Lawyers battle over what judge actually said in closed Hambley hearing

OTTAWA COUNTY — Attorneys for the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners and the health officer suing them are now arguing over what a judge said at the conclusion of a closed evidentiary hearing last week.

The attorneys — David Kallman for the county and Sarah Riley-Howard for Health Officer Adeline Hambley — both filed motions this week proposing language for Muskegon County 14th Circuit Court to sign summarizing the Jan. 19 hearing, which ultimately concluded that a $4 million settlement agreement the parties reached in November was not legally enforceable because the board resolution approving the deal was too vague.

Howard filed proposed language Jan. 19 — after the hearing — for the judge's written order to say that an agreement was, in fact, reached with Hambley and "a majority of board members approved of the terms of (the) agreement" during a closed session Nov. 6.

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The board voted on the motion after a more-than-eight-hour closed session Nov. 6. Details of the agreement included paying Hambley a total of $4 million to step down, plus the resignation of Deputy Health Officer Marcia Mansaray.

Hambley sued the board in February, claiming an attempt to demote her in January 2023 was unlawful and alleging the Ottawa Impact majority on the board has repeatedly interfered with her state-authorized health duties.

An evidentiary hearing surrounding the settlement was held Jan. 19. McNeill halted the hearing midway through after she ruled four commissioners Howard subpoenaed didn't have to testify and declared the settlement unenforceable.

Howard planned to elicit testimony last week from County Clerk Justin Roebuck and Commissioners Jacob Bonnema, Doug Zylstra, Roger Bergman and Joe Moss, the leader of Ottawa Impact, a far-right fundamentalist group that assumed a controlling majority of the board in January 2023.

Kallman, in a filing Thursday, Jan. 25, said Howard's proposed language "goes beyond" McNeill’s orders.

"Most of the language proposed in the submitted order is (Hambley’s) interpretations of, and additions to, this Court’s orders and does not agree with this Honorable Court’s actual rulings," he said. "The language is inconsistent with the actual findings of the Court."

Howard's newest filing is called a seven-day order, in which, after a judge orally grants a judgment, often referred to as "from the bench," a party may serve a copy of the proposed judgment to other involved parties. If there are no objections to accuracy or completeness, the document is submitted to the court for signing.

Howard's proposed order language says the board "made offers and counteroffers on Nov. 6 to (Hambley) through the lawyers for the attorneys, and a majority of board members approved of the terms of an agreement which were as plaintiff described ... and directed legal counsel to write up a written agreement with those terms."

Kallman's version has no details on the settlement agreement, other than to label it as "alleged."

The court has set a hearing date of Feb. 14 to settle what the proposed order will say; Howard has already filed a motion for McNeill to reconsider her decision to close the hearing to the public.

"I think the public has a right to know what was talked about and the basis for the judge's decision," Howard told reporters Jan. 19. "The judge decided that, after taking the testimony of the first witness ... that the board tended to agree but didn't effectively ratify the decision."

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Howard also is planning to appeal the fact that she wasn't provided a copy of the closed session minutes to review (the commissioners and the judge have reviewed them), not allowing testimony to be taken from the subpoenaed commissioners and the decision not to enforce the 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: Lawyers battle over what judge actually said in closed Hambley hearing