After Ottawa County Administrator John Gibbs demanded the Department of Public Health cut its budget by 50%, Ottawa County’s top public health officer says doing so would close the department in a matter of weeks.
Ottawa County's Administrative Health Officer Adeline Hambley says the demand by John Gibbs would mean that 88 percent of the department’s general funding—roughly $ 4million dollars, would not only put the county’s health at risk, it would almost immediately eliminate Children's Special Health Care Services, the Maternal and Infant Health Program, Family Planning and Women's Health Services and the Suicide Prevention Coalition, while the department would close four weeks into the new fiscal year.
“Over 16 programs and 100 people, so what that looks like is that if this passes, the Health Department closes its doors 4 weeks after October 1st, when the new budget comes into effect.”
Commissioner Joe Moss had also argued during budget negotiations, that he wanted to see the health’s department’s budget return to pre-pandemic levels.
“I can say at no time in the past twenty years, has our general fun allocation been $2.5 million.”
Back in January, the Ottawa Board of Commissioners tried to terminate Hambley’s employment without cause, Hambley in turn filed a wrongful termination lawsuit.
“It’s hard to interpret this as any thing other than a retaliation,” Hambley said. “No other department in the county is asked to make any sort of reduction in their budget.”
Hambley says, if the budget cut demands continue, she will see Gibbs in Moss in court.
