WEST OLIVE, Mich. — The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners voted 6-5 Tuesday night to “make a correction” to a previous motion regarding the county’s top health officer.
In December, the previous board voted unanimously to appoint Adeline Hambley.
However, the new county commissioner chair, Joe Moss, says there was an issue with the minutes, which needed to reflect the resolution correctly.
A handful of commissioners raised concern about what this might mean as they moved forward.
"I think all of us up here as commissioners understand why this was brought to us," County Commissioner Kyle Terpstra said.
The new board voted in January to make Hambley the interim health officer and appoint Nathaniel Kelly, but some people question if the commissioners' move was legal.
"I believe it's crossing the line to try and correct prior commission," County Commissioner Jacob Bonnema said.
Gretchen Crosby, Lucy Ebel, Joe Moss, Sylvia Rhodea, Roger Belknap, and Allison Miedema voted yes on the correction.
Doug Zylstra, Jacob Bonnema, Kyle Terpstra, Rebekah Curran, and Roger Bergman voted no on Tuesday's agenda item.
Before the vote, Moss added that if someone wanted to amend, the agenda was free to do so, but no motion was made to amend the county commission agenda.
Hambley has filed a lawsuit against several county commissioners and John Gibbs, the county’s administrator.
The lawsuit accuses them of creating problems to get rid of her eventually.
Community members expressed their opinions for several hours Tuesday night, including a former county commissioner, Phil Kuyers.
"If they can do that with that, they can do it with all the ARPA funds. They can go as far back as you want. This isn't going to work, you just can't...If you don't, you know, agree with former commissioners or legislators, you just can't go back and change a motion," Kuyers told FOX 17. "That's what motivated me to come out here and say, 'you know what, this is where I stand. This is what I believe in."
"You want to have a do-over. Once minutes are approved, they're approved. As much as many of us would like to go back in time and change history, we just can't do that." Karen Cotton who lives in the county added. "Perhaps this is an indication that dismissing your qualified county attorney and administrator is causing confusion and missteps."
