OTTAWA COUNTY, MI — After Ottawa County Board Chair Joe Moss suggested cutting the county health department’s budget by $3.9 million, some residents and county officials pushed back on Tuesday, while others rejoiced.
Moss said he’d like to cut the county’s general fund contributions to the health department’s budget for the 2024 fiscal year from $6.4 million down to $2.5 million during a meeting earlier this week.
On Tuesday, Moss posted a blog post on his website stating, “It is time for Ottawa County to rein in the out-of-control expenditures and augmented influence of the public health department.”
In the post, Moss said high levels of funding for the county health department has allowed health department staff to interfere with schools and parental rights, perform extreme levels of contact tracing on healthy individuals and threaten parents and school administrators.
RELATED: Ottawa County health officer warns proposed budget cuts could ‘impair, eliminate’ services
Moss’s daughter attended Libertas Christian School in Ottawa County during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the health department shut the school down for its refusal to follow masking and social distancing policies. Since then, he and other members of the far-right Republican group he formed called Ottawa Impact have been battling the health department.
Just before the start of an evening board of commissioners meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 22, Administrative Health Officer Adeline Hambley posted a lengthy message on the health department’s social media pages stating the proposed budget cut “will significantly impair, and likely eliminate, various public health services.”
“It is ridiculous to expect that services in 2024 could be completed with a budget below 2009 funding levels,” Hambley wrote.
Moss, however, said the discussed budget cut would be “providing the department the funds to fulfill statutory requirements and meet the needs of the community as it did historically.”
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County Administrator John Gibbs told commissioners on Tuesday that he requested Hambley produce a new budget scenario with funds cut nearly in half by the end of the day Thursday.
“From 2009-19, it was relatively stable and then after that there was a very significant spike,” Gibbs said. “We know that for 2009 to 2019 the health department was providing services adequately to the county. It’s gone up by 50% in the last two years, so I think it’s reasonable to take a step back and look at that.”
During the Tuesday night meeting, several county residents spoke in support of and against the health department.
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“Gibbs wants a 50% cut?” said Spring Lake Township resident George Maierhauser. “Gut the whole department and start over. The current head of that department needs to go.”
Holland Township resident Marla Walters said she believes county leaders are trying to decrease the health department budget as an act of retaliation for Hambley filing a lawsuit against Moss and the other members of Moss’ far-right political group called Ottawa Impact to prevent them from firing her.
“The decisions you make affect real people,” Walters said. “Board meetings shouldn’t be a place for political theater or (to) exact revenge. The health department should be the very last place to consider when cutting funding. What’s more important in a community than keeping our residents safe and healthy?”
Hambley said she also believes the proposed budget cuts would be “a clear act of unlawful retaliation” against her.
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