‘Stable counties don’t fire their corporation counsel and administrator,’ Ottawa County warned

OTTAWA COUNTY, MI – Just before Christmas and two weeks before a group of new, further right elected leaders took over the Ottawa County board, the county’s attorney sent a three-page email to the incoming commissioners simply titled “Rumor Mill.”

In that Dec. 22 email obtained by liberal advocacy group Progress Michigan, outgoing Ottawa County Corporate Counsel Doug Van Essen told the eight, incoming Ottawa Impact Republicans he had heard rumors they planned to fire him and former County Administrator John Shay at the start of the year.

If the rumors were true, Van Essen warned, the consequences would be increased employee turnover, the county losing its status as one of the best-run in the state and Wall Street potentially lowering the county’s bond rating due to perceived government instability, among other things.

The new board ended up replacing Van Essen and firing Shay at their first meeting, Jan. 3, among other sweeping changes.

“You can fire me and you can fire the (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) director and serve whatever base you think you have to serve and do minimal damage,” Van Essen wrote. “But if you fire the corporation counsel and administrator you will send shock waves, not just throughout the county but at Wall Street where we have ended up with one of the few AAA bond ratings in Michigan, in part due to Ottawa County’s perceived stability.

“Stable counties don’t fire their corporation counsel and administrator. It either means there is mass corruption or that the commissioners are inexperienced and on some witch hunt.”

Bond ratings are a measure of an institution’s financial reputation. The better it is, the more competitive rates and lower interest the county can get on borrowing money for projects. The county currently has a AAA bond rating — the highest possible.

Related: Ultra conservative group’s abrupt government changes ‘blatant violation of public trust,’ AG says

The email was one of a number of communications made public Wednesday, Feb. 15, by Progress Michigan, which filed Freedom of Information Act requests for a number of communications to and from former and current county commissioners.

Van Essen declined to comment on the email.

The majority of Van Essen’s email was a plea to keep Shay employed as county administrator and a warning of the instability that replacing key leadership positions at the county could have.

Van Essen told the Ottawa Impact Republicans that Shay had nothing to do with issues they had campaigned against, such as the county’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office and the health department’s mask mandate.

Instead, he said Shay – a civil servant of 25 years and the county’s administrator since March 2022 – has worked “tirelessly” at the county since being hired on as deputy administrator in 2018 and has only redoubled his efforts since being administrator.

Van Essen said some of the county’s 1,800 employees had already left ahead of the new board, and that others were concerned about the political turnover. He said Shay has “worked tirelessly to calm matters down,” telling employees that the new board has the best interests of the county in mind and that, while they might stamp their own views on some issues, there won’t be huge dysfunction in county operations.

“All of this for what? Again, if you need to show blood, sacrifice (former DEI Director Robyn Afrik) and me,” Van Essen wrote. “Don’t sacrifice an administrator who did nothing to deserve it and is very good at what he does. Ask anyone in local government in Ottawa County.”

On Thursday, Ottawa County Commissioner and Ottawa Impact member Gretchen Cosby told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press that the board should always be concerned about the bond rating, but that’s why leading in a responsible way is important.

“Honestly, I’d defer to legal counsel, but a bond rating, we should always be concerned about that,” Cosby said. “If we lead in a way that’s responsible, there’s no way the banks should think we’re a risk.”

As for employee turnover, she said that too is something to be mindful of.

“If I lead with integrity, typically people want to follow,” Cosby said. “It’s the hiring practices as well, and we all decide when we want to stay or go.”

In addition to concerns about the bond rating, turnover and good governance status, Van Essen also expressed concern that the county’s other elected officials, such as the sheriff, treasurer, clerk and drain commissioner, might put up barriers to the board.

Additionally, he said, some moderate Republicans and big businesses in the area might seek to diminish the powers of the board of commissioners in an effort to reduce political instability by supporting a charter and county executive form of government.

He said it would relegate the board’s actions to approving the budget and some bills. Van Essen said an attempt to do so had already happened before, in the 1980s, but that area businesses were against it at the time.

“In short, things are not always what they seem and everything you do will now have significant collateral consequences,” Van Essen wrote. “You have to be crafty or you wouldn’t have been elected. But you are not experienced in government nor certainly in municipal government.”

The only previous public mention by Ottawa Impact Republicans of Van Essen’s email was that it served as a notice from him that he would be retiring. They didn’t mention Van Essen’s concerns.

Van Essen did write in the email that he planned to retire Jan. 1 but was staying on until a replacement was selected for corporate counsel. Incumbent commissioners said his plans were to retire after a selection process for his predecessor were known.

The new Ottawa Impact majority board used the email as rationale as to why the commissioners, on their first board meeting Jan. 3, would be replacing Van Essen with Kallman Legal Group, a firm known for championing conservative causes.

Van Essen is currently working at the county under the direction of Kallman Legal Group during a transitionary period through Feb. 28.

The resolution replacing Van Essen was one of six surprise, concerted motions put forward mid-meeting by Ottawa Impact Republicans taking specific actions and hiring specific people with no prior public discussion.

Other actions Jan. 3 included firing Shay and immediately hiring failed Republican Congressional candidate John Gibbs to replace him, demoting the current administrative health officer and hiring a new one as well as closing the county’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office.

A number of complaints about the lack of transparency prompted an investigation by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office.

On Thursday, Nessel announced that while the board’s actions were a “blatant violation of public trust,” they did not constitute a violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act (OMA) thanks to a “technicality” that protects elected leaders from being subject to the act prior to being sworn-in.

She is now advocating for new measures to strengthen the law, including extending OMA restrictions to those who have been elected but haven’t yet taken office. OMA is meant to ensure government meetings are open to the public and that policy decisions are made in public.

Read more:

‘Nothing is leaking’ from Michigan train derailment, say regulators

Incoming snow means treacherous road conditions likely across part of Michigan

Ban guns at polling places, Michigan SOS says after MSU shooting