OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — The fate of Ottawa County's health officer is set to take place in less than 24 hours. Monday morning, the Board of Commissioners will convene and vote whether they want to remove Health Officer Adeline Hambley.
Ottawa Impact Founder and Chairperson Joe Moss accuses her of incompetence, misconduct, and neglect of duty during the county's budgeting process. For two days last week, Hambley's attorney, Sarah Howard, called several witnesses to testify in defense of the health officer.
READ MORE: Ottawa County Commissioners hold removal hearing
The Board of Commissioners room became a makeshift courtroom for two days last week for this scheduled removal hearing. The commissioners heard testimony from several witnesses, including current and former employees of Ottawa County. The county commissioners approved recess to go over their notes to cast their vote on whether Hambley should be removed as health officer.
The longest testimonies commissioners heard were from County Administrator John Gibbs and Hambley.
Gibbs answered questions from Howard for around three hours, ranging from his interactions, emails, and his hand in crafting Ottawa County's Public Health budget for 2024.
FOX 17 told you several dozen answers Gibbs gave were "I don't remember," I don't recall," or "That's what is written."
READ MORE: Removal hearing enters day 2
So, FOX 17 went back to look and see his responses.
Gibbs did clarify his feelings after Hambley went public about potential cuts and accused him of leaving her out of the budget negotiations.
"The budget is process. And so throughout that process, to be going to the media and saying things like the department of public health will be forced to shut its doors, I think it's extremely highly irresponsible," Gibbs explained to Howard.
Hambley has told FOX 17 that she stands by her actions to tell the public where Ottawa County was in making this year's budget.
"To me, this public information. And this is good transparency. That is granted there," Hambley said during testimony.
HOW WE GOT HERE:
The health officer initially submitted to have Public Health's general fund allocation of around $6.4 million. Not long after that initial request, Moss suggested during a scheduled Finance Administrative meeting to have that number at $2.5 million.
"I'd love to see that budget go back to kind of what it has been historically, maybe put it down towards 2.5 [million dollars] in the general fund allocation," Moss said at a meeting.
READ MORE: Ottawa Co. Health Officer Department asked to cut budget by 50%
Gibbs then emailed Hambley a day later, on August 22nd, to work with fiscal services "to work out the details of a budget using $2.5 million general fund contribution," and to eliminate all COVID-19 grants. According to that email, Gibbs told Hambley to return it to him in less than 48 hours.
According to data from Public Health, the department had never been near a $2.5 million general fund in 20 years.
FOCUS ON COMMUNICATION:
In an email dated August 23rd from Gibbs to Hambley and Ottawa County Fiscal Services Director Karen Karasinski, he wrote, "Please proceed with producing a budget with a general fund contribution as close to the below‐directed level as possible."
During the removal hearing, Howard asked Karasinski what she thought at the time when she read that email.
"I believe that we were focused on the 2.5 (million)," Karasinski's response to Howard's question.
Hambley went public on August 24th to explain this budget level. If approved, it would lead to the closure of Ottawa County Public Health in weeks. The health officer explained without proper funding, the health department wouldn't have the necessary funds or meet adequate service levels on essential services.
Since then, county leaders have backtracked, providing more money to key programs like Family Planning. According to emails sent to FOX 17, if this program didn't meet proper funding, Ottawa County risked sending its Title X grant to its nearest recipient, which was Planned Parenthood.
READ MORE:
- Facing budget cuts Ottawa health officials planned parenthood explore options
- Family Planning sees added funding
Another issue within this budgeting process is the possibility of excluding the health officer during the final weeks.
The county leaders maintain that they always included Hambley in the budget.
"John Gibbs never told you to cut Ms. Hambly out of any of the process?" Ottawa County Attorney David Kallman asked Karasinski.
"He did not," Karasinski replied.
Howard released 550 pages of emails from Hambley, which include her conversations between Gibbs, Karasinski, another fiscal service employee, and Commissioner Gretchen Cosby.
In one of those emails from August 25th, Gibbs told Karasinski to create a budget for "Public Health general fund contribution to $2.5 million, and then have Public Health use a portion ($1.3 million) of their $3 million fund balance to reach $3.8 million." The county administrator did CC Hambley on it. At the end of his email, he added, "For any additional details, please work with Nina and Kris to set the exact budget numbers within the above parameters."
Hambley has explained she was left out as county leaders worked to set Public Health's budget, without her input on why programs need a certain level of funding.
"This is me at the window, looking in at the birthday party and trying to get myself invited in," Hambley said during testimony.
Kallman disagreed in his closing remarks on Wednesday, "Ms. Howard just spent hours today [Wednesday] with her own client, [and] with Mr. Gibbs going after email after email after email showing her [Hambley's] involvement."
OTTAWA COUNTY FINALIZES BUDGET:
According to public health officials, the health department is now allocated $4.8 million from the general fund by utilizing $1.7 million of its rainy day funds.
READ MORE: Board of Commissioners vote on 2024 fiscal budget
Moss told his board members back when the budget was approved in late September, that this is the second-highest Public Health budget second to 2023 numbers.
"General fund is important, but when you can reduce general fund allocation by using state grants and other monies, then you don't have to use the general fund," Moss added.
The jurors, Ottawa County Commissioners, who are the majority of Ottawa Impact members, will vote on Monday at 8 am. The vote would determine if Hambley will stay as Ottawa County's health officer or not.
