OLIVE TWP., MI (WHTC-AM/FM, Aug. 27, 2025) – Another step in what admittedly has been a long and hard process to find a new Ottawa County Administrator was taken on Tuesday morning.
After a motion to go into a closed door meeting was rejected, county board members took more than an hour to go over nearly 60 applications and vote by number on five persons to invite for public interviews next month, with two alternates also selected. Former board chairman and District 5 Commissioner Joe Moss of Hudsonville spoke for most of his colleagues in attributes he would like to see in the new operational leader.
Once the vote was taken, current board chairman and District 7 Commissioner John Teeples of Jenison was appreciative of the process.
No names were disclosed, other than Michael Trombley, who was the only person publicly interviewed during the last administrator search, and who had put his name up for consideration again. Interim Deputy Administrator Ron Frantz said that open session interviews with the board and a citizen work group are tentatively planned for the week of September 8-12, and no timeline has been set as to when the identities of the finalists would be disclosed beforehand.
Frantz and Interim Administrator Gary Rosema have been handling the operational leadership duties for the county since January. There hasn’t been a permanent administrator in place since John Gibbs was relieved of his duties on February 29th of last year.
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