WEST OLIVE, Mich. — Ottawa County Republicans are experiencing a growing divide, and now, it's spilling over into county matters. Ottawa County Chairman Joe Moss is planning to censure his fellow GOP commissioner Jacob Bonnema.
Moss accused Bonnema of abusing his power. Bonnema argues that if he is censured, it will take away the voice of all the people he serves.
The censure stems from a series of events that started at the March 14 board meeting. Prior to the meeting, Bonnema went to Ottawa County Administrator John Gibbs to ask about the controversial potential hire of Nathaniel Kelly as the county's top health officier.
According to an email sent to Ottawa County Human Resources, Bonnema claims Gibbs told him to "Get out of [my] face, dude!"
This sparked an investigation that found the interaction did not meet the county's harassment threshold. However, the investigation did raise some concerns with local GOP members.
Fast forward to earlier this week, Ottawa-GOP censured Bonnema because of the investigation and because he voted against GOP-led proposals.
"That didn't make sense to me personally. I was the chair of Ottawa County Dems for four years, and that's kind of unthinkable," County Commissioner Doug Zylstra said.
Zylstra, the lone Democrat on the county board, told FOX 17 he plans to vote "no" on the censure come Tuesday night.
"What they're instituting [is] a six-month removal from committees. You know, if I'm a District Four resident, and I lose my representation for six months, you know, that's disenfranchisement," Zylstra added.
Bonnema represents the people of Zeeland, parts of Holland Charter Township and areas of Zeeland Charter Township. Plus, he serves on every Ottawa County Committee, including finance, health and human services and planning.
If this censure is approved, Bonnema will be taken off all of those committees until the end of the year.
"If you're not on the committee, it's very hard to have input because things go to the consent agenda. And, for the most part, the board meetings are passing things...things that are done in committee. So, if you're not in committee, you're losing a big part of your voice, and District Four residents are losing a big part of their representation," he added.
On the campaign trail, Bonnema ran on the ideals of Ottawa Impact, founded by Moss. In Mid-March, Bonnema left the group.
He told FOX 17, his reasoning was that PAC leaders weren't following the values they started on. Bonnema says this censure violates nearly every part of the contract with Ottawa Impact.
Despite his departure, Ottawa Impact holds a majority on the board.
"I would urge everyone else on the board to vote 'no.' There's no basis for it," Zylstra said. "Do we have to censure somebody for using their freedoms? A month ago, we spent a lot of time talking about [it]. And we have a resolution that talks about those very freedoms. But a month later, we're doing the exact opposite."
We did reach out to Chairman Joe Moss for comment and have not heard back from him.
The next commissioners meeting is scheduled for Tuesday night.
