OLIVE TWP., MI (WHTC-AM/FM, Sept. 24, 2025) – An apparent theme coming out of Tuesday night’s monthly Ottawa County Board of Commissioners meeting was one of advancement.
In a nearly two-and-a-half hour session, members of the governing panel approved a two-year contract with former Deputy Administrator Patrick Waterman to be the county’s new Administrator. The current Deputy City Manager of the Grand Rapids suburb of Wyoming, who was chosen earlier this month from among 58 applicants for the operational leadership position, will receive an initial annual salary of $230,000 when he assumes his new duties on October 27th. Commissioners, who were split 7-4 on September 12th to offer the job to Waterman, unanimously approved seven amendments to the employment agreement.
Retired Sheriff Gary Rosema has handled the operational leadership duties since January, the third such interim administrator since John Gibbs was relieved of his duties on February 29th of last year.
In addition, the board approved two proposed settlements of litigation against the county. One filed by Dan Zimmer, alleged violations of the state’s Open Meeting Act by the board having a closed-door session to approve severance agreements with employees Jordan Epperson and Ben Wetmore. The other, filed by Adrea Hill and Luke Sanner, alleged that the county improperly denied their Freedom of Information Act requests involving all communications of board members supported by the Ottawa Impact political action group. Both approvals came on 7-4 votes, and will cost the county a total of nealy $40,000 in legal fees and costs incurred by the plaintiffs.
An online link to the agenda and supporting documents for Tuesday night’s Ottawa County Board meeting is here.
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