On Tuesday, Ottawa County commissioners agreed to release minutes from a closed board session regarding the termination of Health Officer Adeline Hambley. The lawsuit was brought by The Holland Sentinel newspaper. In exchange for the minutes, the Sentinel will drop its lawsuit.
In early 2023, most commissioners sought to have Hambley terminated. After a legal battle, the two parties began work on a settlement.
Following a closed board session in November 2023, some commissioners believed they were voting to pay Hambley $4 million to leave. Hambley and her attorney also believed that was the agreement. Former board Chair Joe Moss said the vote was only to continue negotiations.
A Muskegon County judge later ruled that Moss’s motion following the closed November session was too ambiguous to be enforceable.
In a separate lawsuit, commissioners agreed to pay Chester Township’s legal fees of almost $6,300 over a disputed grant.
Under Moss, commissioners voted in 2024 to give the township $563,000 for the cleanup of Crockery Lake, but several new commissioners stopped payment on the grant in 2025, expressing concerns that the grant was not given legally, and a judge agreed.
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