Lawsuit: Health officer says Ottawa Impact commissioners targeted her

OTTAWA COUNTY — Ottawa County’s "interim" health officer has sued seven Ottawa Impact-backed county commissioners, claiming they're preventing her from doing her job and “constructively terminated” her by voting to demote her during the board’s inaugural meeting.

After being sworn in Tuesday, Jan. 3, the new board — including eight members backed by far-right political group Ottawa Impact — made several sweeping changes, including:

• Firing county administrator John Shay and replacing him with former GOP congressional candidate John Gibbs without conducting a public interview.

• Eliminating the county’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office.

• Choosing a new health officer to replace Adeline Hambley, the appointed successor to outgoing officer Lisa Stefanovsky, naming her "interim" health officer, instead.

• Firing county corporate counsel Doug Van Essen, and hiring Lansing-based Kallman Legal Group.

• Changing the county’s motto from “Where You Belong” to “Where Freedom Rings."

The total cost to taxpayers from the changes are expected to reach at least $300,000 — the altered logo and branding costs are not yet known — but that number could rise, as Ottawa Impact faces its first significant legal challenge in the courts.

More:Ottawa County Board abruptly fires administrator, hires former GOP candidate John Gibbs

More:County attorney pleaded with Ottawa Impact not to fire Shay. 'You will send shock waves.'

Hambley filed her lawsuit Friday, Feb. 10, in Ottawa County’s 20th Circuit Court, naming seven of the eight Ottawa Impact commissioners as defendants: Board Chair Joe Moss, Vice Chair Sylvia Rhodea, and Commissioners Lucy Ebel, Gretchen Cosby, Roger Belknap, Allison Miedema and Rebekah Curran.

The remaining Ottawa Impact commissioner, Jacob Bonnema, wasn't present at the Jan. 3 meeting.

The question over who ultimately has the authority to control public health orders has been challenged in Ottawa County multiple times since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In October 2020, the Ottawa County Department of Public Health issued numerous warnings to Hudsonville-based private Christian school Libertas over its failure to comply with the state’s health orders.

The school, where Moss’ children attend, was briefly closed by the county, which prompted an unsuccessful lawsuit from parents.

A second lawsuit, filed by Moss and other parents in September 2021, claimed Stefanovsky overstepped her authority and should have sought approval from the county board before issuing a countywide mask order for pre-K-6 students. That suit was also unsuccessful, and the district court’s findings were upheld on appeal.

More:Appeals court denies relief in Libertas closure lawsuit

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

By April 2022, Moss had announced his bid for county commissioner, forming Ottawa Impact and recruiting others to join him. The group made no secret on the campaign trail that it intended to prevent any future mask mandates and that OCDPH would face intense scrutiny over the distribution of sexual health materials and related information.

Eight of nine OI candidates defeated the board’s Republican incumbents in the August primary, and now sit on the board.

“After the commissioners were sworn into office for the 2023-24 term, Defendant Miedema made a motion to demote Plaintiff Hambley to 'Interim' Health Officer, in favor of the hiring of Nathaniel Kelly as Health Officer,” the lawsuit states.

“Upon information and belief, this motion was part of an overall political strategy the Individual Defendant Commissioners orchestrated prior to taking office. The motion to demote Plaintiff was not on the public agenda posted prior to the meeting. The Individual Defendant Commissioners voted to approve the motion.”

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The actions taken Jan. 3 were added to the agenda after incoming commissioners changed the rules to make it easier to add items without prior notice.

Attorney General Dana Nessel’s Office announced Jan. 4 it was reviewing the board’s meeting for numerous potential violations of the state's Open Meetings Act. That review was ongoing, as of press time.

Hambley says the demotion to “interim” health officer was “a constructive termination,” and that an actual termination is looming.

“By their public statements, Defendants have made clear that Plaintiff’s actual termination as the Health Officer, and possible complete termination from her county employment, is imminent,” the lawsuit says.

Replacing Hambley with Kelly would achieve the OI commissioners’ goal of having a health officer who aligns with their beliefs and values.

“Defendants’ reasons for demoting Plaintiff and announcing the hiring of Mr. Kelly … were philosophical and political, because Defendants oppose the exercise of many of the Health Officer’s statutory powers under state law to initiate orders and other actions for protection of the public health,” the lawsuit states.

Kelly has been vocal about his anti-mask and anti-vaccine stances. Kelly, the health and safety manager at a Grand Rapids-area HVAC company, has no previous work history in public health and said he would recommend kits for individuals infected by COVID-19 with vitamins, ivermectin and neti pots, but not masking or social distancing.

“No social distancing would be suggested since it has no basis in any proven science,” Kelly said during an event in 2022. “No mass testing for asymptomatic individuals; asymptomatic individuals do not transmit disease.”

Kelly, a self-described “autodidact,” has defended his credentials, arguing his experience with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration during his military career inspired him to continue his education through the online for-profit college Columbia Southern University. Kelly has two degrees from the college, including a master of public health in 2020 and a master in occupational health in 2018.

Hambley has worked in OCDPH for nearly 19 years, serving as environmental health manager since 2011. In that role, she oversaw the food inspection program, sustainability centers and well and septic programs. She holds a bachelor's degree in biology and a master's in business administration, both from Grand Valley State University.

The former board appointed Hambley to the position in December after Stefanovsky announced her retirement in August.

More:Ottawa County board picks internal candidate as new health officer

More:Ottawa County Health Officer Lisa Stefanovsky announces retirement just weeks after fateful primary

In her lawsuit, Hambley says the OI commissioners failed to follow county hiring procedures and still haven’t submitted Kelly’s credentials to the state for approval, which is required under state law.

“Defendants never posted the position of Health Officer after they assumed office … nor did they observe any standard and customary county hiring practices, like taking applications or holding interviews with candidates … that were open to the public,” the lawsuit says.

“Instead, the Individual Defendant Commissioners selected Mr. Kelly as their favored choice for the Health Officer in secret meetings not open to the public, and without any public process for vetting him as a candidate.”

OI Commissioner Cosby, who previously worked as a registered nurse, admitted Jan. 31 that she vetted Kelly's resume through Ottawa Impact prior to being sworn in as a commissioner — and that she couldn't recall reviewing any other applications.

The lawsuit claims Ottawa Impact is attempting to justify demoting Hambley, so it can install Kelly and possibly have Hambley continue to perform most of the health officer duties in a demoted capacity.

“If Defendants continue to employ Plaintiff, it will be in a demoted, mostly ministerial and clerical, position so that the Ottawa County Health Department falsely appears to function with Mr. Kelly at the helm with some semblance of competence and statutory compliance, even though Mr. Kelly lacks relevant and necessary professional experience to perform the Health Officer role,” the lawsuit states.

Hambley says the OI defendants are attempting to “manufacture alleged cause to criticize Plaintiff’s performance of her duties and/or to manufacture political controversy.”

The lawsuit comes on the heels of allegations from Moss the OCDPH appeared to “sponsor” Grand Valley State University’s Sex Ed Week, which concluded Friday.

More:Sex Ed Week at GVSU has Ottawa Impact digging into county's health department

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After an anonymous blog post accused OCDPH of sponsoring what it characterized as a “raunchy” event, Moss went on far-right West Michigan radio personality Justin Barclay’s Feb. 9 broadcast, saying “there needs to be accountability where it needs to be, and critical thought when making decisions on what kind of events people decide to participate in or sponsor and support."

The publicity the allegations drew resulted in local media inquiries to OCDPH, which responded through its communications officer, Alison Clark, who said OCDPH was not a sponsor of the event, and coincidentally was conducting its monthly sexually transmitted infections clinic at GVSU in Allendale, a practice that's been ongoing for three years.

The health department requested GVSU remove the department’s logo from its website “because it gave the appearance that the department is a sponsor of this event, and it is not. OCDPH did not contribute any funding for this event," Clark said in the statement.

“A conservative internet blog and Defendant Moss made public statements inferring that the student event was an example of something unseemly that the Health Department was sponsoring,” Hambley’s lawsuit stated. “As is a common part of the Health Officer’s duties, Plaintiff clarified when asked by local news media that the Health Department was not sponsoring the event.”

After providing the statement to MLive, Clark asked her words be retracted. When asked why, she told MLive it was at the request of Ottawa County Administrator John Gibbs.

Hambley says in her lawsuit that Gibbs emailed and ordered her to have the statement retracted because he didn't approve of its release.

On Feb. 10, “Mr. Gibbs spoke to Plaintiff and was very upset, reprimanded her for not obtaining prior approval from him to release a statement, said the statement was not truthful, and that there ‘would be consequences,’” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff respectfully advised Mr. Gibbs that she disagreed with retracting the statement and stated why she believed her statement was true and appropriate.”

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Hambley said Gibbs then accused an OCDPH employee of being involved with the GVSU event and wanted an investigation conducted.

“When Plaintiff responded that she believed that the employee that Mr. Gibbs was accusing participated (if at all) on her own personal time, Mr. Gibbs’ response was: ‘I don’t give a f*** if it was done in a personal capacity or not.’ Plaintiff believes that Mr. Gibbs’ insistence on an ‘investigation’ could be an attempt to fire this employee for potentially volunteering for the event on his/her personal time.”

Hambley said the GVSU incident is the latest example of being asked by Gibbs and the OI commissioners to “name names” in an attempt to “micromanage Plaintiff in the performance of the Health Officer duties, even though state law provides the Health Officer with duties and powers specifically free of this type of interference for particular policy reasons.”

During a somewhat contentious health and human services committee meeting on Jan. 31, Commissioner Jacob Bonnema — not named in the lawsuit — addressed Hambley, saying two links on OCDPH’s sexual health page in early 2022 were “activist websites filled with vulgar material, vulgar language, anti-Supreme Court information.”

Those links were removed last spring.

After Hambley pointed out to Bonnema that all available health department personnel were dedicated to pandemic-mitigation efforts for the past three years, and that monitoring links wasn't a priority during the health crisis, he insisted on knowing the identity of the person who put the links on the site.

More:Ottawa commissioners spar over health officer choice during committee meeting

“Who advocated for those websites to be the two on our website? Any progress (on) figuring out who that person was? … I’d like you to come back with a name,” he told Hambley.

OI commissioners Ebel and Rhodea supported Bonnema's request.

The commissioners “advised Plaintiff during a public meeting that Plaintiff would be required to identify individual Health Department employees who have followed prior instructions on programs with which the Individual Defendant Commissioners disagree — with the apparent intent of requiring discipline and/or termination of those employees,” Hambley’s lawsuit states.

The lawsuit seeks declaratory, injunctive and punitive relief.

A declaratory judgment allows a judge to outline the rights of parties without ordering any specific action or awarding damages.

Hambley is asking the court to declare her the health officer for Ottawa County, without any “interim” designation or demotion, and find the commissioners may not appoint Kelly.

Hambley also wants the judge to affirm the commissioners may not remove her from the position, unless:

• They have “just cause,” or can prove misconduct

• They provide notice of all allegations constituting any such misconduct

• They provide the opportunity for a public hearing

Both former corporate counsel Van Essen, in 2020, and former state attorney general Mike Cox, in a parallel legal opinion in 2021, said the board could only remove the health officer if she was “incompetent to execute properly the duties of the office” or if she was “guilty of official misconduct or habitual or willful neglect of duty,” but said the board could only pursue the latter two reasons after a hearing in which the health officer and her legal counsel could be heard.

An injunction is a remedy that prevents a party from taking certain actions or requires a party to act in a certain way. It's typically available when there's no other legal remedy and irreparable harm will result if the relief isn't granted.

Hambley says the commissioners’ actions are actively interfering with her ability to perform her duties as outlined by the state, so she's seeking a temporary and permanent injunction — the former in the immediate and the latter at final judgment — prohibiting the commissioners from demoting her.

“Plaintiff reasonably fears that she will be unable to carry out the duties required of the Health Officer under state law, even in an 'Interim' designation, and that this state of affairs is a danger to the public health,” the lawsuit states. “In the event of a public health crisis requiring swift action, it is unlikely that Plaintiff would be able to obtain a legal remedy from this Court in time to respond and exercise her duties under Michigan law.”

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” violated Michigan public policy.

“As a result of the foregoing, Plaintiff will or has lost earnings and benefits; has lost necessary authority to perform her job duties in compliance with state law without fear of retribution and retaliation; and has incurred mental anguish, emotional distress, unfair reputational damage, and legal costs for which Defendants are liable,” the lawsuit states.

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Hambley is seeking “economic and compensatory damages in an amount that would fully compensate” her.

Sarah Riley Howard, of Grand Rapids-based Pinsky, Smith, Fayette and Kennedy, is representing Hambley.

It’s unclear who will be representing the commissioners. When they voted to approve their contract with Kallman, commissioners acknowledged Van Essen was still serving the county in a litigation capacity.

The case has been assigned to Judge Jon Hulsing. The defendants will have 21 days to respond after being properly served.

— 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: Lawsuit: Health officer says Ottawa Impact commissioners targeted her