WEST OLIVE, MI (WHTC-AM/FM, Mar. 31, 2023) – The reverberations from the events of January 3rd at the Fillmore Street Complex continue to be felt in Ottawa County and beyond.
While the county board continues to make decisions on governmental matters, public reaction continues to return to the actions of that first “organizational” meeting in which County Administrator John Shay was sacked in favor of the immediate appointment of John Gibbs, the office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion was wiped out, the county motto was changed, the administrative medical officer appointment by the previous board was rescinded, a new legal counsel was retained, and all of these moves were scrutinized for possible violations of the state’s Open Meetings Act.
Since then, protracted public comment sessions have caused board meetings to run for several hours on a regular basis; county board leaders have not made themselves available for media comment outside of meetings, and every action taken that has caused any sense of disagreement among board members or in comments by the public attending those meetings has been spotlighted in news coverage.
Fourth District Commissioner Jacob Bonnema, a first-term Republican from Zeeland who was supported by the Ottawa Impact political action committee in his election to the board before he renounced that support last month, says that actions the board have taken to move the county forward have largely been ignored.
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