GRAND RAPIDS — As a judge mulls whether to grant a request for an evidentiary hearing in a lawsuit filed by an Ottawa County commissioner against Michigan State University’s Extension Office, a new allegation of hiring interference against county commission board Chair Joe Moss has surfaced.

Chris Kleinjans, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit June 21 in the U.S. Western District Court claiming MSU’s Extension violated his First Amendment Rights after giving him an ultimatum: Take an unpaid leave through the remainder of the year or face termination.

Read more: MSU denies ‘bowing’ to Ottawa Impact pressure in response to Kleinjans lawsuit

Read more: Was Ottawa County's newest commissioner punished for running?

Kleinjans claims MSU fired him after Moss and fellow Ottawa Impact Commissioner Allison Miedema pressured the school to transfer Kleinjans, a community nutrition instructor, out of Ottawa County while he campaigned against former OI commissioner Lucy Ebel.

Ottawa Impact is a far-right fundamentalist group formed in 2021 over frustrations with the county and state over COVID-19 mitigation measures.

Since taking office in January 2023, OI commissioners pushed through a series of controversial decisions, resulting in several lawsuits against the county. Kleinjans ultimately defeated Ebel by a 20% margin in a special May recall election.

Two weeks later, MSU informed him that his continued employment was in jeopardy and that he no longer could hold both roles with the school and as an elected county official.

The lawsuit claims MSU’s reasoning was due to “bowing to political pressure from the (Ottawa Impact) majority on the Ottawa County Commission. The OI majority placed political pressure on Defendants to retaliate against Plaintiff for Plaintiff running against and winning a recall election to unseat their political ally, Lucy Ebel. (MSU) do not have a non-discriminatory reason to fire (Kleinjans) and have merely capitulated to the OI majority.”

Read more: Ottawa County commissioner files federal lawsuit against MSU Extension for wrongful termination

In a response filed July 24, MSU Extension claimed management was not aware of Kleinjans’ candidacy until Nov. 27. They also denied bowing to political pressure from the board.

Federal judge Hala Y. Jarbou has yet to rule on the request for a hearing; meanwhile, Hudsonville Mayor Mark Northrup submitted an affidavit July 2 alleging that Moss tried to interfere with hiring procedures in the city of Hudsonville shortly after winning the District 5 county commission seat in November 2022.

Northrup, who endorsed Moss during the 2022 election cycle, is now challenging Moss in the Aug. 6 Republican primary for the District 5 seat.

Northrup Affidavit 11jul24275KB ∙ PDF fileDownloadRead the affidavit filed by Mark Northrup on July 2, 2024.Download

He said Moss called him in December 2022 and told Northrup to not hire Tyler Dotson, then a top candidate for Hudsonville city manager. At the time, Dotson had been selected and the Hudsonville City Commission was in the process of negotiating a contract with him.

“When Moss called me, he said that he had heard that Hudsonville was negotiating a contract with a new city manager. Then Moss told me that he ‘had done research on’ our selection for city manager. Moss told me, ‘Don’t hire him.’ Moss said that Hudsonville should not go through with the hire because Moss alleged that our candidate for the city manager job was a Democrat in college,” Northrup wrote in the July affidavit.

Northrup said he rebuffed Moss’ request.

“I told Moss that the city’s hire was none of his business, and that it was the city of Hudsonville’s business to decide who its city manager should be,” Northrup wrote. “That quickly ended the telephone call between Moss and me.”

Dotson started with the city in February 2023 and remains in the position. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Northrup said elected officials should not allow politics to influence non-partisan administrative roles in government.

“The city manager job is non-partisan, as are all of the city employment positions. In the City of Hudsonville, we pride ourselves in looking for the most qualified person for every job and hiring those individuals, not getting mired in party politics that have nothing to do with the efficient running of local government,” he wrote in the affidavit.

Moss did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

In MSU’s response filing, the school said the decision to fire Kleinjans “was premised entirely on concerns relating to potential conflicts of interest” and compliance with the Incompatible Public Offices Act, which regulates how many and what type of roles public officers or employees may hold.

The response said Extension is funded in part through a memorandum of understanding that is voted on annually by the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners.

Kleinjans previously said his position was not funded through county dollars but rather through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which then funnels down to Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services and then to the Extension.

In a Dec. 14 meeting with Matt Shane, associate director of the Extension’s field operations, told Kleinjans that Moss, who also is president of Ottawa Impact, and Miedema pressured Extension district leaders James Kelly Extension’s District 7 to transfer Kleinjans out of Ottawa County or the contract with the school would not be reapproved.

“Their basic request, if you will, throughout the course of that conversation, was that they wanted your responsibilities for work in Ottawa County to cease and do your work in another county, another location, or in some other fashion, not representing MSU Extension in Ottawa County during the course of your campaign, and in essence, without that, the MOA would not be up for further discussion,” Shane told Kleinjans on Dec. 14.

“So right now … the MOA for Ottawa County will be on hold indefinitely, or at least for the foreseeable future, and not make it on a board agenda to have further discussion, which obviously has impact on our 4-H and agriculture programs,” he says on the recording.

Shane also says Moss and Miedema insinuated that the Extension’s office space in the county would be in jeopardy.

“There was also some mention in that meeting about how highly desirable our Ottawa County MSU Extension space is in that building, and that there are other departments that certainly would benefit from having access to that space as they look at restructuring some of their other departments and forming other departments and offices within the county,” Shane told Kleinjans on the recording. “They're sort of holding up our MOA and relationship with Ottawa County government while you're continuing to work as an MSU Extension employee in Ottawa County and running a campaign at the same time.”

Shane also indicated that Kleinjans had the support of the Extension leadership and was not at risk of an employment change.

“Our stance is our stance,” he said on the December recording. “From the beginning, we have these policies in place for a reason. We are adhering to those policies. As long as you adhere to the guidelines that we've put in place for you, you're not in violation of those policies, we do not plan to change our stance on the work that you're doing. We're not planning to relocate you to another county. We're not planning to change your work responsibilities in any way other than what we've already asked you to do, in terms of not wearing logo wear.”

Emails obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request provided July 10 from MSU seemingly confirmed that at least Moss made the request of Extension to move Kleinjans out of the county in December.

Read more: Emails: Ottawa Board Chair requested political rival's employment be reassigned

“Our Extension leadership and university counsel reviewed your request to have us relocate Christian, and have determined that we are unable to implement requests that would violate an employee's rights to participate in political activities outside of their workdays and hours,” Kelly wrote in an email to Moss on Jan. 5, indicating a second meeting took place after the initial Dec. 7 meeting when the request was first made.

FOIA response Leach MSU communications666KB ∙ PDF fileDownloadRead the emails included in a Freedom of Information Act request filed on June 17, 2024.Download

Moss, in a subsequent email Dec. 15, told Kelly and Korpak: “You mentioned wanting to better understand the types of information one of your employees was posting publicly on social media. You state that your team at MSU Extension are strictly non-political, and do not use their position of authority for personal or political reasons.”

He goes on to write in the email that several of Kleinjans’ social media posts around in December 2023 were “false and inflammatory” because they said, among other things that “children in District 2 are going to go hungry bc (sic) Ottawa Food will be eliminated” and that “District 2 families that are struggling will lose access to dental care for their children.”

The comments reference Ottawa Food — a collaboration of over 45 local agencies and individuals that exists to ensure all Ottawa County residents have access to healthy, local and affordable food choices — announcing in November 2023 it was suspending operations after the board made deep cuts to the county’s public health department.

At the time, Kleinjans was a member of the Ottawa Food Advisory Board and was listed as the media contact for the November announcement.

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Moss has insisted the funding was there, despite Administrative Health Officer Adeline Hambley saying the cuts would lead to the potential demise of the food collective.

“The board was abundantly clear, the Ottawa Food program should continue, and be a priority,” Moss wrote to Kelly and Korpak on Dec. 15.

In March, Ottawa Food also suspended Senior Project Fresh, a popular service that helps older adults eat healthier as they age. Normal operations have still not resumed to date.

— Contact Sarah Leach at SentinelLeach@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @SentinelLeach. Subscribe to her content at sentinelleach.substack.com.