Governing matters in Ottawa County made for a long night. The commissioners voted 6-5 to remove Commissioner Jacob Bonnema from a committee. This one-vote margin followed an extensive discussion on the process of censuring him from all committees.
Chairman Joe Moss led the effort to remove Bonnema entirely from the five committees. He announced his intention to focus on removing Bonnema from the Finance and Administration committee specifically.
Some commissioners believed it was justified to remove Bonnema from all committees.
"I believe the Board of Commissioners should hold Commissioner Bonnema responsible for the lost cost, lost time and lost reputation of the county and our County Administrator John Gibbs for filing an inappropriate action against Mr. Gibbs," Commissioner Gretchen Crosby said after reading off the resolution.
The censure was prompted by a Human Resources investigation initiated after Bonnema sent an email regarding a comment made by county administrator John Gibbs. In the email, Bonnema inquired about the status of health director Nathaniel Kelly's controversial hiring application. According to the email, Gibbs allegedly told Bonnema, "Get out of my face, dude!"
The investigation showed that the complaint didn't reach the level of harassment.
The resolution indicated Bonnema's actions were an abuse in power, and at Tuesday's meeting, Bonnema pushed back on that argument.
"First and foremost in order to abuse power, it requires one to actually have power. If anyone has been paying attention. We all know on this commission that is not true. I have been placed squarely into the minority with the other conservative Republicans and independents on the commission," Bonnema said in a statement during the meeting.
Moss told commissioners before the vote he supported "some form of discipline such as removing Bonnema from a committee."
Additionally, the Ottawa County GOP addressed the same matter in a recent vote, stating that Bonnema had betrayed the party by opposing conservative proposals and advocating for a pandemic panel on three occasions.
