In his memorandum written for the Republican Study Committee, Banks states, “Leftists have abused Americans’ willingness to make sacrifices for public health. They have sought to define everything from racism to policing to gun rights to the minimum wage as public health issues.”

Banks’ memorandum concludes by saying, “The CDC and NIH have strayed far from their original missions. The CDC was founded to combat infectious diseases. The NIH’s established mission is to seek fundamental knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability.”

“Instead, both agencies have been influenced by an ideological public health academia and advance the Left’s war on American culture. Conservatives would be wise to root out this institutional rot at these institutions and return them to their core missions.”

Ottawa County Board of Commissioners Vice Chair Sylvia Rhodea expressed concern regarding these memberships and the problematic policies advanced by NACCHO at the Health and Human Services Subcommittee meeting on April 18, 2023. Additionally, Chair Joe Moss shared NACCHO is being investigated by Congress for its involvement in harmful CDC Covid-19 recommendations for schools.

During the previous Board of Commissioners’ tenure, proper oversight of the county and the Health Department was lacking—which could be why the Health Department has bristled in recent months at Board questions and accountability for fund usage.

The previous Board didn’t publicly inquire about the grants the Health Department received, perhaps unaware or unconcerned with the strings that were attached—even if it meant selling the data of the citizens of Ottawa County. The lack of transparency and governance by the prior Board allowed the Health Department to slip further and further into the control and Democratic agenda of progressive institutions like the CDC and NIH.

In 2023, the new Board began to increase oversight to the county, ask questions, root out the truth of connected institutions, and align the Health Department and county bureaucracy with the priorities of the people of the county.

With the Board’s efforts, truth is coming to light, prompting Democrat activists to increase their resolve to protect their agenda in the Health Department. On the front lines, the Democratic Party appears to have chosen lawfare as their weapon of choice, with a trusted activist attorney at the helm.

Following the primary election in August of 2022, it was apparent a new majority of Republican commissioners aligned with Ottawa Impact would likely be voted into office in November. On August 30, 2022, Commissioner Doug Zylstra invited Attorney General Dana Nessel to a meeting in Holland, Michigan. Mercedes Watts, candidate for the 20th Circuit Court reported, “Bringing lawsuits, the ACLU and recall elections were discussed. This was very informative.” The Board Chair at that time, Matt Fenske, and District 2 Candidate Joe Spaulding were also in attendance.

On December 13, 2022, the prior Ottawa County Board of Commissioners appointed Adeline Hambley to be the new Health Officer for Ottawa County by adding an item to the agenda at the meeting. This action bypassed the Board’s own process of first approving the Health Officer through the Board’s HHS Subcommittee, before sending the appointee to the full Board for approval.

With the previous Health Officer, Lisa Stefanovsky, in place through March of 2023, Hambley’s appointment appears to have been a last hour spike on the incoming Board, creating what would prove to be a misalignment between the incoming Board and the Health Officer.

On January 3, 2023, the newly elected Board reappointed Hambley to be Interim Health Officer while the county worked through the approval process of appointing Nate Kelly as the Health Officer. In February of 2023, Interim Health Officer Hambley sued members of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners in an effort to keep the Health Officer position.

Was the Health Officer position—that Hambley accepted and held for three weeks prior to the new Board taking office—important to Hambley due to her increased income and power, and/or was the lawsuit political?

Would Hambley have been wise to decline the appointment to the position until the new Board could approve her appointment? Despite claiming to be apolitical, is Hambley actually a political activist?

Is Hambley coordinating with and/or being used by Democratic Party activists and national health organizations to protect the progressive public health agenda which increasingly encompasses the Democratic Party platform?

An August 6, 2023 press release from Board Chair Joe Moss and Vice Chair Sylvia Rhodea outlined the prioritization of public health powers over the needs of the people in Ottawa County, and the joint efforts of the county’s Department of Public Health and its state and national NGO allies.

“The Ottawa County Department of Public Health has been held up as an example with several awards in recent years from the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), a non-governmental organization (NGO) which has explored and promoted the legal authority of local health entities. NACCHO’s affiliate business partners and sponsors include Pfizer, Moderna, and other medical industry companies. During the Covid-19 response, Ottawa County was a contributor to NACCHO’s webinar, COVID-19: Drive-thru Vaccination Clinics and Local Health Departments.

NACCHO, its state chapter the Michigan Association for Local Public Health (MALPH), and the Network for Public Health Law (NPHL) were included in an original amicus brief filed in the appeal regarding the Interim Health Director’s personal lawsuit against the County. MALPH and NACCHO have also participated in media coverage related to Ms. Hambley.

In recent weeks, Ottawa County’s Deputy Health Officer, Marcia Mansaray, traveled to Tacoma, Washington, to present a break-out session for the National Association of Local Boards of Health with Denise Chrysler from NPHL. Mansaray presented, I Used the Law and the Law Won: Using Law to Advocate and Defend Public Health Power. Marcia provided training to her public health peers on how she has pushed back on the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners connected with Ottawa Impact who she is so vehemently opposed to. Representing herself as an employee of Ottawa County and an individual, she falsely accused the Board of violating OMA, and gave a vivid description of the legal and political tactics she employed to actively oppose the Board.”

Local activist and failed Democratic candidate for the previous 30th District of the State Senate, Sarah Riley Howard, is Hambley’s attorney. In 2014, Howard ran as a Democrat against Michigan’s Republican Senate majority leader Arlan Meekhof, losing the seat after receiving 28 percent of the vote to Meekhof’s 71 percent. Commissioner Doug Zylstra was Chair of the Ottawa County Democratic Party at that time, demonstrating earlier coordination of efforts between the two.

Howard’s social media pages reveal her support of progressive issues and policies, as well as connections to established Democrat politicians. Additionally, Howard was a board member of the Progressive Women’s Alliance-Lakeshore from 2010–2019.

One of Howard’s political heroes is Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), with whom she reportedly interned in Washington D.C. In a post on her Sarah Howard for State Senate Facebook page, Howard states, “I aspire to be the kind of hard-working, reasonable legislator that he [Levin] has been.”

Howard posted about Republicans having a “headache from a Democrat” during her campaign in 2014. Is she attempting to recreate such a scenario for the Republican majority of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners? Who better than Howard to protect the progressive agenda and public health powers of the Health Department?

Once a politician, always a politician.

Activist attorneys are at the helm of multiple lawsuits and legal actions against the county and its Republican commissioners. Howard is involved in three of them.

On February 13, 2023, Howard filed the first lawsuit against the new Ottawa County Board of Commissioners. The lawsuit was filed on Adeline Hambley’s behalf, in order to retain Hambley in the Health Officer position—a position to which the prior Board had worked to appoint Hambley only three weeks before the start of the new Board’s term.

Howard is in good company with Hambley’s lawsuit. Mark Brewer, former chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, filed an Amicus curiae brief in the lawsuit on behalf of NACCHO, MALPH, and others in support of Howard’s client, Adeline Hambley.

Brewer previously brought a lawsuit against the Board alleging Open Meetings Act violations for decisions made on January 3, 2023. The lawsuit was dismissed by Muskegon County Circuit Court Judge Matthew Kacel on July 12, 2023.

Those lawsuits weren’t enough for Howard or Democrat Party activists. In Howard’s second legal case—in line with Democratic Party initiatives—Howard represented Larry Jackson and the Committee to Recall Lucy Ebel. Larry Jackson sponsored the petition to recall Republican Commissioner Lucy Ebel. The petition was presented as a referendum against the conservative Republican commissioner majority who ran with Ottawa Impact, and an opportunity to break the majority of the Board. (The majority is likely to now hold regardless of recall results, due to Commissioner Terpstra’s resignation and the opportunity for the majority to fill his seat with an aligned candidate.)

Sarah Howard was present to speak and represent Jackson and the Committee to Recall Lucy Ebel at the petition language hearing with the Ottawa County Elections Board on July 17, 2023. In addition, Howard represented the Committee to Recall Lucy Ebel at Ebel’s hearing to appeal the recall on August 25, 2023. The recall committee had filed and was granted a motion to intervene at the hearing.

Jackson also serves as a candidate recruiter for the Unifying Coalition of Ottawa County, whose website claims, “UCOC is nonpartisan and committed to building a wide, welcoming table, united in The Common Good.” The UCOC website links to Vote Common Good, an ostensibly Democratic initiative cloaked in nonpartisan language, whose parent organization opposed Republican candidates in multiple states during the 2022 election cycle. Vote Common Good supported the BLM movement.

Another active member of the Recall Lucy Ebel Committee which Howard represents is Joe Spaulding, who actively coordinated petition circulation to recall Ebel. Joe Spaulding is the failed Democrat candidate who ran against Ebel for the District 2 county commission seat in 2022, and has been a vocal and crass opponent of Republican commissioners during board meetings. Spaulding had to be escorted out of a board meeting for illegally interrupting and then playing a harmonica.

The Democrat-led committee has thus far been successful in submitting enough signatures for a May recall election. Per the Holland Sentinel, petitioner Jackson said, “Recent cuts to the county’s health department budget, mounting legal costs and a lack of transparency inspired thousands of residents to sign the recall petition.” Jackson’s statement is ironic coming from the Chair of the Democratic Party whose activists have been deeply involved in bringing lawfare against the Republican-led county.

One might think representing Hambley and attempting to unseat a commissioner would be enough, but Howard doesn’t stop there. She is also representing Rev. Dr. Jared Cramer of St. John’s Episcopal Church. Cramer, the priest who organized the worship services for the Grand Haven Pride Fest, has been an advocate for unfettered student access to sexually explicit books in Grand Haven Public Schools, and has been vocal about the closure of the county’s DEI department and county motto change from “Where You Belong” to “Where Freedom Rings.”

Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilcrest (D) was present to greet Cramer before the opening remarks of the official start of Pride Fest following Cramer’s worship service in Grand Haven.

Cramer sued Board Chair Joe Moss regarding invocations for board meetings, as he had not yet been invited to pray in 2023. Despite the presence of hundreds of churches and faith leaders in Ottawa County, a board schedule limited to approximately 23 meetings per year, and Cramer’s last appearance for prayer before the Board on August 23, 2022, Cramer feels discriminated against and appears to feel entitled to cut in line.

In June 2023, Hambley told 13 On Your Side, “The health officer role and the Ottawa County Health Department [are] not political.”

They shouldn’t be. But are they?

The Hambley lawsuit is just one of multiple lawfare initiatives of Democratic Party activists and progressive institutions against the courageous Republican Board in Ottawa County. Rarely do Republicans actively fulfill campaign promises, and Democratic Party activists and its NGO, legal, and media allies are proving they will not allow the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners to govern according to the Republican Party platform without substantial opposition.

Democratic community members often accuse the Board of escalating legal expenses. But who is bringing lawfare and increasing the legal costs to the county? Such concerns should be brought back to their own political party. When Democratic activists choose lawfare, they are choosing to allocate county dollars to legal expenses.

Is the Democratic Party paying the legal fees of Howard and Brewer, or is payment of attorney fees dependent on lawsuit settlements from the county?

New court documents from Kallman Legal Group dated November 22, 2023, reveal Howard made an offer on November 6, 2023, to settle with the county for $8M, including paying Howard $2.6M in attorney fees. Per the documents, settlement negotiations continued and ultimately broke down. Howard is now attempting to obtain court intervention to enforce a settlement discussion amount of $4M from the county.

Someone needs to pay the bills.