The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners latest meeting Tuesday came with some tense moments, as two elected officials bickered over potentially changing rules to its agenda.
At odds with each other were Ottawa County Board of Commissioners Chair Joe Moss, and Commissioner Jacob Bonnema, who recently cut ties with the Republican group Ottawa Impact that Moss co-founded.
The PAC group is responsible for nine of the eleven newly elected board members who have made it clear since January that the commission is only intent on running the county through the lens of far-right-conservative ideology.
The heated exchange came Tuesday when Commissioner and lone Democrat Doug Zylstra attempted to add a general comments and questions portion to the agenda at the end of all meetings.
Moss however, rejected the idea.
“I’m not interested at this point in having what you might call commissioner comments or commissioner free-for- all at the end of meetings,” he said
That’s when Commissioner Bonnema stepped in.
“I really protest this,” Bonnema said. “(Go on,) hit the gavel,” Bonnema said.
“Commissioner Bonnema you are out of order. Please stop,” Moss said.
The motion failed, with all Ottawa Impact commissioners voting against it.
