Veterans Affairs staff end contract with Ottawa County after controversial expansion

OTTAWA COUNTY — After intense scrutiny, criticism and debate over how the Ottawa County Department of Veterans Affairs should operate in 2024, the current staff are terminating their contract with the county on Dec. 31.

In a memo to Administrator John Gibbs dated Oct. 30, Social Service Resources LLC notified the county that Dan Boter, Maria Espinoza, Rick Taylor and Loren Snippe would end the services they have provided to county veterans for more than a decade.

"We anticipate that the year end, Dec. 31, 2023, would be the best time for us to discontinue our services to Ottawa County," the memo said.

The decision came after the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners expressed criticism of the service level quality provided to local veterans. Board Chair Joe Moss and Vice Chair Sylvia Rhodea lead the board's Ottawa Impact majority, a group of far-right fundamentalists disgruntled over school mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The group currently controls six seats on the 11-member board.

Rhodea championed the idea to expand the department during the budget planning process for the 2024 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. She argued that the county needed to invest more in the department and hire a new director because she said "the needs of our veterans are actually being met by Kent County and Muskegon County."

More: Ottawa County commissioners discuss potential budget changes

"They’re being diverted from Ottawa to the other counties to meet some of the needs that we’re statutorily required to meet," she said at the county's finance committee special work session Aug. 21.

"We should be responsible to take care of our own people and not rely on other counties to do that," Rhodea said. "Our veterans are being referred to Kent County for counseling services, we are not providing that here. There are also a number of other things that Muskegon and Kent both are providing that we’re not."

Snippe said current staffing and programming are meeting those needs adequately in Ottawa.

All veterans services are county-specific, he explained, and can only be provided by the veteran’s county of residence. The only exception to this are federal VA services facilitated by VSOs, or veterans service officers.

"There have been a number of individuals who are concerned about the level of services," Rhodea said at the Aug. 21 finance work session. "I hear you that there may be some people who are satisfied, but I can tell you there are also people who are not satisfied and we can do better."

Despite those claims being disputed by Snippe and his peers, the board forged ahead with the expansion plan.

"I'm aware of some of the sources of that information," Snippe told The Sentinel on Thursday, Nov. 30. "And I didn't think it was correct. But, you know, I guess you can do no more than offer to provide what is correct. And then they have to make that decision.

"I met with the county commissioners sort of after the fact and I think I expressed our feelings that... when decisions are being made, we just felt like you had to have all the best information that was out there — not that you necessarily had to agree with everything."

In fact, some commissioners lobbied against the idea.

More: Ottawa County VA staff say all needs are being met with current resources

"I think that would be a very important thing for the people of Ottawa County to know and what efficient cost you're able to provide that benefit in comparison to additional hiring extra staff," District 4 Commissioner Jacob Bonnema told Snippe in a YouTube interview with the county's VA team on Sept. 13.

So then, Bonnema asks, why the push for a new director?

"My question as what would they do? If we're going to hire another person? It sounds like based on what I'm hearing as a commissioner, there's going to be another $80,000 worth of salary plus benefits. And what is that person going to do... that's not being done?" Bonnema asks Snippe in the video.

"That's sort of our question at this point," Snippe responds. "There's not a service provided in another county that isn't provided in Ottawa County."

The board ultimately approved the expansion and allocated $242,872 toward creating the new department — a 279% increase.

Bonnema advocated for the board to study the issue before investing more money.

"It's important not to assume there is a problem without verifying that there's a problem," he said in the video. "So I personally have been going around town asking multiple veterans: 'Have you had an experience with veterans benefits in Ottawa County? And what's been your experience? Do you have any complaints?' I haven't been able to find any complaints yet."

The four part-time staff currently provide in-person services 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

The county hired Snippe, Boder and David Ziegler in 2011 on a contract for $18,700 running from April 1 to the end of that year. It was part of a three-year pilot project, Snippe told The Sentinel.

"It was sort of an experiment at the time," he said. "And we do it in a job share way, rather than for the county to hire an employee — and it really worked out, I thought, quite well. There were many benefits to the county."

At the time, the county had 16,583 veterans, just more than 6% of the population. When the county launched the department, Ottawa was the largest Michigan county without a certified veterans counselor on staff, and the county received less federal funding per veteran than any of the other 83 Michigan counties.

More: Ottawa slips $200K into budget for new veterans department

More: Ottawa County hires staff to help local veterans receive benefits

Currently, the county has about 12,310 veterans, about 4% of the population.

"We were contracted to administer the two services that Michigan counties are mandated to provide for veterans, namely a county burial allowance and a program to address the unforeseen financial emergencies that may be experienced by a veteran," the staff said in the October memo to Gibbs. "Wanting to do more for veterans than provide these two very basic services, we, with county administration approval, were able to add additional services."

Snippe said the department has become a “one-stop shop” for all veterans services and that the goals were accomplished without additional expense to the county.

Snippe said he and his team met with Moss and District 11 Commissioner Allison Miedema just before the Thanksgiving holiday. He said the meeting was cordial.

"Nothing really changed. They expressed their appreciation. No one desired us to discontinue or to quit. We didn't feel anything negative by it, but just thought the time was right," Snipped told The Sentinel.

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"I guess, at this point, there are really no hard feelings. We feel good about what we did for 13 years, and we wish them the best in the next 13 years or more than that. We just hope that veterans are served well."

Meanwhile, the search for a director continues. Gibbs told the board during its Tuesday, Nov. 28, meeting that the search for a new VA director was ongoing.

"(The) Veterans Department is going to be up and running very soon," he said. "We are interviewing candidates for that. I expect that that’s going to be off to the races here in the next several weeks, so I’m excited about what we’ll be able to do as we get that up and running and to really have a top-notch veterans operation."

"A question on the VA. Are we going to have that until the end of the year or how is that overlap going to go?" District 3 Commissioner Doug Zylstra, a member of the county's Veteran's Affairs Committee, asked Gibbs.

"I do anticipate that we’ll have a person in place by the end of the year," Gibbs replied.

To learn more about the department and its services, visit miottawa.org/departments/veteransaffairs, call 616-393-8387 or 616-393-VETS or email ottawacountydva@gmail.com.

— Sarah Leach is executive editor for The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at sarah.leach@hollandsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @SentinelLeach.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Veterans Affairs staff end contract with county after budget expansion