Story summary

• The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners is seeking its next administrator — it's fifth in three years.
• On Friday, the county released the names of three finalists in the search.
• The four Ottawa Impact commissioners who remain on the board — Sylvia Rhodea, Allison Miedema, Kendra Wenzel and Moss — attempted to delay the current search process, citing transparency concerns, despite holding only one public search in three of the four administrator hires they oversaw.

OTTAWA COUNTY — As Ottawa County searches for its next administrator — its fifth in three years — the undertaking is shaping up to be vastly different than the last four searches.

The board, now six months into a new four-year term, has set the identification of the new administrator as their top goal of 2025. Individual commissioners, however, have a vastly different view of how the process should unfold. 

On Friday, June 6, the county announced the top three finalists, based on a search firm’s recommendations. However, recent comments from Ottawa Impact commissioners, who champion a far-right faction on the board, it’s unclear if the process will be as smooth as many hope. 

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.

How the processes differ

The former Ottawa Impact majority 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.

The decision to launch a search for a new permanent administrator just 90 days before OI lost its majority didn’t land well with other commissioners.

Commissioner Jacob Bonnema, who initially was aligned with OI during the 2022 campaign season but publicly split from the group in March 2023, asked Moss and other OI commissioners in early November not to move forward with the process, saying it would disenfranchise the incoming traditional Republican majority.

“I formally request that no final decisions or offers regarding this position be made until the new board is seated in 46 days,” Bonnema said in a Nov. 17 email. “We currently have an interim in place, offering us the luxury of time. Rushing this decision could undermine your standing with the incoming majority.”

Just days after Bonnema voiced his opposition, the search process halted entirely after the top two finalists dropped out just days apart, prompting Moss and his fellow OI commissioners to claim at least one candidate was intimidated.

Commissioner Allison Miedema claimed that then-Commissioner-elect John Teeples and Bonnema, who was re-elected in November, “intimidated” Lower into dropping out.

“He began receiving intimidating phone calls from John Teeples and Jacob Bonnema,” Miedema said.

Teeples said he never intimidated the finalist and that the finalist initiated the communication — not the other way around.

“He was looking for assurance that we would not have another recruiting process if he did a good job over the next 12 months,” Teeples said. “I told him that I personally could not support that because the public needed to see a process of transparency similar to what was done when the board interviewed and hired John Shay” in 2022.

Bonnema said the OI-led board only had itself to blame for the failed search at the end of the year.

“The Ottawa County administrator process has been rushed, frantic and flawed before it was even announced. The current OI majority has been eager to ‘own’ the process, but not the mistakes they made which brought us to this position,” Bonnema said in a November statement. “They chose to exclude re-elected commissioners and act in opposition to the clearly stated wishes of the incoming board majority.”

“This lame duck commission hired an inexperienced agency to run a search they couldn’t support, for a job that could not provide stability or longevity for the candidates. As a result, there are no candidates remaining.”

Tension on the board over the search

The four OI commissioners who remain on the board — Sylvia Rhodea, Allison Miedema, Kendra Wenzel and Moss — attempted to delay the current search process at a special meeting Wednesday.

The meeting had been intended for the board to go into closed session to allow commissioners to speak freely about which candidates they preferred and to compile a short list of finalists to interview, but before that vote could take place, the meeting quickly devolved into personal attacks.

Moss said he needed “more time to prepare,” a sentiment echoed by the other OI members, and made a motion to adjourn the meeting. That prompted a rebuke from Teeples.

“The last couple of weeks, we've been talking about a schedule, a plan. In fact, Joe, you contacted me last Thursday, asking that the county provide the packets 48 hours or so in advance. After talking to you, I laid out a schedule that I thought would work,” Teeples said Wednesday. “You thought Monday was appropriate to get them out. You thought that the dates and everything worked through was a reasonable and transparent plan.”

Teeples noted that only the OI members of the board were asking for more time.

Support Our Work

Ottawa News Network is a nonprofit news service dedicated to providing the residents of Ottawa County with trustworthy, community-driven news. ONN treats journalism as a public good — something that enriches lives and empowers Ottawa County’s 300,000-plus residents to stay engaged, make informed decisions, and strengthen local democracy. Please consider giving today.

“Why four of you? All four of you — not one of you is ready. The rest of us are ready to go. It's been noticed. It's been discussed. It's been planned. Why not one of you? Maybe you can explain it to all of us,” he said.

Rhodea said family obligations limited her time to be able to review the candidates thoroughly.

“I originally requested that these be available at the end of last week, and it was because I have a child. I'm more than just a commissioner. I have a family to balance, and so realistically, when I looked at the responsibilities on my plate, I requested the amount of time that was needed,” she said. “If you're acting in good faith, then you'll be helpful with that, but you chose not to.”

Commissioner Jordan Jorritsma said he has an infant and works in Lansing, yet found the time to be prepared.

“Respectfully, I have a 7-month-old and a 9-5 job, and so I have to take time off. I work in Lansing. I have to make completely different arrangements for my life. So switching up the calendar like this, I don't appreciate and I am ready, and I had enough time, despite being in Lansing yesterday and having a child,” he said.

“I don't appreciate being challenged this morning as to ‘Why are you not ready?’” Rhodea replied. “I communicated the need and so, you know, it shouldn't be surprising that this was difficult for me to get through all of it.”

Vice Chair Josh Brugger bristled at Rhodea’s explanation for needing more time.

“I have a family. I resent the fact that your family is more important than my family,” he said.

“She didn't say that,” Wenzel said. 

“You implied it,” Brugger replied. “I have a family, and I set a rough time aside to take care of business for the county. And if this job is too much for commissioners to do that, perhaps this isn't the right place for you.”

“Please,” Moss said.

Wenzel attempted to discuss one candidate in particular who she said “has applied for four admin positions since March, and who was also voted in as an admin candidate in March, and then sent an application to us in April.”

“I think more than one … I think three are Democrats,” Wenzel said. “I could go through each packet and ask you, who's pro-abortion.”

Teeples said it wasn’t appropriate to discuss the candidates in detail without going into closed session.

“We're not here to discuss the candidates at this point,” Teeples said. “We understand that your assessment of your need for research, and you're asking for additional time, right? The rest of us have done our research, and we feel comfortable to move ahead. So the specifics of the candidates are not what we're here to do.

“I felt the purpose of today's meeting was to discuss these candidates as a group, and we're not making a final decision,” said Commissioner Jim Barry. “We all have this opportunity for us to share our perspectives on these candidates and to get this down to a manageable group that we're going to eventually ask to come in for one-on-one meetings and in-person interviews. I view this as part of a consultative process, not the decision process.”

Miedema also said she wasn’t prepared to move forward.

“Here's some things that I have concerns about. We have to all be fully prepared to be able to have those discussions, because I do believe it's the understanding that we are coming out of closed session and proceeding forward by narrowing down our list, and if we haven't had time to properly vet candidates, we're not ready to do so,” she said. “So, it's great that some of you feel like you're prepared, but there's a good portion of this fellow body that are not, and I would just ask again, respectfully, that we postpone a day.”

Moss’ motion to adjourn failed in a 7-4 vote. Then Rhodea made a motion to discuss the candidates in open session, saying she thought the board’s process wasn’t necessarily in compliance with the Open Meetings Act. 

“How can the board demonstrate the fulfillment of its responsibility to the public, unless we discuss public calls, ranking and recommendations in public,” she said.

Teeples said multiple attorneys affirmed that the process would be in compliance with state law, and that prospective candidates had a right to confidentiality unless they advanced to the finalist phase of the search process.

“Four attorneys have looked at this Open Meeting act issue to make sure that this board is in compliance with the law and with the purpose of making sure it's transparent parent — that's why we've been having meetings and for the last month, month and a half or more, about the process this was going to go through, so that everybody understood, including the public, how it was going to work,” Teeples said. 

“Candidates, as a matter of law, have a right to ask for confidentiality in a closed session to review applications. That only makes sense, because people have jobs that they want to protect, and they may want to protect their spouse’s jobs as well.” 

Teeples said commissioners were asked to sign a confidentiality pledge when they picked up their candidate packets from the county on Monday, noting that only Moss, Rhodea, Miedema and Wenzel refused to sign it.

Rhodea complained that the confidentiality request was infringing on her rights as a commissioner to effectively do her job. 

“This is very reminiscent of the COVID-era and things being beaten over the heads of commissioners,” Rhodea said. 

Rhodea’s motion also failed 7-4.

Despite championing the hire of three administrators without public searches during his time as chair, Moss said the board has 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,” 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.”

Which candidates move forward?

The vote to go into closed session failed twice during the meeting, both before and after a several-hour-long recess to give the OI commissioners more time to review candidates.

Both votes to go into closed session failed with 7-4 votes in favor of the move (board rules dictate that there must be a two-thirds majority to go into closed session).

Brugger then made a motion to move the top five candidates Double Haul recommended forward to the finalist phase, which would include in-person interviews. Moss attempted to amend the motion to include the top 12, then a curated list of seven independent of Double Haul’s recommendations — both failed.

Moss complained that Double Haul’s top recommendations didn’t necessarily line up with what he valued in a candidate.

“There are some in here, in this list that, outside the top five, that I really like, and one of the top five wanted internal equity audits for Ottawa County. And I don't think we need equity audits. So I think it would be unfair to, in my view, to forward that person.”

“Seems like a great discussion to be had in closed session,” Jorritsma quipped.

The board finally ended the 5.5-hour meeting with advancing the top five recommended candidates from Double Haul.

What’s happening now

On Friday, the county released the names of three finalists in the search, after two in Double Haul’s top five withdrew upon advancing to the finalist stage.

“These finalists reflect a diversity of backgrounds and leadership styles,” Teeples said in a Friday news release. “We’re committed to finding a leader who can build relationships across our organization and community, support our staff, and help guide Ottawa County into its next chapter of service.”

The candidates:

• Mark Eisenbarth: Eisenbarth brings nearly two decades of public service experience, currently serving as county administrator for Muskegon County. His leadership has focused on financial stewardship, strategic planning and public-private partnerships. During his tenure, Muskegon County’s unassigned fund balance rose from 14% to 27%, and he helped secure more than $85 million in competitive grant funding — including collaborations with Ottawa County. He also oversaw initiatives that resulted in over $1 billion in community investment and has successfully negotiated multiple collective bargaining agreements.
• Glen Salyer: Salyer currently serves as deputy county administrator for Lee County, Florida, where he helps manage a 2,900-employee government with a $733 million operating budget. He led the creation of LeeCARES, a $134 million COVID-relief initiative, and has managed $1.2 billion in hurricane recovery efforts and a $149 million ARPA Recovery and Resilience Plan. His experience spans legislative policy, economic development, public health infrastructure, and municipal coordination, with over 20 years in local government.
• Michael Tremblay: Tremblay is a retiring U.S. Army officer and two-time Brigade Commander with over 20 years of executive leadership. He served as city manager (Garrison Commander) of USAG Humphreys in South Korea, overseeing a $1.1 billion capital-improvement budget and leading one of the largest infrastructure transformations in the region. Tremblay has deep experience in workforce development, municipal operations, crisis response, and strategic planning. His background also includes managing a $214 million operating budget and leading a team of over 2,400 employees across 280 locations.

A citizen committee is set to interview the finalists on Wednesday, June 11, although a time and location have not been disclosed. The committee includes municipal professionals and community partners who regularly interact with the county.

At the June 4 meeting, Teeples asked for those interviews to be open to the public.

“I would suggest that we make that a public meeting. Let the public see what happens during that interview process by this committee, who's not going to be rendering any decisions or any deliberation,” Teeples said. “I think how we had it set up was absolutely lawful, but I think this is even better.”

On Wednesday afternoon, the public also will have the opportunity to meet the candidates 3:30-5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 11, in Conference Room H of the county’s administration building at the Fillmore Complex, 12220 Fillmore St., West Olive. 

At 9 a.m. Thursday, June 12, the board will conduct in-person interviews with each finalist at a public meeting in the board room. Friday, June 13, is reserved as a carryover day, if additional time is needed for deliberations or follow-up conversations.

Once a final candidate is identified, Double Haul Solutions will coordinate a comprehensive background check and assist the Board of Commissioners with contract negotiations and onboarding support, if requested, according to the county’s news release.

“This next phase is about learning more about each finalist as a person — not just a resume,” Teeples said. “We’re looking for someone who can lead with steadiness, communicate with intention, and navigate complexity with professionalism and care.”

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