OTTAWA COUNTY — The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners is poised to receive a 60 percent raise next year, plus new $1,000 monthly stipends for healthcare — totaling $152,747.60 in additional compensation for the board.

The Officers’ Compensation Commission voted 3-1 on April 11 to give the raises to whoever will be a sitting county commissioner, come 2025.

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The move comes just when the county faces an election year when commissioners elected this year — all 11 are up for re-election — will convert from two-year to three-year terms starting in 2025.

The compensation commission is a citizen-appointed board, where participants serve three-year terms. In a December board of commissioners meeting, four new members were added to the commission, which has fluxed from as large as its current membership of seven to as low as the required minimum of four in 2022.

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Larry Jackson, current chair of the Compensation Commission as well as the Democratic Party in the county, voted no on the hefty raise but said his colleagues on the commission argued that the role of county commissioner recently had become a full-time job.

Jackson said he sought a 6 percent increase for commissioners at the beginning of the year.

"My suggestion was 6 percent because it would be along the same lines as the county employees got this last year," he told FOX17 on Thursday, May 2.

The Compensation Commission was formed in late 2005 and is charged with making recommendations for the compensation of county elected officials in even-numbered years.

As of 2024, the nine commissioners on the 11-member board currently are making $20,844 annually, with the vice chair (now Sylvia Rhodea) making $21,523 and board chair (now Joe Moss) making $27,127. With the increases, the commissioners will make $33,350.40, while the vice chair will earn $34,436.80 and the chair will earn $43,403.20.

The 60 percent increase would be a wide departure from all previous compensation commission recommendations. By comparison, commissioners in 2011 made $9,009, while the vice chair and chair made $9,483 and $13,277, respectively. In 2018, they made $17,926 (commissioners), $18,485 (vice chair) and $22,407 (chair).

All commissioners would receive in 2025 a $1,000 monthly stipend for healthcare coverage as well — a fringe benefit that was eliminated in 2010 by the Compensation Commission, according to the commission’s historical documents.

The commission is required to compare how Ottawa County officials fare in compensation when compared to other counties in the state. Ranking as the seventh most populous county of Michigan’s 83 counties, the compensation increases would put Ottawa officials as the second-highest earning of those surveyed for the commission’s review.

Kent, the state’s third-largest county by population and more than twice the number of citizens than Ottawa, pays its county commissioners ($25,454) and vice chair ($33,274) less than the proposed Ottawa County rate, but pays its chair slightly more ($45,318).

Current commissioners seemed receptive to the increase in pay.

Commissioner Gretchen Cosby told FOX17 she didn't become a county commissioner for the money, adding: "Please check on the going wage rate or salary for a masters-prepared nurse with 31 years of experience. I promise whatever the [Compensation Board] raised our salaries to, it's not comparable. We are providing a service to the community."

Cosby is a member of Ottawa Impact, a far-right fundamentalist group, formed in 2021 over frustrations with county and state COVID-19 mitigation measures that currently has a seven-seat controlling majority on the 11-member board. After coming into power in 2023, the group has made a series of controversial decisions that have led to five lawsuits within 14 months and a brief investigation from the Michigan Attorney General's Office.

However, non-OI commissioners indicated the move was unnecessary.

“One of the easiest ‘NO’ votes of the year,” Republican Commissioner Jacob Bonnema said Friday on his Facebook page. “District 4 will be voting against this abuse of our tax dollars.”

Doug Zylstra, the board’s lone Democrat, said he also will be voting no on the measure.

“The recent decision by the Compensation Committee to approve 60% increases plus a $1,000 monthly stipend for county commissioners is far outside neighboring counties’ compensation standards, and constitutes a major disservice to County taxpayers,” Zylstra said on his X account. “If this recommendation is presented as is, I will be voting no.”

In December, the OI-controlled board appointed four new members to the now seven-member Compensation Commission:

• Mark Brouwer
• Craig Dunlap
• Angela Loreth
• Lynn Janson

In 2021, Brouwer’s wife donated $100 to Ottawa Impact’s political action committee; Moss and Rhodea lead the group.

Loreth donated to Rhodea’s campaign in 2022 ($104.10) as well as two OI-endorsed Allendale Public Schools candidates Corey Mango ($104.10) as well as Liz Ramey ($104.10).

Janson applied for the District 6 seat after former commissioner Kyle Terpstra resigned in November.

During his interview before the board of commissioners on Dec. 8, Janson told Moss, who led the interviews for the seat: “Without flattering you all, we have several people right now standing up for our freedom. We said enough is enough. You've said enough is enough.”

Other countywide elected leaders — prosecutor, sheriff, treasurer, clerk/register of deeds and water resources commissioner — would see an 8 percent increase in 2025, with a 6 percent bump in 2026.

The board of commissioners is expected to consider the raises at its next meeting on May 14.

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

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