Newly obtained texts show Ottawa Impact officials orchestrated law firm change before taking office
ALLENDALE — Text messages recently provided to The Holland Sentinel show newly elected Ottawa Impact officials on the Allendale Public School Board methodically arranged for a Lansing-based law firm to take over legal services for the district long before they took office.
The first meeting of the new school board Jan. 9 saw a heated debate over which law firm would represent the board on legal matters, in addition to potentially severing its long-standing relationship with the Michigan Association of School Boards.
More:‘Your integrity is very weak’: Allendale school board spars over law firm switch
Members of the board, including two Ottawa Impact-affiliated officials, sought a change from Thrun Law Firm — which represents numerous local districts — to Kallman Legal Group, with little notice provided to other board members.
In text messages spanning from Nov. 21 to Jan. 8, now-board president Corey Mango, now-vice president Anna Hendricks and board member Liz Ramey appear to discuss Ramey’s intention to solicit Kallman Legal Group’s services for the school board.
The communications were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by an Ottawa County resident, who shared it with The Sentinel.
The messages only include emails and texts that mention “Kallman,” so it's not clear if Ramey was directly addressing Mango and Hendricks together or separately, but both reply to some of the messages provided in the documents.
Kevin Holstege, the only other board member to vote with Mango, Ramey and Hendricks supporting the switch to Kallman on Jan. 9, doesn't appear in the text messages provided to The Sentinel.
On Nov. 21, Ramey sent a text saying, “I have calls for legal counsel out to: Great Lakes Justice Center, Rachel Citak, David Kallman. I’ll let you guys know if I find anything. Thanks.”
On Nov. 23, Ramey updated the group, saying David Kallman had been planning to solicit school boards to legally represent them. Kallman and his son, Stephen, are the group's two primary attorneys.
“Update: I talked to Dave Kallman. His firm is likely going to be taking on school boards to represent. He said he had been toying with the idea but the more calls he gets demonstrating there’s a huge need, he’d like to step in and fill it. He will know next week,” Ramey texted.
On Dec. 8, Ramey said: “Friends … Kallman is IN!!! We have a lawyer!!! Praise Jesus!!!”
But the decision to hire new legal representation must take place during a public meeting, as required by Michigan's Open Meetings Act, and the new board had yet to meet for an additional month.
Other board members Josh Thurkettle, Kim Cannata and Pam DeYoung said they were caught unaware of the other members’ intentions.
Emails show Thurkettle, Cannata and DeYoung received an email from Superintendent Garth Cooper on Jan. 8, the day before the new school board's first meeting, notifying them of Ramey’s intention to introduce a motion hiring Kallman Legal Group as well as exiting the MASB (that measure was delayed until the board's Feb. 13 meeting).
The switch was approved 4-3, with the Ottawa Impact majority prevailing.
County commissioner involved
The text messages also show current Ottawa County Board Vice Chair Sylvia Rhodea, also OI-affiliated, assuring Ramey that Kallman Legal Group planned to start representing districts with “school activist leaders.”
On Dec. 11, Rhodea texted Ramey, saying she was “on a statewide call — Kallman group announced for school boards to school activist leaders — still likely not fully public.”
Rhodea, who hadn't yet been sworn into office in her county commissioner role, went on to mention the Great Schools Initiative and how it would support local school boards, as well as the Thomas Moore Law Center.
“Sounds like Kallman, and Thomas Moore (sic) Law Center will be in collaboration,” Rhodea texted to Ramey.
Great Schools Initiative, among other things, provides parents with forms to opt their child out of sex education in schools. Some of its blog posts include accusations that the Michigan Department of Education is “colluding with local teachers, counselors and administrators to actively deceive parents … to cover up involvement in rogue sex-ed, specifically implementing GSAs (gay-straight alliances),” which the group claims “are actively promoted to children of all ages.”
The Thomas More Law Center is a Christian conservative law firm based in Ann Arbor that aims to "preserve America's Judeo-Christian heritage, defend the religious freedom of Christians, restore time-honored moral and family values, protect the sanctity of human life, and promote a strong national defense and a free and sovereign United States of America," according to its website.
Rhodea also told Ramey she spoke with Ottawa County Board Chair Joe Moss — and that Moss had knowledge of the Kallman firm mulling over representing local school boards.
“Joe said Kallman is deciding today on school boards,” Rhodea texted to Ramey on Dec. 12.
Rhodea and Moss were both in attendance when the vote on Kallman took place in Allendale.
Moss and Rhodea co-founded the far-right political group Ottawa Impact in 2021, after they clashed with the Ottawa County Department of Public Health’s pre-K-6 mask mandate in all school districts, including the private Christian school Libertas.
Moss’ child attended Libertas at the time of the dispute, when he and several other parents sued the county and health department, claiming religious exemption from mask and quarantine orders. The suit was ultimately dismissed.
On Jan. 3, when Moss and his fellow Ottawa Impact commissioners were sworn into office, they systematically added several items to the agenda with no public notice.
More:Amid in-fighting, censures: What is the future for Ottawa County conservatism?
Those decisions, among other things, included firing the county’s administrator, selecting a different health officer appointee than the previous board put forward in December and firing its longtime legal counsel to hire the Kallman firm.
The Michigan Attorney General's Office announced Jan. 4 it would investigate the county board's first meeting and evaluate if the group violated the state's Open Meetings Act.
Although the statement didn't outright accuse commissioners of violating OMA, the new elected officials clearly met or communicated prior to being sworn into office to plan the decisions made in that meeting, something the newly obtained text messages seem to prove.
The Sentinel has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the communication between the new board members and the decisions they made at the Jan. 3 meeting. That request is pending.
Government officials of public bodies are required to follow Michigan's Open Meetings Act — under which they must conduct public meetings if a quorum (the minimum number of voting members) of the board is present. It's not known how the elected-but-not-sworn-in status of the Ottawa Impact commissioners will be viewed by the state's top attorney.
It is not clear if the Michigan AG's office also is reviewing the Allendale Board of Education. The communications office did not respond to a request for comment on Jan. 9.
Moss' connections to Kallman
The provided text messages also include a discussion between Ramey and Mango of the Allendale school board over concerns their intention to hire the Kallman firm could draw ire because of Moss’ ties to the Kallman family, as well as the timing — since the county board’s decisions drew public blowback.
On Sunday, Jan. 15, Vote Common Good: West Michigan announced it was joining with Ottawa Integrity to launch and steer a new movement called the Unifying Coalition of Ottawa County, which will serve to “channel all efforts related to the opposition of Ottawa Impact and the strategies to vote them out in 2024,” according to an email to its members.
More:Residents angered over Ottawa Impact policies form coalition to vote them out in 2024
"Is this the best time to bring them on board and introduce them?" Mango wrote to Ramey in a text message. "I know you've done a lot of work and I believe that they are the right candidate but given the Ottawa county (sic) is also utilizing their time and resources and it feels like they're not really ready. ... This might not be the right time."
Mango goes on to say hiring "conservative representation" is critical to the board.
Ramey responds: "I think they're (Kallman) doing all they can to have the resources and no doubt they'd be able to support us if we get in trouble. Even if they move slow in policy direction, that's still much better than Thrun refusing to help us at all and actually advising against anything we want to do."
"You're right," Mango replies. "This is the agreement to sign a contract for one year. I just give pause because their resources are limited given the response to your requests. We may need representation right away also. We did it last night ... we could vote to postpone till after a working meeting (February vote)."
The messages also infer that Mango had concerns over Moss' ties to the Kallmans.
“Corey I just got off the phone with Joe and he can find no donation tracking back to kallman (sic) or his family of any kind,” Ramey wrote to Mango via text message on Jan. 8 — one day prior to the school board’s vote.
Moss attended a Hudsonville-area high school with Joel Kallman. Moss and Joel both graduated from the now defunct Freedom Christian Schools in 2004 and went on to create several web hosting, cellphone and software businesses together, three of which are still in operation with Moss and Kallman as proprietors.
Joel Kallman created the For Liberty LLC — providing thousands of dollars in graphics, website hosting and signage services through the businesses he shares with Moss — to all but one of the Ottawa Impact-affiliated candidates during the 2022 campaign cycle. All of the Ottawa Impact candidates had identical signage, websites and mailers.
Commissioner Rebekah Curran (District 7) didn't accept Liberty funds, according to her campaign finance reports with the county.
Joel Kallman is David Kallman and Stephen Kallman’s nephew and cousin, respectively.
In addition, David Kallman had "four grand-nieces and grand-nephews" attending Libertas in October 2020 — when Moss and the school first filed suit against the county’s mask mandate order — the same time that Moss’ daughter attended the school.
David Kallman has publicly posted on his Facebook page support of the school’s lawsuit against the county.
Moss and Joel Kallman also have both worked together on the fundraising arm for Libertas school. Although now Moss and his other family members are now listed as the officers for the Libertas Christian School Foundation, a 2018 tax return Moss filed for the group lists Moss as the president and Kallman as the secretary of the group.
Moss has skirted the topic of his ties to the Kallmans.
During the board’s first Jan. 3 meeting, Commissioner Kyle Terpstra (District 6) questioned Moss about whether anyone on the board was related to anyone at the Kallman law firm.
“Family member? No,” Moss replied and quickly moved on with business, WOOD TV-8 reported.
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During the commission’s Jan. 10 vote to finalize the agreement with the law firm, it was again inferred that Moss had an undisclosed conflict.
Commissioner Roger Bergman (District 10) asked that any commissioners with a conflict of interest to abstain from the vote. No one responded and the agreement was approved 6-5.
Moss told MLive after that meeting, "Sorry, there is no conflict of interest ... but thank you for asking. Yeah, and I'm really happy the people voted in change for Ottawa County — and I hope that we have delivered. And I hope we continue to do a really good job."
When a reporter in the press scrum asks Moss, "How do you not see it as a conflict of interest?" Moss walks away.
— Sarah Leach is 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: Newly obtained texts show Ottawa Impact officials orchestrated law firm change before taking office
