OTTAWA COUNTY — The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners is tackling some of the biggest priorities identified by candidates and voters during last year's campaign cycle, namely finding its next administrator and changing the county's motto.

Administrator search

The county quietly relaunched the search for its next permanent administrator on July 16 after a previous effort failed to produce more than one finalist to interview and the search firm hired by the county withdrew from its contract June 19.

Read More: Administrator search firm cuts ties after Ottawa County process stalls

At a regular meeting on June 24, the 11-member board opted to delay relaunching the search, with the goal of regrouping and having a new chief administrative officer for the county by September.

“I know all of sudden, summer’s (upon) us. I believe that people have more things to do than sit in this room every day of the week and try to resolve this,” Interim Administrator Gary Rosema said at the June 24 meeting. “I think that would give us some additional time to put some things together (and) get past the summer months. (County) employees, the commissioners and the candidates all have families, they all have things they want to do that they planned for.

“So, I recommended to (Board Chairman) John (Teeples), let’s get to September,” Rosema continued. “By then, people are back to sitting down and looking at a few things. Based on what I shared, I think there’s some opportunities by mid-September to be sitting here, and either the board or maybe a committee will have a slate of people they want to bring forward, and we just get it done.”

How we got here

In March, commissioners selected Brighton-based Double Haul Solutions as their search firm for the permanent administrator role.

The decision came after the position was vacated for a fourth time in December after interim administrator Ben Wetmore was given a severance agreement by the previous board — which has since been challenged in court.

Wetmore, who began his short-lived stint as deputy county administrator in November 2023, was appointed by the OI majority in October after previous interim administrator Jon Anderson resigned — for the second time in two months — after he lost the Republican primary race for county sheriff. Wetmore was selected without a formal search process.

Anderson, himself, replaced former permanent administrator John Gibbs, who was fired in late February 2023 after a falling out with the OI majority. Anderson was selected without a formal search process.

Gibbs sued and later settled with the county for $190,000. 

Gibbs replaced previous permanent administrator John Shay, who the OI-led board abruptly fired on Jan. 3, 2023, the day they were sworn in. Shay was promoted from deputy administrator in March 2022.

The former Ottawa Impact majority, a far-right political group, attempted to fill the full-time position after Anderson resigned, and while Wetmore served as interim. 

The process, however, faced scrutiny after former board Chair Joe Moss hand-picked the search firm without a formal process and created an executive search committee composed of five OI commissioners, two of whom had lost their Republican primaries in August.

Ultimately, the process resulted in all candidates backing out.

Read More: Ottawa County administrator search in jeopardy after all but one candidate drops out

New goals in 2025

When the new board was seated in January 2025, the search for the next administrator was a top goal.

Despite championing the hire of three administrators without public searches during his time as chair, Commissioner Joe Moss, former OI majority leader, said the board had an obligation to promote transparency.

“What is the principle that we're trying to look for? And one of the principles I think of is government information should be public and transparent,” Moss said. “When the board is looking at one of the most important decisions of this term, I ask where do we place the priority? Do we keep the names of people who applied to lead Ottawa County secret? Do we keep it hidden, or do we let the public know?”

He pointed to the one search process the OI-led board conducted in September 2024, lauding it as an example of how to do it right, despite the outcome not yielding a new administrator. 

“We went through a highly transparent process where all of the applicants were put into the packet and done publicly last year. And it went, it went pretty well up until the end, right?” Moss said. “I preferred the balance of transparency, and one of the reasons is because we got information and comments from the community. So one thing that I'm definitely concerned about is not having comments or input from people outside this board. … I wonder why it has to be done in secret, and it gives me concern that without the transparency, we will make the wrong decision.”

“I'm surprised if you actually believe that,” board Chair John Teeples said, “because you cannot gather a quality pool of candidates if they don't have the opportunity to inquire about an opening knowing that we're not going to disrupt their life unless it gets to the point that they be considered a finalist.”

What's happening now

After the Ottawa Impact majority was voted out in November 2024, a new moderate Republican majority assumed control at the beginning of 2025.

The board, now seven months into a new four-year term, has set the identification of the new administrator as its top goal for 2025. 

In the last search launched in March, the board ultimately advanced the top five recommended candidates from Double Haul, however, two of them dropped out without being publicly named.

Just days later, two more candidates withdrew and commissioners were faced with a choice: interview the sole remaining candidate or call off the process.

Ultimately, the board opted to interview Michael Tremblay, a retired U.S. Army officer and two-time Brigade Commander with over 20 years of executive leadership, on June 12, however, commissioners chose to suspend the process for two weeks to regroup.

The decision to drop out by Double Haul came the following day, according to county officials.

What comes next?

The renewed job posting calls for someone who is "apolitical" and can ensure "stability, and accountability across departments, while continuing to build trust within the community."

"The next administrator will be expected to lead with integrity and independence, bringing clarity, strategic direction, and an apolitical, collaborative spirit to the organization," the county said in a news release.

Interested and qualified individuals can learn more at apply online. at miOttawa.org. The deadline to apply is 5 p.m. Aug. 11.

The county plans to pay its next administrator between $220,000 and $260,00 — an increase from the $210,000 paid to the county's previous two administrators, John Gibbs and John Shay.

Teeples previously told ONN that the county wants to get it right rather than get it done quickly.

Teeples said the board likely will proceed without Double Hall.

"We're not in a hurry," Teeples said. "Let's just do this right. I think that's everybody's view."

Teeples refrained from ascribing blame to the failed search earlier this year, saying his Ottawa Impact peers are not to blame.

"I hope to avoid any more conflict with too much of this stuff, but I'll be honest with you, I think one of the four candidates sounds like he backed away because of what he saw at the board meeting last week. The other three had other reasons that had nothing to do with Ottawa Impact," Teeples said.

Others in the new moderate Republican majority have hinted that the previous search could have had a different outcome if OI commissioners had cooperated at a June 4 meeting where the board attempted to go into closed session to discuss each member's preferred candidates from a pool of nearly 40.

In that meeting, the board failed to meet the required two-thirds vote to go into closed session because all four OI commissioners voted against the move, citing "transparency" concerns.

"Our process stalled during a special meeting on June 4 when a minority of commissioners were able to block the board from going into closed session," Commissioner Jim Barry, a moderate Republican, said in an update to constituents this week.

"The purpose of going (in)to closed session was to be able to have (a) frank discussion about the applicants. The goal was to reduce the pool of 39 candidates to a handful of finalists we would bring in for public interviews. Protecting the confidentiality of applicants until the finalist stage is legal, customary and was asked for by the applicants as a common courtesy for their families and current employers. The minority of commissioners wanted to discuss all 39 candidates in open session," Barry said.

Barry said, although he's "disappointed" that a new administrator has yet to be hired, "it's more important to get this right than meet a self-imposed deadline."

Barry said 22 of the initial pool of 39 candidates have said they would like to still be considered for the position. That group will be pooled with any new candidates who submit applications by Aug. 11.

"My hope is all of our commissioners can come together and work out our priorities for what we're looking for in our next Ottawa County administrator," he said.

Barry said Rosema and Interim Deputy Administrator Ron Frantz have agreed to stay on with the county until the process is complete, and that public interviews could take place by the end of the third quarter, which includes August and September.

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County motto might go

At the first organizational meeting of the board in January 2023, the OI-led majority voted to change the county motto from "Where You Belong," which it had since 2017, to "Where Freedom Rings."

The move was deeply unpopular with moderates and progressives, many of whom backed the current moderate majority that was elected to the board in November.

Read More: Christian nationalism is gripping the nation — has it arrived in Ottawa County?

On Tuesday, commissioners will consider removing the motto "Where Freedom Rings" altogether.

The board's next meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 22, at the county administration building at the Fillmore Complex.

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