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 9 represents several areas, including Grand Haven Township, Robinson Township and a sliver of Spring Lake Township. Roger Belknap (R), a member of Ottawa Impact, will look to keep his seat from the former Ottawa County Chairperson Phil Kuyers (R). Angela Standford-Butler is running unopposed and will automatically move on to the general election.
(R) Incumbent Roger Belknap
We reached out to Roger Belknap multiple times for an interview but never got a response.
(R) Phil Kuyers
Why are you running?
I have always had a passion to serve the community. The way our office is being run now, our county commissioners... I don't approve of their way they run the government and the way they serve our people. I think there's a better way to do it and not cause so much conflict in our county that I see happening and service to the people through our employees. If we have good employees, we have good service to the people. So that's why I'm running back for the county.
What are your priorities?
I'd say one of my biggest priorities, I was raised by a Republican, conservative Republican. I'm pro-life, Christian. I attend Covenant Life Church in Grand Haven. [I] went through high school; I graduated from Unity High School. My father was a strong man [who] taught me very good principles, which I appreciate.
Tell me about you personally?
I've been a lifelong resident of Ottawa County. I was a dairy farmer for 43 years. My brother John, we built... I built Pigeon Creek Golf Course in West Olive here in 2000. We sold it to our two eldest sons, which is kind of neat that our family can stay in the business. [I] have a wife, a beautiful wife, Pam, for 40 years, four children and nine grandchildren, which is amazing. I just had my first granddaughter, so I got eight grandsons and one granddaughter; how cool is that? She'll be spoiled, and that's good.
Why should people vote for you?
I think I have really good leadership skills; you just don't learn them overnight. You learn them over years; you learn them by making mistakes, which gives you wisdom when you make some mistakes. I'm 65. So I have enough time to do this. I started as president of the Ottawa County Farm Bureau because of my agricultural background. Then, when I seen the lobbyists and what they can do to help people in the community, I went on to county commissioner, served there a few years, had amazing mentors. … I went on to be the chair of the board for three years. After doing that, I went on to be president of Michigan Association Counties, where I learned to work with both sides of the aisle. … So, being in all the services, and meeting all these different people and learning all the different stuff for government, I think it makes it very qualified.
What are your thoughts for the past year and a half to two years when it comes to how the Ottawa County government has been run?
It's very disappointing [and] disheartening for me to see how they hire people, not through quality and having an interview. It's just hiring people that you see fit to what you want the county to be. The morale in the people we have lost in the county as employees and the way they treated the health department... I don't agree with their tactics. So no, I don't like that.
(D) Angela Stanford-Butler
Why are you running?
I'm running to give people an option. This is one of the reddest counties. … I had heard about Ottawa Impact and told [people], "Keep your eyes and ears open." Then I saw their yard signs, their banners, their mailers… this is a force. And I knew the incumbents were in trouble, but they didn't. Then I went to vote, and I realized the Dems weren't in the fight at all. … I just thought, "You know what? Democracy is about choices. We have to have choices."
What are your priorities?
One of my first priorities is recovering the funding for the health department. The problem is, we've lost almost $2 million in free grant money that was turned down because of non-discrimination clauses, which is insane. Our services in this county are for everyone. … Do what we can to bring back the funding for the health department, get some of those services back and try to move forward.
Tell me about you personally?
My husband's a musician, and my son's a musician. So neither one of us can hear much anymore. I spent my youth in front of speakers and stages and sometimes on stage.
Tell me why should people vote for you?
If you want to put together a good team — and I've put together a lot of great teams — for important projects over the years, you need diversity. And if you have women on your team, you get a more successful team. Studies show the more women on your team, the more successful the outcome. To a degree, there's always the point of diminishing returns, and that's homogenization. All men, all women, all anything the same, you lose your success rate.
What are your thoughts for the past year and a half to two years when it comes to how the Ottawa County government has been run?
A circus. It's chaotic. It's embarrassing. It's shocking. But then it's a representation of what the country has been going for. ... It's shocking for us to have our county representatives making these decisions and changes without representation of anyone outside of their group, without making hiring decisions, without HR-spending decisions. … So it's been shocking. Sadly, we've started to see, well, this isn't changing anytime soon.
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