After being told to cut its budget by 50 percent last week by Ottawa County Administrator John Gibbs, the county’s Department of Public Health says it no longer has a say in the matter.
Health officials say that Ottawa County’s Fiscal Services is now in charge of creating a new Public Health budget under the direction of Administrator John Gibbs, and without any input from Public Health Officer Adeline Hambley.
In addition, the department says, it has not been provided with any information on the proposed budget or suggested cuts.
Last week, Gibbs demanded Hambley cut her budget in half; Hambley responded by publicly calling the request ‘ridiculous,’ stating that doing so would force the Department of Public Health to close its doors within four weeks.
Gibbs countered by blocking health officials from communicating on the department’s social media accounts while shutting out Hambley’s involvement with the budget entirely.
“There is a level of punishment linked to this, when no other department in the county is asked to make any sort of reduction in their budget, and then for us to make such (an) obscene amount of (a) reduction,” Hambley said.
Back in January, the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners attempted to terminate Hambley from her position. Hambley then filed a wrongful termination lawsuit, which is ongoing. Hambley says her dismissal is political retaliation by the far-right leaning board for the Health Department’s COVID-19 mandates.
