OTTAWA COUNTY — Another lawsuit has concluded in Ottawa County to the tune of $225,000.

On Sept. 10, the county finalized a settlement agreement with Ryan Kimball, who sued the county late last year for alleged age discrimination by former administrator John Gibbs.

Kimball, then 49, was a finalist for an executive aide position in summer 2023. In the lawsuit filed Oct. 24 in Ottawa County's 20th Circuit Court, he claimed Gibbs committed age discrimination when he hired a younger candidate with fewer qualifications than the county required.

Read More: Lawsuit: Gibbs committed age discrimination in hiring executive aide

Kimball's attorneys, Robert Howard and Bradley Glazier, argued that Gibbs, and therefore the county, violated Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employers from treating an applicant or employee less favorably because of his or her age. There are specific legal protections afforded to individuals over the age of 40. The law prohibits discrimination in any aspect of employment, including hiring and firing.

“We're happy this was resolved,” Howard said Thursday, Sept. 12. “It's unfortunate that litigation was necessary to enforce Mr. Kimball's right to not be discriminated against due to his age, but our client is satisfied with the result.”

He said the $225,000 settlement was the result of a full day of mediation where the parties reached an agreement that would be recommended to the county’s insurance authority, which approved the settlement Aug. 19 in closed session.

Kimball settlement agreement477KB ∙ PDF fileDownloadRead the settlement agreement, which was finalized Sept. 10, 2024.Download

How it started

The lawsuit was the fourth of five lawsuits filed against the board since the current Ottawa Impact majority on the county board of commissioners were sworn in on Jan. 3, 2023.

Current Board Chair Joe Moss founded the far-right fundamentalist group in 2021 after he took issue with pre-K-6 school mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. He launched the political action committee under the premise of "defending parental rights" and to "thwart tyranny" within the state and federal government.

The freshmen commissioners’ first official meeting included several items added last-minute to the agenda by the OI commissioners in what seemed to be pre-orchestrated actions, including firing the county administrator and hiring Gibbs, firing corporation counsel and hiring conservative law firm Kallman Legal Group, demoting the health officer, as well as dismantling the county's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Department.

As the year unfolded, Gibbs received narrow approval from the commission to expand a former executive assistant position to an executive aide, which then resulted in Epperson’s hire. When seeking approval, Gibbs said after two months on the job, it was "like drinking through a firehose."

Howard and Glazier said Gibbs violated the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act by saying he wanted Epperson for the job because he was "young" and could be "bossed around."

Testimony underscoring the claims was made public in October as the OI majority on the board attempted to fire Administrative Health Officer Adeline Hambley during a termination hearing. Hambley’s attorney, Sarah Riley-Howard, elicited testimony during the proceedings from former county deputy administrator Patrick Waterman, as well as former human resources director Marcie VerBeek about how Gibbs and the county approached the hiring process for the executive aide.

Waterman, who resigned in July citing a strained working relationship with Gibbs and a "lack of effective leadership" by the new board of commissioners, said he was present during the hiring process for the aide position and had concerns about Epperson over "certain behaviors" he showed during his interviews.

"To my recollection, Mr. Epperson raised support for Ottawa Impact in his interviews," Waterman testified.

He also confirmed VerBeek’s testimony that Epperson refused to shake the hands of the women on the interviewing committee: herself and finance director Karen Karasinski.

"That was one issue," Waterman replied. "There was another issue about ethics. He said, 'Ethics depend on who you are working for.' I thought that was a concerning answer."

Waterman said he asked Epperson if government positions were political.

"He said, 'Absolutely.' There also were concerns about qualifications," Waterman testified.

Of the five mandatory criteria the county sought, Epperson, then 23, has one — a bachelor's degree.

Kimball holds a master's degree, has experience in strategic management, made the Dean's List for both his bachelor's and master's programs, has experience working at the international nonprofit level, has served at least two years on a major board and has experience in management and finance.

In March, SentinelLeach obtained emails via a Freedom of Information Act Request between VerBeek and Gibbs where she urged him not to hire Epperson.

"I have concerns about moving forward with Mr. Epperson," Human Resources Director Marcie VerBeek wrote in an email to Gibbs in June 2023. "I would strongly recommend we get the hiring committee back together to discuss."

Read More: New email: Ottawa HR warned Epperson hire could be problematic

Gibbs, however, decided to move forward.

"After much deliberation, I have decided to move forward with the next steps in the process for hiring Jordan Epperson for the senior executive aide position," Gibbs wrote.

The next day, VerBeek asked for an additional meeting with the hiring committee "to discuss options prior to moving forward."

Her statements were almost entirely redacted by corporation counsel. Only two sentences were released of the two-page email, along with a chart showing Epperson's qualifications as they compared to Kimball.

Counsel Jack Jordan told The Sentinel the comments were redacted because "communications and notes within a public body or between public bodies of an advisory nature are exempt to the extent that they cover other than purely factual materials and are preliminary to a final agency determination of policy or action."

Kimball's attorney, Rob Howard, released the full email Friday, March 1, to The Sentinel as part of the discovery process of his client's ongoing litigation.

In the unredacted email, VerBeek says:

"I have concerns about moving forward with Mr. Epperson. I would strongly recommend we get the hiring committee back together to discuss. I put together a basic chart of the requirements (below) from the job description that was posted for the position. Jordan does not meet the minimum requirements of the position. Also, in all the categories, Mr. Kimball meets the requirements more fully than Mr. Epperson. In addition, I have concerns about tools that we started using in the hiring process, that were not fully vetted ... I also have concerns regarding the comments you made in front of the interview panel about the ages of the candidates and your ability to 'boss' Mr. Epperson around easier because he is younger. I am concerned of the liability of the possibility of violating our Equal Employment Opportunity policy if we were to move forward with Mr. Epperson at this time."

Email Regarding Age Comments261KB ∙ PDF fileDownloadRead the emails between former Ottawa County Administrator John Gibbs and former HR director Marcie VerBeek regarding the hiring of executive aide Jordan Epperson.Download

In a response dated July 7, Gibbs thanked VerBeek for her feedback and directed her to "please move forward with the next steps in hiring Jordan Epperson."

Gibbs was fired Feb. 29, after Moss motioned to terminate him for cause — largely focused on new allegations brought forward by Epperson and recently hired Deputy Administrator Benjamin Wetmore, rather than for the Kimball litigation.

Gibbs filed a lawsuit on April 8 in federal court claiming the board retaliated against him, violated his First Amendment rights and that Moss defamed him on social media that “lack factual support” and that Moss “knew that the defamatory statements were false.”

Read More: Fired administrator Gibbs sues Ottawa County, Moss for wrongful termination, defamation

Gibbs said the accusations from Epperson and Wetmore were manufactured after Gibbs identified "corruption and opposed bad governance" by the board.

They targeted me "by concocting a laundry list of miscellaneous, contrived allegations that only saw the light of day after I attempted to hold them accountable," Gibbs said.

"But they didn't work with him in close capacity like I did," Gibbs said. "So I got to see."

Gibbs was referring to a series of troubling social media posts unearthed after Epperson's hire.

"Jordan did have a history of making very racist, anti-Semitic comments," Gibbs said. "He has a history and background, but I went with people that knew him."

Gibbs shared a similar sentiment about Wetmore, whom he said came "highly recommended by Jordan, as well as other people I trusted."

"Someone said they'd heard some stuff that wasn't OK, but everybody else said he was good. I went with a preponderance of recommendations, but it turns out that person was right also."

Gibbs claims both men "failed to perform their job duties consistently, which was discussed in performance evaluations."

Epperson called Gibbs' characterization of his job performance "false." Wetmore did not respond to SentinelLeach’s request for comment earlier this year.

Both are still employed at the county, however, Gibbs said he suspected their employment was threatened.

"I think they were scared they were going to get fired or something," Gibbs said. "So they started to put all their eggs in the commissioners' basket, and came up with this stuff."

Gibbs said he hired Epperson "despite all those things he said online" because members of the state legislature who worked with him "said he was good."

That lawsuit has been assigned to Jane M. Beckering. Although no hearings have been scheduled, there have been several filings over the summer, most recently with the county requesting that the lawsuit be dismissed; Gibbs’ attorney argued against the request in a response last month.

Other litigation

The Kimble settlement comes just days after another lawsuit against the county concluded.

The Michigan Supreme Court declined to weigh in on a lawsuit alleging that the incoming OI commissioners violated the state's Open Meetings Act in the months after being elected, but before taking office.

The Michigan Court of Appeals unanimously ruled Jan. 26 that Muskegon County 14th Circuit Court Judge Matthew R. Kacel didn't make a legal error when he dismissed the lawsuit, filed in March 2023.

Read More: Michigan Supreme Court declines to hear Open Meetings Act-related lawsuit against Ottawa County board

A week prior to that decision, a judge ruled that the county had to pay for Hambley’s attorney’s fees after her yearlong lawsuit against the county board for trying to unlawfully demote and fire her in 2023.

The county settled with Hambley — also represented by Sarah Riley-Howard — three days prior to Gibbs’ termination in February.

Although Hambley didn’t receive any additional compensation, the settlement agreement allowed a judge to determine if Hambley’s legal fees would be covered. In August, the judge in the case concluded the county must pay more than $188,000 for Howard’s representation.

The Kimball settlement outlined that $75,000 would go to Rob Howard and Glazier for their legal services and $150,000 would go to their client.

The Kimball and Hambley settlement agreements total $413,000, and do not account for costs the county paid its corporation counsel and other law firms for representation in the multiple lawsuits.

Overall, the county could near the $1 million mark in legal costs between 2023 and 2024.

The two lawsuits still active against the board include the Gibbs lawsuit and another filed late last year alleging religious discrimination against Moss and the board.

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On Oct. 3, 2023, Grand Haven pastor Jared Cramer sued in federal court, claiming religious discrimination by Moss. Cramer, of St. John’s Episcopal Church, said Moss used his position to "endorse a particular set of religious beliefs and exclude a particular set of religious beliefs" and therefore "is discriminating against certain religious beliefs," which is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Moss invited Cramer to give an invocation in November, which Cramer said did not mitigate the discriminatory acts alleged. On Jan. 2, at its inaugural meeting, the commission approved an invocation procedure. The case has now reached the discovery phase; Cramer also is represented by Sarah Riley-Howard.

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