LANSING — A federal judge has denied Ottawa County’s newest commissioner’s request to restore him to his job after he claims Michigan State University Extension fired him over political pressure exerted by the commission’s Ottawa Impact majority.

Federal Judge Hala Y. Jarbou issued the ruling on Thursday, Aug. 15, six days after an evidentiary hearing where she considered Kleinjans’ request for a preliminary injunction to restore him back to his position and award him back pay.

Read More: Testimony from MSU Extension officials confirms pressure from Ottawa County Board Chair Moss

Chris Kleinjans filed the lawsuit on June 21 in the U.S. Western District Court claiming MSU’s Extension violated his First Amendment Rights after giving him an ultimatum after he was elected in a special recall election May 7: Take an unpaid leave through the remainder of the year or face termination.

The Aug. 9 hearing featured testimony from Kleinjans and two of three MSU Extension supervisors who had several conversations with Kleinjans from before he was a commissioner candidate to after he was elected in a special recall election on May 7.

Jarbou noted that Ottawa County Board Chair Joe Moss, who also is the president and founder of Ottawa Impact, “began to exert pressure on MSU Extension to terminate or relocate Kleinjans. Their primary tactic was to threaten the approval of the (memorandum of understanding).”

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.

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After being seated, “they immediately began making … charitably speaking … aggressive decisions,” Kleinjans said in testimony Aug. 9 during an evidentiary hearing in the Western District’s courthouse in Lansing. “It was a different interpretation of freedom than what we were operating under before.”

Jarbou said it is “undisputed that the OI majority sought political retribution against Kleinjans” because of his comments about OI and involvement in the recall effort of Lucy Ebel, who he ultimately defeated in May by a 20% margin.

That all led to the “OI-affiliated commissioners to exert pressure on MSU Extension to terminate or relocate Kleinjans,” Jarbou said. Testimony on Aug. 9 by M. Scott Korpak, the new District 7 director, confirmed that during a Dec. 7 meeting he had with then-interim director James Kelly as well as Moss and OI Commissioner Allison Miedema where the commissioners “threatened” the MOU, or annually renewed contract between Extension and the county.

Moss has not returned several requests for comment in relation to the Kleinjans v. MSU lawsuit.

The issue, Jarbou wrote, is that Extension refused to grant Moss’ request and sent emails in January explaining that they couldn’t alter Kleinjans’ employment just because he was running for office.

Jarbou's opinion on motion for TRO 08.15.24214KB ∙ PDF fileDownloadRead the opinion on Kleinjans' request for a preliminary injunction.Download

“Had OI been successful, Kleinjans would likely have a clear-cut case for First Amendment retaliation,” Jarbou wrote. “He would certainly have shown a sufficient likelihood of success on the merits to obtain a preliminary injunction. But OI was not successful — Defendants rebuffed OI’s retaliatory effort. In other words, Defendants protected Kleinjans’s First Amendment rights in the face of pressure from OI. And Kleinjans does not show what, if anything, changed for Defendants between January and May.”

Jarbou’s ruling only pertained to Kleinjans’ request for reinstatement as a community nutritional instructor and back pay from the point he was fired, which was June 4.

“The Court … has one and only one question — whether Kleinjans has shown a substantial likelihood of success of establishing a causal connection between his political activity and his termination. The Court concludes he falls shy of that burden,” Jarbou said.

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The lawsuit is now expected to proceed, as some facts are disputed — mainly what occurred during a meeting between Kleinjans and his supervisors on Dec. 5.

“According to (MSU), they communicated to him that while he was free to campaign for office, his employment would need to be re-evaluated should he win office. Kleinjans, however, testified that he was not told that he would be fired should he win office and that he cannot recall if potential conflicts of interest were discussed,” Jarbou wrote in the opinion.

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Assuming the lawsuit proceeds to the discovery phase, where both parties exchange information and evidence to prepare for trial. The goal of discovery is to ensure a fair and just resolution of the dispute by preventing either party from surprising the other with new information at trial, so additional facts that are not currently publicly known could come to light.

In a statement released Thursday night, Kleinjans called the decision “disappointing,” but that he was confident that “as the litigation process moves forward, a more complete picture will be revealed. That image will prove that my dismissal was simply an attempt by MSU Extension to avoid further pressure from certain members of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners.”

Kleinjans noted that he accepted a new position in the nonprofit sector, after the judge issued her decision on the injunction request, but that starting over will greatly impede his campaign efforts.

With the win in May, he will finish out Ebel’s term, which ends Dec. 31; he is running in the November general election against non-OI Republican Jordan Jorritsma, who beat Ebel in the Aug. 6 primary.

Kleinjans statement 08.15.2476.6KB ∙ PDF fileDownloadA statement released by the Committee to Elect Christian Kleinjans after the judge's decision on the injunction.Download

“Today’s decision does make one thing clear regarding my re-election campaign. Without the 240 hours of (personal time off) I had saved up at MSU Extension to use for campaigning, my ability to knock on doors and engage with Second District residents has been severely impacted,” Kleinjans wrote in the statement.

He said because his personal time will now be limited on the campaign trail, he asked for supporters and the community at large to consider donating to his campaign so he could cover “more costly methods like mailers and advertising.”

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