Ottawa County taps Berrien administrator as top deputy

OTTAWA COUNTY — Ottawa County is continuing its rebuilding phase after new Administrator Patrick Waterman announced his choice of deputy on Jan. 8.

Waterman said the county had tapped Berrien County Administrator Brian Dissette after working through a pool of 54 applicants. His anticipated start date is Feb. 2.

“We are thrilled to have Brian join the Ottawa County Team,” said Waterman. “He brings nearly 24 years of local government experience that will serve the residents well.”

Read More: County picks former deputy as next county administrator as far-right faction cries foul

Dissette has served in the Berrien County position since 2020. He previously worked for 12 years as South Haven's city manager in Van Buren County, after serving two years as assistant city manager. Earlier in his career, he served four years as city manager of Watervliet in Berrien County.

Waterman said Dissette has led and supported a range of regional collaboration efforts, including the creation of a regional recreation authority, refinements to a regional water and sewer authority, regional police services agreements, and multiple initiatives focused on economic development.

Dissette earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Western Michigan University, where he also received his bachelor's degree in public relations.

He and his wife, Kelly, have three children. Outside of work and family life, they enjoy riding and racing mountain bikes and participating in a variety of outdoor sports, according to a county news release.

“I have long admired Ottawa County’s commitment to quality governance, innovative service delivery, and organizational integrity,” Dissette said. “I look forward to bringing my experience in county leadership, communication, cross-departmental management, and strategic planning to Ottawa.”

Disette's contract is still being finalized and is expected to be reviewed at the Jan. 27 meeting of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners.

New faces in county administration

Disette's hiring is the latest in a series of key changes in county government after a new moderate Republican majority took control of the board of commissioners in January 2025.

The moderates were elected after the board was governed by far-right political group Ottawa Impact. That tumultuous tenure saw seven lawsuits stemming from board decisions and revolving door of administrative staff, with four people serving in the top administrator role in just two years:

• OI fired former administrator John Shay on Jan. 3, 2023, and installed former Republican congressional candidate John Gibbs.
• Gibbs was fired on Feb. 29, 2024, and replaced with interim administrator Jon Anderson. Gibbs sued the board; the county settled with him in January 2025 for $190,000.
• Anderson served in the role for seven months before resigning in early October, without citing a reason.
• The OI-led board then tapped then-deputy administrator Ben Wetmore to fill the role before giving him a controversial severance agreement of $175,000, which inspired another lawsuit.

Waterman, who deputy administrator in Ottawa County when OI assumed a controlling majority on the board, left his position in July 2023, citing a strained working relationship with then-administrator Gibbs.

He was quickly hired as deputy city manager for the city of Wyoming in Kent County, following his previous boss, Shay, who now serves as Wyoming’s city manager.

Waterman later served a key role in OI’s pursuit to fire Ottawa County Health Officer Adeline Hambley, who was the first to sue the board in February 2023 for overstepping its state authority when the majority tried to demote her, then fire her.

In a dramatic hearing in October 2024, Waterman — who was subpoenaed to testify — said he was present during the 2023 hiring process for an executive aide position and expressed concerns about Gibbs’ choice of Jordan Epperson because of "certain behaviors" he showed during his interviews, including vocal “support for Ottawa Impact.

That testimony, which included Waterman’s account of Gibbs overriding the selection committee’s choice of an older, more qualified candidate to hire Epperson, ultimately led to yet another lawsuit against the county for age discrimination. The plaintiff in that lawsuit, Ryan Kimball, agreed to a settlement with the county in December 2024 for $250,000. Hambley also settled with the county in February 2024, with the county paying her legal fees that totaled more than $188,000 and her remaining in her position.

During the current board's search for a new permanent administrator last fall, Waterman said he didn't want to leave the county in 2023, but he felt he had no other choice.

“To be clear, I did not want to leave. I loved it here. I loved the organization. I loved the people. I loved the projects we were working on. I love the career growth that I was creating for myself, because county government was new to me, and it was a whole ’nother animal. And I really enjoyed that.

“Unfortunately, the circumstances were such that I could not effectively work in that organization,” he said. “I tried, despite my best efforts, to stay on and be very loyal. I ultimately felt that it was doing a disservice to the organization and to our taxpayers to stay here without being put effectively in my job. So that's why I left [but] that does not mean that I quit paying attention to what's happening here, and have a very, very vested interest in seeing things get better.”

In the 2025 interview, Waterman said he felt like the time — and circumstances in the county — were right to return.

“This last round, my family and I were on vacation and talked to my wife about it at length, and prayed about it, and … I don't know what changed, but I felt called this time to apply for the position,” he said. “Once I got through that, now it's just excitement. I thought about how I could help here; I thought this was the right decision.”

On Sept. 12, the board selected Waterman for the administrator role in a 7-4 vote. The contentious meeting saw Ottawa Impact commissioners refusing to support Waterman's hire, calling his return to the county "a step backwards."

"I think that he is not going to unite us as a county. ... He called himself a Christian, I would hope that he would always be ethical and not lie like that," said OI Commissioner Kendra Wenzel, referring to a line of questioning during Waterman's interview earlier this week.

OI Commissioner Allison Miedema said she would support anyone other than Waterman.

"I have someone that I would love to get behind in support, but I would actually get behind any of the other four," she said.

Waterman was one of five finalists who went through two rounds of public interviews after commissioners whittled a list of 58 applicants down to their top five picks and two alternates.

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