With media in the boardroom on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, Commissioner Doug Zylstra provided a drama-filled performance, attempting to bypass process and amend the agenda. The amended items should have been brought to committees or committee chairs first.

• Chairman Joe Moss reminded Zylstra that these items were not brought to him or the chairs of the committees as the process normally goes

• Moss allowed Zylstra to continue all his motions to amend

• Zylstra put forth five different motions to amend the agenda

• All motions failed, with Commissioners Roger Bergman in support of three of the motions, and Commissioners Jacob Bonnema and Rebekah Curran in support of one

The Board of Commissioners received annual reports from three departments. The meeting packet includes each of the reports on the page indicated.

• The Community Mental Health 2023 Report was given by Lynne Doyle, page 11 of the packet

• The Department of Public Health 2023 Report was given by Adeline Hambley, page 26 of the packet

• The Department of Veterans Affairs Assessment Presentation was given by Jason Schenkel, page 643 of the packet

During the last 13 months the Board of Commissioners has endured verbal attacks from the Left. Chairman Moss made a statement thanking Board members for being courageous.

“I’d like to thank the Board for enduring the attacks and bullying by the Left and Democrats. I have heard attacks calling conservative Republican commissioners things like heinous, stupid, dangerous, evil, morons, idiots, etc. (A person in the audience interrupts.) Add ‘fascist’ to the list, the person is yelling it from the audience. One public commenter encouraged people to come watch the meetings. I think that’s a great idea. If you did, you might see that same public commenter who made the suggestion mouthing ‘F-you’ to commissioners. (Another interruption) He is clarifying that it is just me. So anyway, commissioners, thank you. Continue to do the right things even in the face of bullying and attacks, verbal attacks from the Left. Focus on freedom and thank you very much.”

Many of these attacks also have been directed at the Christian citizens in the county.

Commissioners attended the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C.

Vice Chair Sylvia Rhodea told about the conference and the opportunity they had to visit significant historical sites including the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.

“I was impressed upon that at a time when Americans are told that God has no place in government or discussions of government,” Rhodea said, “that our nation was built with a foundation, which very much was built on a faith in God and an invitation for Him to be a part of and to bless our nation.”

Rhodea read a few of the inscriptions from the memorials.

• “I have sworn upon the alter of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” —Thomas Jefferson Memorial

• “God who gave us life, gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and His justice cannot sleep forever.” —Thomas Jefferson Memorial

• “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” —Lincoln Memorial

Commissioner Allison Miedema thanked Rhodea for her words, telling a story of how when they asked their D.C. taxi driver what they could pray for him, he said, “Peace. The nation is so divided, and we need peace.”

February 13, 2024 Ottawa County Board of Commissioners Meeting.

Ottawa County Board of Commissioners
Regular Session
February 13, 2024

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