OTTAWA COUNTY — Ottawa County has agreed to pay at least $280,000 in a pair of severance agreements the board of commissioners approved Wednesday with its current interim administrator and administrative executive aide.

According to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation, the severances were approved at the board’s Dec. 10 meeting because both employees allegedly told commissioners they would pursue legal action against the county if they didn’t receive agreements.

The sources are being granted anonymity because they feared retaliation from the Ottawa Impact majority on the board.

Interim Administrator Benjamin Wetmore will receive one year of pay of $175,000 — after receiving a pay increase on Oct. 16 — and will not receive health insurance beyond his separation date, which is the end of the year, the sources said.

Executive Aide Jordan Epperson will receive at least five months of pay ($33,974.20) as well as a lump sum payment of $75,000, totaling $108,974.20; his employment also will end at the end of the year, the sources said.

The total of both severance packages is $283,974.20.

How we got here

OI is a far-right fundamentalist group formed by Joe Moss and Sylvia Rhodea in 2021 after they took issue with pre-K-6 school mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moss launched the political action committee under the premise of “defending parental rights” and to “thwart tyranny” within the state and federal government.

The two have served as chair and vice chair, respectively, on the board of commissioners since Jan. 3, 2023. Also at that meeting, the OI majority pushed through a series of controversial decisions, including firing then-administrator John Shay and hiring former Republican congressional candidate John Gibbs.

The board fired Gibbs for cause on Feb. 29 this year after he served in the role for 14 months, alleging “gross misconduct, and/or committed willful malfeasance.”

Read More: 'The damage they've done': Gibbs will pursue legal action against Ottawa County

At the time, the OI commissioners cited allegations reported by Wetmore, who at the time was the deputy administrator, and Epperson — both of whom Gibbs hired just months earlier — that alleged Gibbs acted inappropriately and neglected his job duties.

Gibbs has denied any wrongdoing, calling the claims “fabricated.” He sued the board in April, claiming the board retaliated against him after he criticized the county's corporation counsel, Kallman Legal Group, which was hired at the controversial Jan. 3, 2023, meeting.

Gibbs also said Moss defamed him on social media that “lack factual support” and that Moss “knew that the defamatory statements were false.”

In an order issued Wednesday, Dec. 4, U.S. District Judge Jane M. Beckering dismissed the top count of John Gibbs’ lawsuit against Ottawa County, saying the former administrator didn’t sufficiently argue that he aired criticisms as a private citizen against county attorneys Kallman Legal Group.

Gibbs’ attorney, Noah Hurwitz, said he believes Gibbs still has a strong case for First Amendment retaliation and vowed to appeal Beckering’s ruling.

Read More: Federal judge tosses First Amendment retaliation claim in Gibbs’ lawsuit

After firing Gibbs, the OI majority appointed Jon Anderson, who had already filed to run as a Republican for the county sheriff position, as interim county administrator.

The appointment was controversial because Anderson didn’t have any prior experience as a county administrator and he already was a declared OI-backed candidate for county sheriff, prompting critics to claim at several public meetings that the decision was intended to elevate Anderson's profile to better his election chances.

Anderson lost to Undersheriff Eric DeBoer in the Aug. 6 primary by 20 points. The primary election also determined that OI will lose its board majority at the beginning of 2025.

Wetmore was named as the interim administrator on Oct. 16 in an emergency board meeting just days after previous interim administrator Jon Anderson resigned — twice — in October after losing his sheriff bid.

Read More: Interim Ottawa County administrator resigns — again

The OI majority then opted to appoint Wetmore to the interim administrator role in October and launched a formal search for the next permanent administrator, despite criticisms from minority board members as well as incoming commissioners in 2025 urging the board to wait.

Despite the search yielding two top finalists, both withdrew from the process just days apart late last month, prompting Moss to accuse Commissioner-Elect John Teeples and current Commissioner Jacob Bonnema of “intimidating” one or more of the candidates.

Both Teeples and Bonnema have denied any wrongdoing.

What’s happening now

In order to go into closed sessions, public bodies must cite specific exceptions to the state’s Open Meetings Act that exempt the discussion from taking place in public view.

According to the meeting agenda, commissioners went into two separate closed sessions as part of their regular Dec. 10 meeting “to consider the dismissal, suspension, or disciplining of, or to hear complaints or charges brought against, or to consider a periodic personnel evaluation of, a public officer, employee, staff member, or individual agent.”

When commissioners emerged from each of the closed sessions, Moss said he had respective “suggested motions” to approve separation agreements with Epperson and then Wetmore.

The Epperson agreement passed by split vote, 9-2, with Commissioners Jacob Bonnema and Doug Zylstra dissenting.

The Wetmore agreement passed by split vote 7-4, with Bonnema, Zylstra and Rebekah Curran dissenting.

On Wednesday, Dec. 11, Moss posted on social media that the move was made to “help facilitate a smooth transition,” pointing to the fact that “incoming board members have also expressed their intent to replace top administration employees.”

“Both agreements approved yesterday are in line with past severance agreements and relevant details considered by the board,” Moss said. “If anyone — including the press, tries to malign these employees or say they were fired, that is completely false. Ben and Jordan are valued employees who will continue to serve the county through the end of this year.”

The decision could be legally problematic in two key ways.

Firstly, the board wasn’t actively seeking “dismissal, suspension, or discipline” against either employee nor was there any evidence that “complaints or charges” were brought against either man. Personnel evaluations also didn’t occur, so the closed sessions could not be compliant with Michigan’s Open Meetings Act.

Secondly, the resolutions to approve the separation agreements didn’t disclose any details of the agreements and might not be clear enough to be legally binding.

The language used to approve the resolutions was nearly identical to the wording used in November 2023, when the board voted to approve a $4 million settlement with the county’s administrative health officer, Adeline Hambley.

Earlier this year, a circuit court judge ruled that the public vote to approve the $4 million deal wasn't clear enough to be legally binding.

Why it matters

The hirings of Epperson and Wetmore sparked their own controversies.

After hiring Epperson in August 2023, Gibbs was accused of age discrimination after a more qualified finalist for the position went unselected. That finalist, Ryan Kimball, filed a lawsuit against Gibbs and Ottawa County in October 2023; it was settled in September with Kimball receiving $225,000.

Read More: Ottawa County to pay $225K to settle age discrimination lawsuit as legal costs mount

In his interview for the aide position, Epperson, who is still working for the county, allegedly told the county's hiring committee he believes ethics “depend on who you’re working for” and said government positions like his are “absolutely” political, according to former Deputy Administrator Patrick Waterman.

Waterman also said Epperson refused to shake hands with the women on the interviewing committee. Waterman resigned in July, citing a strained working relationship with Gibbs and a "lack of effective leadership" on the board.

In November, the county announced the hiring of Wetmore, who has an extensive history in conservative political activism and has taken part in several political stunts over the past 20 years, including staging undercover encounters on video for right-wing nonprofit Project Veritas.

In 2009, he pretended to be a volunteer for the Love Thy Prisoner Campaign, where he and Project Veritas James O’Keefe tried to get residents in Boston to "adopt a Jihad detainee" and become "pen pals with Guantanamo Bay detainees and put them into their loving homes."

Wetmore made headlines for a 2010 plot he authored to lure a female CNN reporter onto a boat where another conservative activist planned to faux-seduce her on camera.

When asked for comment on his involvement with the controversy, Wetmore cited a “record low trust in the media because of biased, politically-motivated so-called journalism” and that “the document in question was an attempt 13 years ago at trolling CNN and was never meant to be taken seriously."

Despite distancing himself from O’Keefe in the past several years, Wetmore is currently listed as the president of Project Veritas, after O’Keefe resigned when the board reportedly put him on leave from his role as chairman amid complaints about his treatment of staff at the organization.

After his unsuccessful judge bid in Texas in 2018, Wetmore moved to Michigan in 2021, jumping into the conservative political scene. He launched the political consulting firm Victory Strategies LLC and advised then-MIGOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock regularly on issues and candidate campaigns during the midterm election cycle. He also worked as a legislative aide for Rep. Matt Maddock, one of several lawmakers active in Michigan's "Grand New Party," an offshoot of the Republican Party.

Epperson also previously worked as a part-time aide for Matt Maddock, and was a legislative aide for Northern Michigan State Rep. Neil Friske, also a GNP supporter, who lost his re-election bid in the August primary after his arrest in June on unrelated criminal charges.

He has voiced his support for Project Veritas, posting on social media when Wetmore has given interviews representing the group.

— Contact Sarah Leach at sleach@ottawanewsnetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @SentinelLeach.