OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — Two years ago voters in Ottawa County dramatically changed the makeup of the Board of Commissioners, with a majority of the seats going to candidates back by the group named Ottawa Impact. Since 2023, the board has taken a number of actions that have drawn criticism from inside and outside the county. Now voters will decide who can run for four-year terms on the Board of Commissioners. With more than 30 people in the running, many sitting commissioners face challengers in the August 2024 primary election.
We are conducting profiles of each candidate based on the seat they are running for. FOX 17 reached out to the candidates months before Election Day to set up time to ask them a series of the same questions. You can read their answers and watch the full interviews with the candidates in the article below.
District 5 represents the city of Hudsonville, Jamestown Township and Blendon Township. Joe Moss (R) is the current commissioner for the district and one of the founders of Ottawa Impact. Mark Northrup (R) is the current mayor of Hudsonville. Jon Rabideau (D) is running unopposed. Rabideau will automatically move on to the general election.
(R) Incumbent Joe Moss
Why are you running?
I'm running to continue the work that we started in 2023. That would be promoting freedom, family and protecting kids.
What are your priorities?
If you go to my website, if you look at JoeMoss.com, there's a lot of different pro statements on there. So priorities would be: pro-constitution, pro-freedom, pro-parental rights as the top three. So just making sure that in Ottawa County, we are cultivating a place where freedom rings and families can thrive.
Tell me about you personally?
I grew up in Hudsonville. I have six younger brothers. So there are seven boys in our family. [I] grew up working very hard, worked on a muck farm, and then worked concrete and then went to college and graduated with degrees in accounting and marketing. You could say I'm a recovering accountant. I didn't love accounting that much. I still do it, but I have a passion for entrepreneurship. I started a few companies focused in technology. I'm still very, very busy on that side of things, and really enjoy it. [I] also really enjoy the work serving the people as well. I love to ride my motorcycles.
Why should people vote for you?
They should vote for me if they want to protect individual rights and make that a priority in Ottawa County. One thing that we've really focused on over the last 18 months, really longer if you count the campaign cycle in '22, is just being very proactive and very transparent on what our platform is, what our priorities are, and that they are pro-constitution, pro-freedom. We want to make sure that we maximize freedom for everyone living in Ottawa County.
What are your thoughts for the past year and half to two years what do you think are success/failures/things you would change?
We've definitely learned a lot. When the new board was elected by the people in '22, they were seated in '23. So we've been in office since January of '23. Most of the people who were elected, there are eight new board members out of 11. So, those people, they're not politicians. I'm not a politician. I've not been in politics before. I'm a business owner. We had other people involve who were, you know, teachers or nurses and social workers, things like that. So there's been a great opportunity to bring in a very new and healthy, diverse opinions and life experiences into the board. And that's really how local government is supposed to work is people from your local community coming in to help make decisions. We want that to represent our community members very well. So we have focused on on freedom and parental rights and really digging in and looking very carefully at grants that come in and what strings are attached.
(R) Mark Northrup
Why are you running?
Over the last couple of years, there's been some considerable dysfunction [in] the county commission that has caused a lot of alarm and concern within the general population of Ottawa County. There's a realization that the fix has to be new people need to go in. And we need to change the culture and support and service our community better.
What are your priorities?
It's easy to get stuck in the past, but I would prefer to focus on the future. Our future has to be focused on economic development. We're seriously lacking in affordable housing in Ottawa County. Our transportation network, including our roads, desperately needs help. We also need to look at having better daycare opportunities for our working families; those three things are hindering our economic growth. A rising tide raises all boats. We have a lot of people that can work these jobs. We're starting to see industry, and Ottawa County look to other places to expand. That alarms me. We need to support a workforce; we need to have good economic development, those three functions. Affordable housing, we need high-density housing for the new kind of workforce. Instead of large homes and large lots consuming our precious farmlands. … Additionally, we need to look at our education systems so that we have more opportunities, and train in the skills. We have people that can work the skills: plumbers, electricians, bulldozer drivers, which we have failed to make that a meaningful employment. But those are precious jobs. We need to support those people and give them the tools to be successful.
Tell me about you personally?
Those that know me know that I am very involved in the veteran community. In fact, I work in the veterans community, and I have 20 years of manufacturing. My off time, with little I do have, I like to spend it outdoors fishing and being active. I swim, play golf, do a little bit of hunting. I really enjoy our outdoors. I think that's what makes West Michigan, and particularly our area, is so unique is that we have great opportunities in the outdoors. We need to continue supporting the outdoors for good parks and recs.
Why should people vote for you?
I have a history of serving my country [and] my community. You need only look to my record. That record is having been involved in some great opportunities working with great staff at the city of Hudsonville for 10 years. You need only look to the results that have happened in my local community. Hudsonville is one of the finest places to live in the state of Michigan if not the country right now. ... And it's a brag point, I admit it. But it wasn't done haphazardly. It was done with good leadership and good teamwork. Working with the residents master plan, working with the businesses, working with professionals on the city staff, those things just don't happen overnight. Unfortunately, what we've seen right now in the county is they had been focused on tearing things down, tearing down our institutions, and not embracing the institutions and building the community.
What are your thoughts for the past year and half to two years when it comes to how Ottawa County government has been run?
We are alarmed at the number of lawsuits, and some of the current commissioners are extremists, and it's frightening. They feel justified to have lawsuits because they think that that makes their point. Those lawsuits have already cost us over a million dollars in attorney fees. And we're going to cost at least a million dollars to settle those lawsuits. So we're squandering money. We're losing employees out of the county; the morale and the culture in the county is very low, as evidenced by the fact we have four new unions have signed up to represent our county employees. Now, that's reflective of just the poor leadership being fear driven out of the County Commission instead of embracing professionals and supporting them.
(D) Jon Rabideau
We reached out to Jon Rabideau multiple times for an interview but never got a response.
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