Letters to the Editor: What is the Ottawa Impact group doing?

What is the Ottawa Impact group doing?

Since the beginning of 2024, the Ottawa Impact members have continued to shoot themselves in the foot. They have shut the members of non-Impact members on committees by giving them a seat on one committee while giving themselves seats on four to six committees. Joe Moss appears to be showing his narcissistic behavior with wanting to control everything at the county with no dissension or discussion. He wants his Impact puppets to follow him and anybody who objects is punished, those being Commissioners Bonnema, Bergman and Zylstra. They have been ostracized by Moss and ignored. Our AAA bond status is in jeopardy.

Ottawa Impact has retained an attorney at taxpayers' expense to combat County Administrator Gibbs, whose attorney threatened to file suit in a Jan. 15 letter if Gibbs is fired. What a mess that Gibbs is trying to protect his job as well as his severance pay and health insurance which runs through 2025 (approximately $500,000 or more) and the Ottawa Impact commissioners are forming a defense for that event. In my opinion, Gibbs deserves to be fired immediately due to his incompetence.

However, Ottawa Impact hired him a year ago and if Gibbs was fired without cause, they would have egg on their face and have to admit they were WRONG. They will probably never do that so we continue with VERY POOR leadership in Ottawa County in 2024. They also took away Gibbs' hiring power when a month ago they gave him the Human Resources Department to run and their hiring power.

The board, upon Gibbs' recommendation with Moss’ influence, approved up to $100,000 to spend to provide help with strategic planning. The administrator always did this in the past; however, it appears that is another part of Gibbs' job he is unable to do. What does Gibbs do anyway? Will this be done by another one of Moss’ friends that he owes a favor to and he can control that process?

Unfortunately, our county has sunk to bottom and it will take years to undo the destruction they have caused. The first test for positive change is the recall of Ms. Ebel in May. She is ineffective in her role on the board. Get out and vote for good governance by recalling her.

Bob Spaman

Blendon Township

Don't support Trump's quest for power

In 1864, Lincoln was running against Gen. McClennan. And if McClennan won, he planned to seek an armistice with the Confederacy, essentially recognizing the independence of the Confederate States.

As dire as this seemed, Lincoln certified in writing in front of his cabinet that even if he lost, he would support the peaceful transfer of power.

In 2000, the race was close between Bush and Gore. Gore challenged the election, as was his right. But when the Supreme Court declared Bush the winner, Gore supported the peaceful transfer of power.

Gore, as the sitting vice president had to certify the election in front of Congress. No one asked him to and he did not think to throw out the valid electoral votes to make himself president.

In 2020, Trump lost his re-election bid. How do I know this? Evidence.

• Trump lost 60 court challenges in federal court, many in front of Trump-appointed judges.

• The Republican Secretary of State in Georgia, who voted for Trump, informed Trump there was no evidence of voter fraud and refused to “find” the votes Trump wanted.

• Attorney General Barr initiated an investigation into the election and found no fraud. When he informed Trump of this, he was immediately forced to resign.

• The following senior government officials told Trump there was no evidence of fraud and that he lost the election: Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, campaign attorney Jason Miller, other campaign attorneys, daughter Ivanka Trump

• FOX News was ordered to pay Dominion Voting Machine Co. $787 million for defamation; when FOX anchors claimed falsely that the Dominion machines were used to steal the election from Trump.

However, Trump refused to acknowledge his defeat and is torching our democracy to regain power he legitimately lost.

I urge you not to support Trump in his efforts to steal our democracy. If Trump is allowed to steal our democracy it will be almost impossible to get it back.

Ron Addison

Spring Lake Township

The never-ending Trump trope

Donald Trump has a very telling sign language. You really don't even have to listen to what he is saying. Turn off the volume and just watch his hands. He holds them in a way that he is trying to tell you the size of something. And he is. It's the size of the lie he is telling at that exact moment. Nothing new. Same old routine. Witch hunt, I'm the victim, blah, blah, and one more blah.

Frank Miller

Park Township

Is climate change a false alarm?

Bjorn Lomborg has written a book, “False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, And Fails to Fix the Planet.” Lomborg is visiting professor at Copenhagen Business School and visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.

What I have read rings true. There is a global warming problem, but it is manageable. The U.S. has always solved problems through innovation and common-sense measures to make life better for all. In my opinion, this is how we will solve this problem as well.

Some excerpts:

Which headline do you think would sell the most newspapers? “Life in the future will be very recognizable but could be somewhat more challenging in certain respects.” Or, “Climate change could end human civilization by 2050.”

Are people sincerely warning us about severe climate change, or is this a way to profit from scaring the wits out of everyone, especially children?

The poorest among us will suffer the most because climate change policies will limit the access to cheap energy.

The Paris Agreement on climate change could cost $1-$2 trillion per year by 2030. And could escalate to tens of trillions of dollars annually in the coming years. However, it turns out that the Paris Agreement in its best-case scenario will achieve very little impact on global warming. It is a bad deal for the world.

Setting artificial deadlines to get more attention is one of the most common tactics of climate change campaigners. In 2006, Al Gore estimated that unless drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gases were taken within ten years, the world would reach a point of no return.

Money is better spent on issues that make the world a better place for billions of people.

In my opinion, Lomborg’s book is worth reading.

Michael John De Waard

Holland

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Letters to the Editor: What is the Ottawa Impact group doing?