Judge to consider whether Ottawa County health officer was properly appointed

OTTAWA COUNTY — The legal showdown between Ottawa County’s health officer and the Ottawa Impact-led county commission finally came to pass Friday, March 31, in court.

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Adeline Hambley filed her lawsuit Feb. 13 in Ottawa County’s 20th Circuit Court, claiming several Ottawa Impact-linked commissioners have repeatedly interfered with her ability to do her job and have overreached their authority by attempting to limit her state-authorized health duties, including standing in the way of critical contracts the county has with local health providers.

The case was assigned to Muskegon's 14th Circuit Court after all Ottawa County judges recused themselves from hearing the case.

Hambley’s attorney, Sarah Riley Howard, requested that Judge Jenny L. McNeill extend a temporary restraining order that McNeill granted March 2, so the facts in dispute could be explored in a trial.

“Our position is that she was duly appointed as the public health officer,” Howard said. “It would be irreparable to remove her in the manner in which they did Jan. 3 within an hour of being sworn in.”

The lawsuit argues the board improperly demoted Hambley to "interim health officer," a "constructive termination," on Jan. 3 — intending to replace her with their preferred health officer candidate, Nathaniel Kelly, who aligns with their beliefs and values.

Hambley's suit names Board Chair Joe Moss, Vice Chair Sylvia Rhodea, and Commissioners Lucy Ebel, Gretchen Cosby, Roger Belknap, Allison Miedema and Rebekah Curran; all of whom voted to "demote" Hambley at the board's inaugural meeting. An amended complaint filed March 24 also named the board of commissioners as an entity.

Hambley said her 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.

“Here, there has been absolutely no allegation of wrongdoing against my client,” Howard said. “And there are no intentions of the defendants for protection of her position.”

In presenting the case for the commissioners, David Kallman of Kallman Legal Group said Hambley’s claims are without merit because she wasn’t properly appointed to the position in December 2022 and the board has an absolute right to supervise the health officer’s position.

“The standard has not been met. They’re saying bad faith is the issue. No, it’s not. The issue is, ‘Did the board act within its scope of authority?’ There’s no question that it was.”

More: Court of Appeals upholds Ottawa County health officer's right to issue mask mandate

A key dispute was if Hambley’s appointment is binding to the new board, which is now controlled by Ottawa Impact, an upstart far-right political group borne from clashes over the county’s COVID-19 mitigation mandates in 2020.

Its founders, Moss and Rhodea, were unsuccessful in suing the previous board of commissioners and the county's former health officer, Lisa Stefanovsky, who retired as of Friday.

In response, 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 the TRO 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 the board when they voted to appoint Hambley — and further alleged former board chair Matt Fenske and county clerk Justin Roebuck later changed the written resolution in private, which he asserted was a violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act.

Fenske did not respond to a request for comment as of publication deadline. Roebuck had an out-of-office message saying he would not return until April 11.

Commissioner Roger Bergman confirmed to The Sentinel a copy of the written resolution was provided to the board prior to the vote to appointment Hambley. At the board's regular meeting Feb. 28, Commissioner Doug Zylstra addressed a public commenter also confirming the board was provided a copy of the resolution and that he still has a copy today.

Kallman said the approved minutes reflect former Commissioner Phil Kuyers’ verbal motion that the board needed to vote a second time after Hambley passed necessary background checks in order to be fully appointed.

“Clerk and chairman intentionally omitted the first contingency,” Kallman said. “There was no transparency. Boards speak through their official minutes and lawful resolutions based on a public hearing.”

Howard questioned Kallman as to why the board would ever intend to meet to vote a second time.

“Why does that make sense?” she asked.

Kallman said the bottom line wasn't what the former board intended to do, it’s what they did do.

“They’re stuck with what they did,” he said.

As to Hambley’s claims that the board continues to interfere with her duties — citing issues with a countywide health survey and a contract that provides dental services to underserved residents — Kallman said Hambley needs to accept that the board has a say.

“The board is not required to rubber stamp her blank check funding requests. They can’t ask questions? She’s subject to their oversight, whether she likes it or not. Whether they want to fund the study or not — fund the grants or not. It’s entirely up to them,” he said.

McNeill said she would review the documents filed from both parties and would issue a written opinion as soon as possible; she did not indicate a specific timeline. While she's weighing her ruling, McNeill said she would allow the TRO to remain in place, which prohibits the commission from firing Hambley.

After the hearing concluded, both attorneys addressed reporters.

“We hope the judge follows the law as we laid it out,” Kallman said.

“We disagree significantly with this fact position that the defense took,” Howard said.

Hambley, commenting for the first time on the lawsuit, stressed that a health officer position is unique in that its duties and responsibilities need to be above politics.

“I’m not a Democrat, I’m not a Republican, I’m not a Libertarian — any of those things and your health officer shouldn’t be. They should not be practicing politics in that role. They should be following science and protecting everyone in the community,” she said.

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When asked how morale was at the health department, Hambley said employees are worried, but will continue to perform their jobs professionally.

“It seems people are stressed. They’re concerned about their jobs and being able to do them,” she said. “It’s a department full of tough professionals. They just came through COVID and they want to get back to their jobs and their duties. They’re dedicated to that — dedicated to their communities.”

Moss, who attended the hearing, did not respond to the media’s requests for comment.

— 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: Judge to consider whether Ottawa County health officer was properly appointed