public hearing, where she could be represented by legal counsel.

McNeill agreed, saying if commissioners want to fire Hambley, they must follow outlined procedures in the law to do so. That aspect of the judge's decision reaffirms previous legal opinions provided to the county by former corporate counsel Doug Van Essen and former state attorney general Mike Cox.

Roebuck addressed the allegations from Kallman during a board meeting May 9.

"Corporation counsel for the county of Ottawa on March 31, in public court, made an accusation against me that I secretly altered documents that were passed by this board and that I violated the Open Meetings Act in doing so," he said. "I just wanted to address that publicly here and let you know, as your clerk, those allegations are patently and demonstrably false.

"Integrity matters a lot to us. We serve, we provide you customer service, but we also take our oaths very seriously. The promise of my oath of office is to do exactly what the law says and the constitution of the state of Michigan in regards to my relationship with you. ... We will, at every cost, defend the integrity of our office."

Afterward, Commissioners Rebekah Curran and Jacob Bonnema apologized to Roebuck.

"I just wanted to say, for the record, that ... I echo your sentiment this morning as far as the court case and the accusations that were levied against you with absolutely no proof or evidence at all. I apologize for that and I just wanted you to know that," Curran said.

"I was going to say the same thing, just to echo those sentiments," Bonnema said. "I’ve known everyone in your department to be full of integrity, incredibly responsive. ... I really admire that about you. When these baseless claims against your department came from the Kallman Group, I was very disturbed. Especially when I found out that they never reached out to talk to you about these concerns. They just used them in court. ... You have my full confidence and many other commissioners’ full confidence."

More: Ottawa Clerk: Kallman accusations of illegal actions 'categorically false'

Commissioner Gretchen Cosby said she heard Kallman's legal arguments differently.

"I did not hear that as an accusation against you, Justin," she said. "I didn’t hear it that way. They weren’t willing to speculate, I thought, is what I remember. It’s been a couple months ago."

"I’d be happy to provide you the court transcripts," Roebuck said.

— Sarah Leach is executive editor of The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at sarah.leach@hollandsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @SentinelLeach.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: 'Integrity matters': Ottawa County denied appeal in Hambley case