“The parties enter into this agreement solely to avoid additional costs that would result from further litigation.
Under the agreement chair Joe Moss and the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners negotiated with Health Officer Adeline Hambley, she drops her wrongful termination lawsuit, and they won’t use past misconduct allegations to fire her.
“Cannot form the basis of any future complaint future charges or discipline.”
But the current conservative majority in control of the board does not rule out future attempts to remove Health Officer Habley. They’ve been trying for 13 months. But now Hambley takes a termination threat to arbitration.
“The arbitration panel shall consist of three members one selected by the plaintiff, one selected by the county and a third neutral arbitrator.”
When they took control of the board last year a conservative majority opposed to mask mandates and other covid restrictions immediately moved to replace Hambley. The effort failed when she filed a wrongful termination lawsuit. The board will need to convince an arbitration panel if they tried to fire her again.
“The arbitration decision shall be binding on the parties and shall not be subject to appeal.”
