The Special Meeting held on June 4, 2025, ended with five candidates advancing to the final round of interviews with no discussion from the Board.

Sometime after that Special Meeting, two candidates dropped out, but the names of those candidates were not released to the public.

During a committee meeting on Tuesday, June 10, Commissioner Jacob Bonnema inadvertently shared that a third candidate had withdrawn. The news came as a surprise to some commissioners but not to others.

Also on June 10, the Muskegon County commissioners called a Special Meeting asking their administrator to stay in Muskegon and not continue the process in Ottawa County. The Muskegon County Administrator withdrew his candidacy.

A fourth candidate from Florida also withdrew, although the reason was not released.

In the span of less than a week, four of the five candidates withdrew from the process. There was a Special Meeting already scheduled June 12, for the Board to interview the candidates. Some of the commissioners shared they didn’t want to move forward with the interview and hire someone by default. Even so, the remaining candidate was available, and the interview proceeded.

Watch the full interview here.

Commissioner Joe Moss asked the candidate, Michael Tremblay, about one of his responses on the application. “You said you would do an internal equity audit for Ottawa County,” Moss said. “and make inclusion a continuous process built into decision making, hiring practices, and community engagement. I’m curious how you would implement that.”

“I don’t remember writing that,” Tremblay said. “Those wouldn’t be words I would have used. I would never use that language.”

Moss handed Tremblay a copy of his application for him to see the answer that had been submitted.

“Ok, I still don’t remember writing these exact words,” Tremblay said.

The Special Meeting wrapped up with the Board deciding to take a pause. It’s expected that the application process will be reopened for new applicants. The Board will reconvene at a later date to continue the process.

Will Michael Tremblay be the fifth candidate to withdraw after claiming he didn’t write the answers he turned in? The situation begs the question—if Tremblay didn’t write his answers, who did—ChatgGPT or the recruiting firm, Double Haul Solutions? Did someone else add them into his application?

Ottawa County Board of Commissioners
Special Meeting
June 12, 2025

Ottawa County Administration Building
12220 Fillmore Street
West Olive, MI 49460