Ottawa County offers a glimpse of what happens when one of the building blocks of American democracy is consumed by ideological battles
WEST OLIVE, Mich. — The eight new members of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners had run for office promising to “thwart tyranny” in their lakeside Michigan community of 300,000 people.
As the session entered its fourth hour, Sylvia Rhodea, the board’s new vice chair, put forward a motion to change the motto that sat atop the county’s website and graced its official stationery. “Whereas the vision statement of ‘’ has been used to promote the divisive Marxist ideology of the race, equity movement,” Rhodea said.And so began a new era for Ottawa County. Across America, county governments provided services so essential that they were often an afterthought.
She flipped to her resolution’s final page and leaned closer to the mic. “Now, therefore, let it be resolved that the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners establishes a new county vision statement and motto of ‘the commission’s new chair savored the moment. “There’s just some really beautiful language in this,” he said, before calling for a vote on the resolution. It passed easily.
Moss inhabited a different world than his predecessors. Like so many rising leaders in today’s Republican Party, his view of his country and its politics was shaped by his faith and his church, one of dozens of big evangelical congregations that had taken root amid the county’s sprawling farms and freshly sprouted subdivisions.
With his quarter-zip sweaters and khaki pants, Moss looked like a suburban dad out for a round of golf,On his group’s website, Moss warned that Ottawa County had been “strategically targeted” by the “progressive left,” even though the county had, since 1864, consistently voted Republican in presidential races.
Moss and the new board members did not seem interested in any of it. “I just want to be clear that the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners has a very firm stance on mandates, and there will not be mandates in Ottawa County,” he told her.“I was referring to mandates regarding parental rights and the once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic. That kind of thing,” Moss said.
And Moss, appearing on a conservative radio show, suggested Hambley was engaged in a coverup. “There needs to be accountability,” he said. The next day, Hambley filed a lawsuit in state court, accusing the board of micromanaging the department and illegally attempting to dismiss her without cause.It had been a difficult three years for Hambley and her team.
But Hambley and other senior health department officials said it was becoming harder to do their jobs. “We’ve never had a county leadership opposed to the principles of public health and opposed to its own departments,” said Marcia Mansaray, Hambley’s deputy officer. “It’s disheartening. It’s exhausting … It’s toxic.”
Often the commenters expressed beliefs that seemed irreconcilable. “There is a huge revival coming that no one has ever seen before. The silent majority is silent no longer,” proclaimed a man in a dark blue button-down shirt to a burst of applause. “We will not be demonized for our faith in God and his word.”
Curran admired Moss’s strategic vision. He had created an infrastructure for regular people with “the right values” to run for office and win. But as time passed, she grew frustrated by his tendency to dismiss criticism and make big decisions, such as choosing Kelly to take over the health department, in secret and without public input. As far as Curran could tell, Kelly was the only person interviewed for the job.
To Curran, the email was a glimmer of hope, a “chip at the Berlin Wall.” She immediately emailed back. “I know you were probably deeply upset this morning,” she wrote. “While we may not agree on everything, I hope we can gain a mutual respect for one another.” “It’s too much,” she said. Even in conservative Ottawa County she had noticed shop windows with rainbow stickers proclaiming that LGTBQ people were welcome.
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