The Planning and Policy Committee Tuesday voted to eliminate the board’s previous policy that prohibited them from passing certain resolutions, motions and ordinances.
The move is speculated to be the first step in the Board of Commissioner’s ultimate goal of declaring Ottawa County as a Second Amendment Sanctuary.
The term is a relatively new concept—it refers to a county, or other jurisdiction like Ottawa, that has adopted a resolution declaring that restrictive gun control laws passed by the state legislature, violate the Constitution and will not be enforced in that jurisdiction.
The vote Tuesday is seen as a pre-emptive strike against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Democratic State Government, who want to pass tighter gun control measures after the shooting at Michigan State University.
While Commissioner Joe Moss packaged the motion to eliminate the previous policy as a way for “citizens to better be heard” by the elected board, Commissioner Roger Bergman called out its members as misleading the public.
"I'm appalled by the verbiage of this motion because this is about as far from the truth as possible,” said Bergman. "We did not limit, as this says, the ability to speak on important issues. And I'll just leave it with that because otherwise, I'd get pretty angry.”
Since taking office in January, the newly elected Ottawa County Board of Commissioners have nine members who were endorsed by Ottawa Impact, a PAC group with extreme far-right conservative ideology, who now can set new policies and vote pretty much however they wish.
Meanwhile, the committee voted in favor of the repeal.
