Commissioner Jim Barry asked to amend the agenda so that the Board could consider a resolution. Knowing that Chair John Teeples has a self-imposed policy that no agenda changes are to be made once a meeting begins, the Board and the public seemed to collectively hold their breath for his response.

The Chair asked Barry what the resolution was about, to which Barry explained it was to encourage the federal government to support funding sources for the Ottawa County area agency. In response, the Chair simply said the Board would need to vote on it and asked for any comments regarding the motion.

Commissioner Miedema asked the Chair why he would allow this amendment when in the past there has been “quite a big to-do made” about adding to the agenda. He explained that the issue the resolution addresses is time sensitive, and there is an urgency to the situation. Miedema recalled requesting a time sensitive, urgent matter be added to the agenda at a previous meeting and how the Chair recommended the Board turn it down. He responded that as far as he could remember, he’d only discouraged one commissioner one time because he was trying to avoid political dialogue in the discussion. Commissioner Sylvia Rhodea interjected that the record speaks for itself, and that they all had been observing what actually happens.

With that, the vote was taken and the Board voted unanimously to add the resolution to the agenda.

After being reminded by Commissioner Joe Moss that a motion was needed, Commissioner Barry read the resolution as part of the motion. The resolution asks the federal government to reinstate the recently eliminated community services block grants, CSBG and LIHEAP, in order to provide basic needs to those in the county experiencing hardship. Barry added that there is a seasonal component with winter coming and a concern that there is still no federal budget established.

Once the issue was opened for discussion, Commissioner Miedema acknowledged that she was certain all of the commissioners care about the health, safety, and welfare of their residents. However, she didn’t feel comfortable with supporting the resolution as currently written. She wanted to see the emails from the federal government as to why they’re going through some of the processes and also wanted the Board partner with Administration and the local agencies to assess and work on the needs.

Commissioner Moss shared that in researching the issue, he had done a Google search on “CSBG cut,” and the first link to come up in the search was entitled, “Cuts to Woke Programs” and was on whitehouse.gov. The site page explains that the block grant has been targeted by the Trump Administration for elimination in the upcoming budget, and that the grant has been funding things like focus groups that promote DEI, clean energy, and environmental justice initiatives which the Trump Administration does not want to see continue.

After summarizing from the site, Moss said that he personally is not willing to vote against the Trump Administration. He added that if the Administration has identified a problem, it will need to work on solutions and reallocating funds.

Commissioner Josh Brugger said that while he appreciated the concerns Moss found on AI, he wanted to bring this to the local level and would support the resolution. Rhodea corrected Brugger saying that Moss was reading from the White House site, not AI. Rhodea then reflected on how there are needs that fall on the federal government that are not the responsibility of the federal government, but the community, nonprofits and churches. In addition, Ottawa County is blessed to have a surplus in funding due to the change in how excess is handled. If there is a shortfall in a program while the federal government is reorganizing, the County has the funding to step in and fill those needs.

Rhodea also said she would not vote to go against a higher level of strategy that’s going on within the Trump Administration. She moved to change “vote to support the staffing and CSBG and LIHEAP as soon as practicable” to “vote to provide funding for physical shelter, safety, and food security as soon as practicable.” In so doing, the Board would be asking the federal government to help in these areas but would not be prescribing how they must do it. On Moss’ suggestion, she added “in line with the Administration’s strategic plan” to her motion.

Jennifer Brozowski, Director at Ottawa County Community Action Agency (OCCAA), expressed concern that if the CSBG and LIHeap grants weren’t reinstated, OCCAA may close. Rhodea didn’t agree. Rather, as she understood, the Trump Administration would be finding new ways to support the programs.

Barry didn’t think it was responsible for the government to restructure in the middle of a fiscal year. Brugger seemed to agree with the sentiment, saying that he was supportive of the amendment until the addition of it being in accordance with the Trump Administration’s strategic plan. “I don’t want this to get tied up in the President’s approach,” Brugger said, “which is embraced by some but not by all.” Rhodea offered to change it to the “federal administration’s strategic plan.”

Commissioner Doug Zylstra argued that now he didn’t see the point of the resolution because the Board was essential doing the opposite by agreeing with the cuts. All but Zylstra voted to approve Rhodea’s amendment to the resolution. The motion passed.

There was a motion for the Board to waive its attorney/client privilege in the Declaration and Memorandum of Attorney Nate Wolf regarding his communications with County officials and his activities and inactivity pertaining to the undated written complaint of former employee Jordan Epperson.

Moss recommended not waiving the privilege due to “errors” in the affidavit. Moss stated it was an error that Wolf said Moss had called him, when it was actually Corporate Counsel Jack Jordan who called him. Moss also said it was an error when Wolf said Moss told him to terminate his investigation, and explained what actually happened was that Moss said a Board vote on a severance/release of claims would terminate the investigation. Moss said that Wolf omitted a December call in which Moss had discussed with him the closed hearing. Lastly, the affidavit states Wolf was available the night of the closed session, alluding to his not being included. (The closed session occurred during the morning.) Moss concluded saying the affidavit “starts false, ends false, and omits important information.”

Miedema commented that it was interesting how the Board is choosing to pick and choose what is released like a “slow drip” to the media and to the people, saying the information released is not complete. Mentioned missing were Moss’ memos as well as an affidavit (complaint) from Jordan Epperson. However, she wasn’t suggesting the additional documents be shared because she recognizes there’s a purpose to closed sessions. She concluded saying, “It’s unfortunate to see the tactic that continues to be taken by the Board in this manner.”

In response, Brugger asked if the memos and the affidavit were available to the public. Interim Counsel Ron Bultje thought they could be since there is no current litigation involving those pieces and there is no attorney/privilege attached—thus making them public documents.

Rhodea questioned Bultje’s response. She had understood that a complaint by a County employee is handled confidentially. She brought up a previous incident in which a department head had expressed during a department meeting wanting to kill Commissioner Moss. An employee filed a complaint, and an investigation was done that was kept private. Rhodea asked if Bultje was saying anyone could FOIA that information and, if so, then this is not a safe work.

Though there are always exceptions, Bultje said that if the County receives a FOIA request for a complaint, and there’s no attorney/client privilege attached or current litigation, it can be released. Rhodea wondered what the County is paying to do all the legal gymnastics to figure out what can and can’t be released to the public.

There was confusion and a lot of back and forth as commissioners grappled with what Bultje was telling them. Miedema said she wondered why the Board wouldn’t then go back and release other closed sessions. “What I’m hearing you say,” she said, “is because Jorritsma chose to talk about [Wolf’s affidavit] last month, you’re saying why not just release it then. I’m not seeing any guideline then. Anytime commissioners come out of closed session, anytime it serves our interest to share just a little bit of what we want the public to think, we’re just going to put that on record and then the next month it will be released.” Bultje said he didn’t think attorney/client privilege had been broken last month, and that it’s a case-by-case basis.

The motion to release the affidavit passed by the following votes:

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

Nays: Commissioners Kendra Wenzel, Joe Moss, Doug Zylstra, Sylvia Rhodea, and Allison Miedema.

Scott Hawkes, Human Resources Director, weighed in on the County’s practice of reviewing job descriptions. In practice, department heads and HR review job description changes. When there is a change regarding the allocation of money, the job description goes to the Finance and Administration Committee, the County Administrator, and ultimately the Board for reviews.

County Administrator Patrick Waterman added that it’s “just good practice keeping the administrator day to day stuff at the administrator’s level and the high-level decisions when it comes to the finances at [Board] level.” Miedema disagreed saying that though the County is operating a bit more as a business, it is in the role of government. And since governments change course quite a bit, maybe a policy change was needed. Brugger, on the other hand, didn’t believe it was his job to “get into this level of minutia,” preferring to look at big picture and leave these types of decisions to Hawkes.

Drawing on his point from a previous meeting, Zylstra said that following this practice a department head could have a maintenance person become a DEI person, and it wouldn’t be brought to the Board. Zylstra called the practice problematic, especially when it’s a position for the Administrative Office which was created to help the Board do its job. With that, Zylstra made a motion to delay filling the analyst position until the Board could review and approve the job description. Chair Teeples said the motion breaks policy and creates a slippery slope but continued since it was on the table.

Zylstra clarified to the Chair that Hawke’s memo to the Board had said what the County has been doing is practice, not policy. Rhodea agreed with Hawkes and with Zylstra. She pointed out that this administrative role is close to the Board and close to how the County leadership functions, and that maybe there should be a policy where the Board sees and has to approve changes to a position within Administration—just as the Board had requested be done for this meeting and was not. The Chair, though he’d been absent from the previous meeting, denied that had been the request.

While he agreed with pausing to figure out the policy, Moss didn’t agree with pausing the job search since there already were close to 60 applicants.

The motion to delay filling the analyst position until the job description has been brought to the Board, failed.

Nays: Commissioners Jacob Bonnema, Jordan Jorritsma, Josh Brugger, Jim Barry, Joe Moss, Phil Kuyers, and John Teeples.

Yeas: Commissioners Allison Miedema, Kendra Wenzel, Sylvia Rhodea, and Doug Zylstra.

Following the vote, Interim Deputy Administrator Gary Rosema gave a comment at the podium. He took offense with Commissioner Zylstra saying the Administrator’s office is different and that the position changes needed oversight. When he’d finished, Zylstra said that Robert’s Rules allowed him to respond if the Chair would allow it. To that Chair Teeples said, “Let’s move on.”

Since it was Interim Corporate Counsel Ron Franz’s last day working for the County, many comments centered on thanking him for his work, guidance, and his smile.

Commissioner Rhodea, in addition to thanking Franz, took a moment to speak to the Board majority: “… You have continued to show a disdain for those who support President Trump, particularly Commissioner Moss who is arguably one of Michigan’s leading conservative voices. This has been a political witch hunt since you entered office, and it really needs to end. I’m hopeful that at some point soon you can get back to focusing on the business of the of the Board, the business of the County, the business of our people—instead of continuing to go after Commissioner Moss.”

October 28, 2025 Ottawa County Board of Commissioners meeting.

Ottawa County Board of Commissioners
Regular Session
October 28, 2025

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