A grass roots effort to have Ottawa County Board of Commissioner Lucy Ebel removed from office will move forward after an elections board on Monday approved petition language calling for her dismissal.
Ottawa County Commissioner Lucy Ebel, who represents Ottawa County’s 2nd District, is still on the board, the elections committee did not have the authority to remove her from her seat. That decision would be left up to voters in November, provided that the petition gets enough signatures first.
The recall effort is led by Larry Jackson of Park Township, a former candidate for the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners, and says he represents, "a coalition of voters from all political parties" and that Ebel and Ottawa Impact are "too extreme for Ottawa County."
“There whole agenda is too extreme for Ottawa County,” Jackson said. “Changing the logo for the county, getting rid of the DEI office, firing people that have worked there for years. They say they are working for the constituents of Ottawa County. They are working for the constituents that voted for them.”
Currently, the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners is made up of mostly Republicans who were all endorsed during last year’s election by the far-right leaning and ultra-conservative Pac Group known as “Ottawa Impact” including Abel.
The Pac group’s founder, Joe Moss, now serves as the Ottawa Board Chair, and since January has seemingly had little resistance to imposing the group’s agenda at will.
Since being sworn in, the board has sent shock waves throughout the community with a number of decisions and proposals it has made, including the firing of Public Health Officer Adeline Hambely, the permanent closure of the county’s office of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the hiring of John Gibbs as county administrator.
