39 County Administrator candidate applications were made available to the Board on Monday, June 2, 2025.

• Chair John Teeples asked which commissioners weren’t ready—Commissioners Joe Moss, Allison Miedema, Kendra Wenzel, and Sylvia Rhodea. He then asked why not one of four was ready.

• Moss explained that the packets weren’t available until noon on Monday.

• Rhodea said that she’d requested the packets be available at the end of last week because she has a family to juggle in addition to her commissioner responsibilities.

• Commissioner Jordan Jorristma countered that he too has a family and postponing the meeting would affect his schedule. He added that he was ready and had enough time to review the applicants.

• Moss pointed out that some commissioners do more research—social media and news research to understand who the candidates are—which can take additional time.

• Demonstrating the research and time she had put in, Wenzel asked Chair Teeples if he knew which of the candidates had applied to administrator positions previously and which candidates support abortion.

• Chair Teeples interrupted Wenzel to say the Board was not there to discuss candidates, and that the rest of them had done their research and felt comfortable to move ahead.

• Commissioner Jim Barry said he thought the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the candidates, not make a decision.

• Miedema said it would be difficult to have a discussion, if commissioners didn’t have time to properly vet the applicants.

• Commissioner Josh Brugger said he resented that Rhodea thought her family was more important than his. “I set aside this time to take care of this for the County. If this job is too much for commissioners to do that, perhaps this isn’t the right place for you,” he said. Commissioner Rhodea had not said her family was more important than his.

The motion to adjourn and allow the commissioners more time failed.

Yes votes: Commissioners Joe Moss, Allison Miedema, Kendra Wenzel, and Sylvia Rhodea.

No votes: Commissioners John Teeples, Josh Brugger, Jacob Bonnema, Phil Kuyers, Jim Barry, Jordan Jorritsma, and Doug Zylstra.

On May 30, 2025, Rhodea asked the Interim Administrator if a recent Michigan Supreme Court case on the Open Meetings Act was being considered for how it applies to the process of hiring a County Administrator. Chair Teeples assured the Board that Ron Bultje, Ron Franz, Doug Van Essen, and he had been evaluating the process with state law and the process being used was tried and true.

Rhodea was concerned the “tried and true” process has been challenged by the recent ruling. One of the highlights of the ruling states that the full board must demonstrate independent consideration of merits, and not merely give their approval of a committee’s recommendations without adequate discussion.

The Board has not followed that ruling. In 2025, the Board delegated its responsibility to the Interim County Administrator, several staff members, and Double Haul who then narrowed down the number of candidates. Double Haul provided their insights and a candidate ranking which was made available to the Board on noon Monday.

Quoting from an article on the ruling, Rhodea said: “The tasks of studying, considering, and narrowing a variety of issues for the purpose of rendering a final recommendation to the full board should be open to the public with the purpose of the OMA.” This did not happen…

Chair Teeples interrupted Rhodea to tell her she’d been speaking for four minutes, and she’s only allowed two times of three minutes. Rhodea and Moss corrected him to say that Robert’s Rules allows a commissioner to speak for ten minutes.

If the Board does not publicly deliberate on the rankings, Double Haul and staff could be viewed as the de facto decision makers whose decisions and process to rank candidates would be subject to the OMA. Without public deliberation by the Board now, there is no record of the Board fulfilling their responsibility in the process…

• Chair Teeples responded that four attorneys had looked at the OMA issue, and that candidates have a right to ask for confidentiality in a closed session. The citizens committee was formed with no intent except to give their opinions. He suggested making the citizens committee meeting public and commissioners supported that.

• Prior to receiving the applicant materials, the commissioners were asked to sign a pledge of confidentiality. Moss, Miedema, Wenzel, and Rhodea did not sign it, and Teeples wanted that on the record.

• In response, Moss asked Teeples to make public the name of the person who had written the pledge. Teeples initially said that was irrelevant but eventually revealed Doug Van Essen had written it, and he reviewed it.

The vote on the motion to publicly review the applications failed.

Yes votes: Commissioner Joe Moss, Allison Miedema, Kendra Wenzel, and Sylvia Rhodea.

No votes: Commissioners John Teeples, Josh Brugger, Jacob Bonnema, Phil Kuyers, Jim Barry, Jordan Jorritsma, and Doug Zylstra.

• Moss said that in government they’re always trying to balance transparency and accountability with confidentiality. In this incidence, the Board seemed to be catering more to confidentiality. He commented how he hasn’t been allowed to talk to anyone about the candidates or talk to the candidates directly unless they contact him. He was concerned that without transparency, the Board is at risk of making the wrong decision.

• Barry countered that the Board would not get a quality pool of candidates unless they offered confidentiality.

• Moss responded that the people who apply should understand that they are applying to a transparent process, a government process not a corporate process. Their name could be released in a FOIA.

• Brugger said, “We’re following OMA. We’re following the law.”

• Miedema commented that it was Double Haul, not this Board, who had made the decision for the confidentiality checkbox to go on the application.

The motion to go into closed session failed for lack of 2/3rds majority.

Yes votes: Commissioners John Teeples, Josh Brugger, Jacob Bonnema, Phil Kuyers, Jim Barry, Jordan Jorritsma, and Doug Zylstra.

No votes: Commissioner Joe Moss, Allison Miedema, Kendra Wenzel, and Sylvia Rhodea.

Yes votes: Commissioners John Teeples, Josh Brugger, Jacob Bonnema, Phil Kuyers, Jim Barry, and Joe Moss.

No votes: Commissioners Allison Miedema, Kendra Wenzel, Sylvia Rhodea, Doug Zylstra, and Jordan Jorritsma.

After a two-hour recess, the Board reconvened—but only for a few minutes.

• Chair Teeples said, “We’re still in discussion. We need some more time to discuss matters. I would entertain a motion to recess for up to two more hours and see where we are on this. And hopefully we can figure out what we can do.”

• The motion passed with the majority of commissioners expressing, “Aye.”

• Miedema reiterated her concern that going into closed session was a lack of transparency to the community and encouraged the Board to take a different look at this approach.

The motion failed for lack of 2/3rds majority.

Yes votes: Commissioners John Teeples, Josh Brugger, Jacob Bonnema, Phil Kuyers, Jim Barry, Jordan Jorritsma, and Doug Zylstra.

No votes: Commissioner Joe Moss, Allison Miedema, Kendra Wenzel, and Sylvia Rhodea.

Moss said he had a question and wasn’t acknowledged. Moss followed with another question asking if there would be discussion on the motion. Teeples ignored Moss and asked the clerk to call to question. Miedema and Wenzel attempted to ask questions before giving their vote but were not acknowledged. Zylstra hesitated, but then voted no.

The motion failed as it required a 3/5ths vote.

Yes votes: Commissioners John Teeples, Josh Brugger, Jacob Bonnema, Phil Kuyers, Jim Barry, and Jordan Jorritsma.

No votes: Commissioner Joe Moss, Allison Miedema, Kendra Wenzel, Sylvia Rhodea and Doug Zylstra.

Rhodea voiced her displeasure saying, “Good governance.”

• Before amending the motion, Moss looked for support to move the top twelve forward rather than just the top five. Moss added that one of the top five wanted to have “internal equity audits” and that he thought it unfair to forward that candidate.

• Jorritsma responded, “It seems like a great discussion to have in closed session.”

• Mitch Foster from Double Haul explained that the larger the number in the final pool, the larger the number that will drop out.

• Moss offered to lower the number from twelve to nine. When Zylstra sided with Foster, Moss said he would agree to put seven forward
and listed the seven he recommended.

• Zylstra noted that of the seven Moss listed, three of the top five were missing, and he did not support that.

• Moss said that just because Double Haul ranks those candidates as the top five, does not mean the Board should. The Board should take their qualifications and applications into account and deliberate, and not rely solely on Double Haul.

• “That was the point of closed session. But you voted against going into closed session and having these very discussions,” Jorritsma said.

• “Right,” Moss said. “I think these should be done in public.”

• “It’s against the law,” Jorritsma said.

• “This is not against the law,” Moss said. “This is actually following the law.”

The motion to move seven candidates forward failed.

Yes votes: Commissioner Joe Moss, Allison Miedema, Kendra Wenzel, and Sylvia Rhodea.

No votes: Commissioners John Teeples, Josh Brugger, Jacob Bonnema, Phil Kuyers, Jim Barry, Jordan Jorritsma, and Doug Zylstra.

• Barry expressed his regret that the Commission had not given itself the opportunity to share amongst themselves the pros and cons of these candidates.

• Moss agreed but said that additionally the community needed to be able to give feedback. He added that without it, the Board loses out on whom to eliminate.

• Teeples said that the community will get a chance to give feedback after the final five are selected. “I feel very comfortable with the top five. I thoroughly analyzed them myself…I’m not just taking Double Haul’s word for this. I have done my homework.”

Teeples asked to take a vote on the motion to move the top five forward. Moss made one more attempt: “What if we make it the top eight?” He was shut down.

The vote to move the five candidates forward passed.

Yes votes: Commissioners John Teeples, Josh Brugger, Jacob Bonnema, Phil Kuyers, Jim Barry, Jordan Jorritsma, and Doug Zylstra.

No votes: Commissioner Joe Moss, Allison Miedema, Kendra Wenzel, and Sylvia Rhodea.

• Rhodea said that she was disappointed in the Board, and that they could have gone a long way in having these discussions even by candidate number. They could have had a very open discussion about what was important to them.

• Wenzel added that it was a shame the community couldn’t be involved. It was not transparent, but more hammer down, top down with no public involvement.

• Brugger said the candidates were impressive. He said he looked forward to interviewing the top five candidates as there were some absolute all-stars.

• Moss responded that part of the research of these “all-star” and “well-qualified” candidates showed that some were publicly pro-abortion, one’s wife was a Harris-Walz volunteer, and one was running in a “super-far-left city” and also working with Double Haul in that city. He thought it was a mistake to take the top five and not deliberate on the others.

• Teeples said that Double Haul’s valuation of the top five were consistent, at least with his perspective.

June 4, 2025, Ottawa County Board of Commissioners—Special Meeting to review County Administrator applications.

Ottawa County Board of Commissioners
Special Meeting
June 4, 2025

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