Ottawa County remains a community divided in most recent board meeting

OTTAWA COUNTY — The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners met again Tuesday, Jan. 24 — its first evening meeting since making changes to its schedule.

More:Did the majority of Ottawa County support Ottawa Impact at the polls? The data says no

From now on, the second regular meeting of each month will take place at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday's meeting lasted nearly five hours — adjourning at 11:15 p.m. — as community members shared staunch support or disapproval of the board's actions in early January.

More than 60 people signed up to speak during the first public comment session, which lasted from approximately 6:43-9:17 p.m. Not all who signed up stayed to speak.

Another eight speakers, some repeats from session one, spoke during the second public comment session. That lasted another half hour and began shortly after 10:30 p.m.

Speakers ranged from college students to retirees. There was a near even split among those who expressly supported or opposed Ottawa Impact-backed commissioners and their recent actions, including firing the county's administrator, selecting a different health officer than the previous board picked in December and firing its longtime legal counsel in favor of a conservative law group best known for challenging government mandates during the pandemic — all decisions made during the board's organizational meeting Jan. 3, and none of which were on the original agenda.

Ottawa Impact, a far-right political group borne from clashes over the county’s COVID-19 mitigation mandates in 2020, unseated eight Republican incumbents on the county board in 2022, alleging the old guard wasn’t enforcing true conservative policies. The group now holds a majority on the board.

More:Ottawa Impact campaigned on transparency. In their first meeting, they blindsided the community.

Those who criticized the board on Tuesday cited a lack of transparency and a departure from typical process. Many also asked for the reinstatement of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office, which the board dissolved Jan. 3.

“I have grave concerns for how you have chosen to lead this commission in your first month in office,” one resident said. “Mr. Chairman, this lack of transparency is not great leadership. Great leadership welcomes discussions from all perspectives in order to make well-informed decisions that provide long-term solutions to meet the needs and challenges of our county.”

“I’d like to set my remarks to you, (Joe Moss), in the context of two words — shameless and untrustworthy,” said one Allendale resident. “This board appears to have a shameless disregard for the norms of open government and the ethics around avoiding the appearance of conflict of interest. Therefore, this board is untrustworthy in the eyes of the residents of Ottawa County.”

“For a body, the majority of whom campaigned on bringing transparency to county government, there was precious little transparency (Jan. 3),” a Park Township resident said. “That leaves me to conclude you are not really interested in governing fairly, equitably and transparently, but rather advancing your personal agenda, or should I say the Ottawa Impact agenda.”

Supporters thanked the board for hiring former GOP congressional candidate John Gibbs and pledged support for the board's pick of Nathaniel Kelly as the county’s health officer. The state has yet to approve Kelly's appointment — in fact, it's unclear whether the state has even been asked for approval yet.

“I’m pleased to have John Gibbs as our new county administrator. He is a true conservative voice for our conservative county,” a Robinson Township resident said. “I am also pleased to have Nate Kelly as our new health director. He is experienced in public health and will be much more likely to make decisions based on all of the facts instead of emotions and fear.”

“I wholeheartedly support the decisions made on Jan. 3. The appointments of John Gibbs and Nathaniel Kelly, of the Kallman group, and the elimination of the DEI department,” said Joel Studebaker, new Ottawa County GOP chair. “I support and implore you to continue down the path that we, the Ottawa Impact citizens, voted for with great excitement and overwhelming numbers.”

More:Ottawa County GOP selects Studebaker to lead local party

“I stand in full support of you and the direction in which you are moving,” an Allendale resident said. “The people of our community voted you into those seats because we believe in you.”

A long consent agenda

Tuesday's meeting saw an untraditionally long consent agenda, once public comment ended. The purpose of a consent agenda is to group routine, procedural and self-explanatory action items and approvals into a single vote. This week, the consent list included most of the items on the agenda, leaving little need for discussion.

This is largely due to the board’s new committee structure. Each board subcommittee — including finance and planning and policy, which met last week — now holds a majority of board members. Previously, only five members served on each committee, so actions were recommended to the board for discussion, not added to the consent agenda.

Because a quorum — or a voting majority — of the board is now present for all items approved in committee, those items move to the consent agenda for batch approval.

If a commissioner wants further discussion on an item, they can request it be removed from the consent agenda for further discussion and a separate vote. That request is granted automatically and doesn't require support from the board at large.

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Items on Tuesday’s consent agenda included a parks services agreement with Port Sheldon Township, personnel requests from Community Action Agency, fiscal services and facilities and a 2023 budget amendment.

Bipartisan support of new meeting schedule

Board meetings have shifted from two afternoon meetings per month to one morning and one evening meeting each. The previous board held all regular meetings at 1 p.m. Commissioners made the change, they said, to provide better opportunity for the public to attend, watch and participate in meetings.

A handful of commenters — both those in support of and against Ottawa Impact in general — thanked the board for the change, saying it enables them to attend the meetings.

— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @SentinelMitch.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Ottawa County remains a community divided in most recent board meeting