Developing the budget is the most important job of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners, and on Tuesday, September 24, 2024, the budget passed. After months of work by County staff and many work sessions, the commissioners still had questions on the $900,000 ELC Infection Prevention and Health Care Associated Infection Response Support Grant.

• “It [the grant] is currently in the budget. There are no positions tied to it, but it is available in case the Health Department would like to plan on spending $900,000 on Covid or… other communicable diseases,” explained Chairman Joe Moss.

• Commissioner Allison Miedema questioned whether the Health Department gave a rationale, listed how much they used this year, or if the Health Department was projecting a need for the additional funding

• Moss explained that the grant is a Covid supplemental grant and that it could be used for anything related to Covid, such as communicable diseases, conferences, trips, travel expenses, or training

• “Essentially, it’s the same thing the Board rejected last time, a year ago,” Moss said

• It was noted that the Health Department is getting an increase from the General Fund this year

• “From where I’m at, I understand the state would like to continue incentivizing spending in this area. I don’t think that we need to pre-plan to spend $900,000 on communicable diseases and Covid,” Moss said.

• Commissioner Sylvia Rhodea reiterated that the County would meet the needs if there were a true emergency

• Commissioner Doug Zylstra said, “The grant is in case we need it. If we don’t need it, we don’t need it. But why would we not accept something in case we do need it?”

• Moss explained that the Health Department has funds already worked into their budget for unforeseen issues

• Karen Karasinski, Finance Director, came to the podium and explained, “This grant is funded with federal dollars passed through the state which have that Covid identifier”

• Karasinski further clarified that the grant has a different title but comes from the same funding source as the previous Covid grants

• Commissioner Jacob Bonnema interrupted Karasinski and asked if the grant could fund Monkey Pox

• Karasinski said that this grant is for the “over and above” needs and would be “overhead and mostly administrative”

• Karasinski also said that the grant wouldn’t cover something like TB because that is what the Health Department does every day, and they already have a grant for that

• Miedema added, “So, from my point of view, I think it’s actually more responsible to turn it down because it’s otherwise continuing funding for something that we don’t necessarily need to have”

• Miedema continued, “If more of the county boards across the nation actually turned it down, we’re actually saving taxpayer dollars, keeping it in their own pockets. If we continue saying yes year after year after year, it becomes something from the federal government that we are depending on—that we don’t necessarily need to depend on.”

• Commissioner Gretchen Cosby said that plyometrics would be important, knowing what diseases the county is dealing with. Cosby wondered how much money we would need to treat these diseases and added that she hasn’t been able to find a case of Monkey Pox in the county.

• Rhodea agreed with Cosby that metrics would be good to see so that Ottawa County would know what situations it is dealing with

• Rhodea continued, “Because of the tyranny and because of the things this county experienced during the Covid pandemic, the best scenario would be to have accountability—should this ever happen again. The best possibility for accountability is to have a Health Department that’s coming back and asking for finances to do certain functions that are necessary. If there is a broad bank account to do what they wish to, there is less accountability.”

• Bonnema and Zylstra became visibly upset in response to the extensive conversation. A break was taken so that Bonnema could find details on a deadline from Health Director Adeline Hambley.

• When the meeting was called back to order, Karasinski told the Board that this is not a grant that the County is used to, as there are no rigid deadlines. The state would need to finalize the contract after October 1, 2024.

• After about an hour and a half of discussion, Moss amended the motion to “approve the Fiscal Year 2025 General Appropriations Act with removal of the $900,000 ELC Infection Prevention and Health Care Associated Infection Response Support Grant from the Health Department budget”

• The motion passed 6–4, with Commissioners Roger Bergman, Chris Kleinjans, Zylstra, and Bonnema voting no

• The final motion for the FY2025 Budget passed 9–1, with Bonnema voting no

The Resolution To Approve The 2025 Operating Budget can be found here, starting on page seven of the packet.

FY2025 Budget Resolution, Ottawa County Board of Commissioners meeting, September 24, 2024.

Jon Anderson originally had said his last day as Interim Administrator would be October 4, 2024, but has decided to stay with the County until December 31, 2024, to help with the search for and transition of a new administrator.

• The Executive Transition Committee would consist of Moss, Rhodea, Cosby, Miedema and Roger Belknap

• Bonnema commended Moss on moving the transition process forward

• Zylstra, in an apparent attempt to slow the process, amended the motion to “have a contract in place with a search firm before continuing”

• Zylstra’s motion failed 3–7, with Belknap, Cosby, Miedema, Bonnema, Rhodea, Moss, and Kendra Wenzel voting no

• The motion to approve a resolution “to create an Executive Transition Committee for the position of County Administrator” passed 6–4, with Zylstra, Kleinjans, Bergman and Bonnema voting no

The Executive Committee Transition Resolution can be found here, starting on page 38 of the packet.

Ottawa County Board of Commissioners
Regular Session
September 24, 2024

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