Closed meeting minutes: Moss agreed to $4M settlement with Hambley to 'get this over with'

OTTAWA COUNTY — Ottawa County commissioners did, in fact, agree to pay Administrative Health Officer Adeline Hambley $4 million to resign in November 2023, according to closed session meeting minutes released Thursday.

The minutes were released as part of a settlement agreement that the current board approved Oct. 28 to end a lawsuit filed by The Holland Sentinel in February 2024.

Although former board chair Joe Moss made public assertions that the $4 million settlement with Hambley was "a false narrative from the media," he was in favor of the payout during the Nov. 6, 2023, meeting in order to secure Hambley's resignation and to resolve her lawsuit against the board, according to written minutes taken by Clerk Justin Roebuck.

"Chairperson Moss said he would rather do a flat $4 million with no severance or benefits," Roebuck wrote in his notes. "Chairperson Moss said that we are figuring out the cost to get this over with."

How we got here

The disclosure is likely the last remnant of a legal saga that dragged on for over a year, dominating headlines in West Michigan and drawing attention from national media, as the board's former far-right Ottawa Impact majority tried to force out its health officer due to frustrations about how the county navigated the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hambley's lawsuit, filed in February 2023, followed the former board's attempt to demote her on Jan. 3, 2023. She sued the following month, claiming the board overstepped its legal authority, kicking off two years of unprecedented strain between the board and the county’s health department.

In April 2023, a circuit court judge granted Hambley a preliminary injunction, allowing her to remain in her role until a trial could take place.

Throughout summer 2023, the board, then-administrator John Gibbs and Hambley battled over a proposed budget for the department. In the end, the OI majority voted to cut millions.

Then the Michigan Court of Appeals partially vacated the circuit court injunction, saying the board had the legal right to fire Hambley as long as state law was followed.

Read More: Judge orders Ottawa County to pay $188K for health officer's legal fees after yearlong lawsuit

Moss then scheduled a termination hearing over allegations of Hambley's “incompetence, misconduct and neglect of duty" during budget negotiations. The hearing, the first steps of legally firing a health officer, began in October and stretched on through several recesses for more than four months.

On Nov. 6, the board went into closed session. Afterward, commissioners went into open session and voted 7-3 to “accept counsel’s recommendation regarding litigation and settlement activities in the case of Hambley v. Ottawa County.”

Following the meeting, multiple sources close to the matter told this reporter, a former journalist at The Sentinel, that the agreement included paying Hambley $4 million to resign, plus the resignation of then-deputy health officer Marcia Mansaray.

The Sentinel published the deal's details on Nov. 8, 2023, before the agreement was executed.

Read More: Instead of firing her, Ottawa Impact plans to give Hambley millions to resign

Commissioners were expected to formalize the agreement at a meeting on Nov. 14, 2023, but no such vote occurred. Instead, representatives immediately went into closed session, where they met for more than 6.5 hours before recessing again until Nov. 28.

Following reports of the settlement amount, Ottawa Impact commissioners attempted to walk back the agreement and Hambley went back to the circuit court, asking the judge to enforce the $4 million deal.

During an evidentiary hearing in January 2024, Muskegon County 14th Circuit Court Judge Jenny McNeil found that — although an agreement was discussed and reached — the public vote commissioners took after transitioning from closed session to open, the resolution language cementing the deal wasn't clear enough to be legally binding.

The newspaper sued to compel McNeil to unseal subpoenaed secret testimony from Roebuck that detailed discussions during the Nov. 6, 2023, closed session when the $4 million deal was reached — and informed McNeil's finding that the deal happened, but wasn't enforceable.

McNeill denied The Sentinel's motion on Feb. 28, 2024, to unseal the transcript from the Jan. 19 evidentiary hearing, which she closed to the public and media. On Nov. 8, 2024, the Michigan Court of Appeals granted The Sentinel the right to appeal.

In January, a new board was sworn in, and OI's representation shrank from a six-seat majority to a four-seat minority on the 11-member board. In October, the current moderate Republican majority voted to release the closed session minutes in exchange for The Sentinel agreeing to dismiss its appeal of McNeil's ruling.

Meanwhile, OI commissioners like Moss continued to deny that a deal was ever reached.

"We've had constant media attacks claiming the county to a ginormous settlement," Moss said during a Feb. 22, 2024, board meeting. "(Former administrator John Gibbs) asked me on several occasions why the board was giving the health officer $4 million. I repeatedly explained that that was a false narrative from the media and from other people."

Just four days later, the board unanimously voted to settle with Hambley, keeping her and Mansaray in place; Mansaray retired in May 2024. The parties left it up to McNeill to decide what, if any, money the county would pay to cover Hambley's legal fees.

Read More: Ottawa County Board votes unanimously to retain Hambley as health officer

On Aug. 26, 2024, McNeill ordered the county to pay all of Hambley’s legal fees — to the tune of $188,179.24. The county absorbed that and likely more, as costs to defend the lawsuit reached nearly $180,000 as of October 2023 — meaning the total costs to the county for the litigation exceeded $368,000.

The lawsuit was one of seven filed against the board — in whole or in part — from January 2023 to December 2024.

What the minutes show

The closed session minutes, which are only available through written documentation, show that Hambley and her attorney made an initial offer of $8 million in exchange for her and Mansaray's resignations.

Hambley's attorney, Sarah Riley-Howard, proposed the figure of $3.9 million as the potential value of Hambley's pension, according to Roebuck's notes.

OI Commissioner Gretchen Cosby asked then-human resources director Marcie Verbeek how Hambley arrived at the $3.9 million for her pension evaluation. Verbeek told commissioners that Hambley would not be fully vested for six more years.

Commissioners also discussed at length what it would cost separately to secure Mansaray's resignation. Hambley's initial proposal included one year of severance pay with full benefits to resign as of Jan. 5, 2024, which would have totalled $180,000.

Hambley also asked for an extra week of vacation for all health department employees. Given that there were 114 county employees at the time, the cost of the extra week for all would have amounted to roughly $118,050, Verbeek told commissioners, according to Roebuck's minutes.

When former Commissioner Kyle Terpstra asked why the board was considering such a large settlement, then-corporation counsel Steve Kallman said it was about calculating the risk should Hambley prevail in the courts.

"Commissioner Terpstra said there must be a reason that we think we are losing in court. Otherwise, why would we not just proceed?" Roebuck wrote in the minutes.

Kallman said: "It’s a matter of risk, and we are attempting to calculate that risk and then the potential of losing in court comes with a risk," the minutes said.

Former Commissioner Rebekah Curran advocated for "an option where Hambley continues to serve at the Health Department but not as health officer," indicating that some board members were open to securing Mansaray's resignation and having Hambley demoted to the deputy role.

Moss and other "board leadership" were "not interested in this option," the notes show.

"Moss asked if the board could trust Officer Hambley?" Roebuck wrote in the minutes.

Terpstra told fellow commissioners: "If we can’t trust her, she’s horrible, why do we want her as a deputy?"

Terpstra resigned just hours after the closed session ended and the board approved the $4 million deal.

After Verbeek confirmed that Hambley's pay and various benefits, if fully vested, would equate to a "total liability, very conservatively (of) $3.7 million."

Other OI commissioners, including Cosby, Alison Miedema and Sylvia Rhodea pushed for an outcome that would pay Hambley to leave.

"Commissioners Miedema, Cosby, and Rhodea would like to entertain what it would take for her to walk away," Roebuck wrote in his notes.

The board had its attorney meet with Hambley's team to discuss the possibility of reaching a figure of less than $1.8 million, which was rejected.

By midday, Hambley and Mansaray said through their attorney that they would leave for $8 million.

By 2 p.m., the board then counter-offered with $3 million for Hambley and six months' severance for Mansaray, with no stipulations and $200,000 for legal fees.

Just before the county attorney left the room to deliver the offer, Moss "indicated that this $3 million offer is a good offer," Roebuck wrote in the notes.

Around 3:30 p.m., Hambley and Mansaray counter-offered with $4.455 million plus one year of severance pay and benefits; Mansaray would receive one year's severance under the deal. The total package would equal $4.6 million — $1.525 million higher than the board's previous offer, according to the notes.

As commissioners struggled to find consensus, Kallman told them "there is a high risk that the case could go back to Judge McNeil, and that is a major risk," according to Roebuck's notes.

He also indicated that Hambley likely would have prevailed in the courts.

"This termination litigation would be costly, and the likelihood of Hambley staying in office," Roebuck wrote in the notes.

Moss said: "We need to get back to business, and there is a cost of that as well," the minutes said. He also said: "He would rather do a flat $4 million with no severance or benefits" for Hambley and give Mansaray one year of severance through Dec. 31, 2024.

The board then arrived at the $4 million figure for Hambley and a $100,000 severance for Mansaray.

Reaction

Commissioner Jacob Bonnema, who initially campaigned with OI in the 2022 campaign cycle but publicly split with the group in March 2023, said he's glad the public can finally see what happened that day in November 2023.

He said it's been frustrating to watch the former OI commissioners deny what really happened.

"One of the core principles I try to live by, both personally and as your county commissioner, is simple: If you make a mistake, own it. Don’t lie about it, and don’t cover it up," he said on his commissioner Facebook page.

"During a closed session, several OI-affiliated commissioners supported the idea of paying $4 million to compel the county health officer to leave her position. When word of this reached their political base, the first reaction from many taxpayers was: 'This rumor isn’t true … is it?'

"At that moment, there was an opportunity to be honest, acknowledge the discussion, and explain why it occurred. Instead, what happened was a coordinated denial campaign — in the media, in print, and across social platforms. Rather than taking responsibility for the decision made behind closed doors, they chose to deny, deflect, and attack.

"And when some of us refused to participate in that cover-up, we became their new target. I believe the public deserves honesty from its elected officials — especially when the truth is uncomfortable. Taxpayers should never have to wonder whether their leaders are telling them the truth."

Bonnema gave a detailed account in a two-part interview with WGHN's Mary Ellen Murphy last week, describing details of the closed session meeting.

— Sarah Leach is the executive editor of the Ottawa News Network. Contact her at sleach@ottawanewsnetwork.org. Follow her on Twitter @ONNLeach.