OLIVE TWP., MI (WHTC-AM/FM, May 14, 2024) – The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners has sidestepped what may have been a political banana peel on Tuesday morning.
Among the items on the biweekly Ottawa County Board of Commissioners 9 AM business meeting was a recommendation for across-the-board pay raises among county officers. Garnering the most attention were around 60 percent hikes for board members, to between 33 thousand and 43 thousand dollars annually, with a thousand dollar a month “healthcare coverage” stipend. Raises for other elected leaders would increase from six to eight percent.
A basis for the rationale on the pay hikes is a line in the resolution that board members will be voting on: “Ottawa County has established the counties of Allegan, Berrien, Ingham, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Kent, Livingston, Muskegon, Saginaw, St. Clair and Washtenaw as its set of comparable counties for wages and benefits for the majority of its employee groups.”
What may have made this a political issue is that the county board is led by commissioners supported by the conservative political action group Ottawa Impact, but this recommendation came from the Ottawa County Officers Compensation Commission, chaired by Ottawa County Democratic Party chairman Larry Jackson. According to state law, the pay raise would have automatically gone into effect at the beginning of 2025 unless there was a two thirds vote of the board to reject it.
During the meeting, Board Chairman and Ottawa Impact co-founder Joe Moss pulled the item off of the agenda, saying that this recommendation by Jackson and the commission came after a 45-day window under state law for making such a proposal, and that an earlier recommendation, which came during this window, didn’t have enough yes votes to make it valid.
Among other items on the county board meeting agenda that did gain approval was slotting in Interim Administrator Jon Anderson into positions with the Housing Commission, Grand Valley Metropolitan Council and Lakeshore Advantage, replacing the dismissed John Gibbs, along with approving language for the road millage renewal question on the August 6th Primary Election ballot, as well as receiving annual reports from the county prosecutor’s office and the 20th Circuit Court.
This was the last scheduled business meeting for District 2 Commissioner Lucy Ebel, who was defeated in a recall election last Tuesday by Democratic challenger Chris Kleinjans. Due to state law, Kleinjans could not take the board seat because of a 5 PM deadline today for overseas and military ballots to arrive at local clerks’ offices. The county Board of Canvassers is slated to meet tomorrow to certify the election results.
An online link to the agenda and supporting documents is here.
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