Judge says vote on $4M settlement wasn't 'clear enough'

MUSKEGON COUNTY — Although a $4 million settlement agreement was discussed Nov. 6 between the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners and their health officer, the vote afterward wasn't clear enough to be legally binding.

That was the ruling of Muskegon County 14th Circuit Court Judge Jenny McNeill on Friday, Jan. 19, after a day of courtroom action in a billed evidentiary hearing where Health Officer Adeline Hambley and her attorney, Sarah Riley-Howard, planned to hear testimony on what occurred Nov. 6 when the board went into closed session and seemingly voted to accept a settlement agreement in exchange for Hambley and Deputy Health Officer Marcia Mansaray's resignations.

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The board seemingly voted to accept the agreement after the more-than-eight-hour closed session. Details of the agreement included paying Hambley a total of $4 million to step down 10 months after the board tried to demote her without cause in January 2023. She sued in February, claiming the attempt to demote her was unlawful and alleging the Ottawa Impact majority on the board has repeatedly interfered with her state-authorized health duties.

McNeill ruled Dec. 4 that she would privately review the minutes from the closed session and would allow Howard to subpoena Clerk Justin Roebuck and Commissioners Jacob Bonnema, Doug Zylstra, Roger Bergman and Joe Moss, the board's chair and leader of Ottawa Impact, a far-right fundamentalist group that assumed a controlling majority of the board in January 2023.

At the outset of the hearing, county corporation counsel David Kallman renewed his objections to the court allowing the testimony and made a slew of motions to delay, cancel or be granted a stay so he could file with the Michigan Court of Appeals — all were denied.

Kallman asked the judge close the courtroom for testimony, a motion she granted after the idea was supported by Roebuck's personal attorney.

After the courtroom was cleared of the public and members of the media, Roebuck gave testimony for approximately three hours. When witnesses and media reconvened at 1 p.m., Bonnema went seemingly to testify, but returned about 20 minutes later.

Just before 2 p.m., Kallman announced the commissioner witnesses were dismissed and told reporters McNeill canceled the remaining of the hearing.

Kallman told reporters that, after Roebuck finished giving testimony, he renewed his motion to cancel the hearing, which McNeil granted. He said McNeill would not enforce the $4 million settlement agreement, indicating the language in a resolution Moss introduced Nov. 6 to "accept counsel’s recommendation regarding litigation and settlement activities in the case of Hambley v. Ottawa County" was not clear enough to enforce the agreement.

Howard confirmed McNeill ordered the parties to pursue mediation for a new deal, this time with the full board instead of a subcommittee of board members.

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After speaking to reporters, Howard confirmed with The Sentinel that Hambley plans to appeal several of McNeill's decisions Friday, including her choice to close the hearing to the public, not providing the plaintiff a copy of the closed session minutes to review, not allowing testimony to be taken from commissioners and the decision not to enforce the $4 million settlement agreement.

Hambley and Mansaray remain in their positions for now.

— Sarah Leach is the executive editor of The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at sarahleach@hollandsentinel.com. Find her on Twitter @SentinelLeach.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Judge says vote on $4M settlement wasn't 'clear enough'