Ottawa Impact Systemic Denialism

After the Republican Primary vote of August 6th, where out of the nine Ottawa Impact endorsed candidates for Commissioner only four will continue on to the general election, you might expect a ‘come to Jesus’ moment. You would be wrong.

Blaming Democrats and the media, Joe Moss blogs on the Ottawa Impact website they intend no changes. Hiding their aggressive in-your-face actions of the last two years behind morality and protecting the children, they take no responsibility for their divisive and often questionable unethical behavior.

This is the Ottawa Impact Web site response to the August 6th primary. The constant pictures and references to children to justify their political actions are about as appropriate as puppies in a feminine hygiene commercial.

OI Board of Commissioners Record

It is time for Ottawa Impact to stop hiding behind protecting the children and own up to their record and the political shenanigans behind it all.

• The original ‘issue’, mandated masks and the temporary closing of the Libertas Christian School for public safety violations. The court case Libertas Classical Ass’n v Whitmer of 11/3/2020 ruled the health department acted appropriately. Ottawa Impact continues to attack the health department since gaining a Board of Commissioners majority in 2022.
• Fired county administrator without cause or notice triggering severance expenses.
• Dismantled DEI department without cause.
• Demoted health officer and later tried (unsuccessfully) to fire her without cause, triggering more legal expenses. Intended to replace her by appointing Kelly, an unqualified loyalist without any experience managing a county health department.
• Appointed John Gibbs without proper hiring practices and later fired him.
• Appointed Kallman legal group, an expensive office of attorneys from Lansing increasing legal spending by approximately $500,000.
• Changed the motto from Where We Belong to Let Freedom Ring, a conservative dog whistle to Ottawa Impact loyalists.
• Endorsed candidates signed a contract with Ottawa Impact, and those who later broke with Ottawa Impact were censored.

State GOP paid $74K to Moss Business Partner

About a month after Ottawa County Board Chair Joe Moss nominated Kristina Karamo as head of the Michigan Republican Party, the state GOP paid roughly $74K to a business linked to Moss for undisclosed services, the Detroit News reported.

Based on party bank records obtained by the Detroit News in October 2023 $74,261 was paid by the Michigan Republican Party to Jenison based company For Liberty. The agent on record for the firm is Joel Kallman, the business partner of Moss. Moss is also a partner in the firm For Liberty.

Since then Karamo led the republican party down the rabbit hole into near bankruptcy and was finally legally ousted as Michigan GOP chair after a protracted fight. Way to go Joe!

MSU Extension confirms pressure from Ottawa County Chair Moss

Chris Kleinjans (D), who won the recall vote from Lucy Ebel by a 20% margin in May, was forced to take unpaid leave from his job at the Michigan State University Extension or face termination.

The matter is currently in the hands of a federal judge as to whether MSU Extension must reinstate Kleinjans to his job. The school confirmed they were politically pressured by board leadership (Moss) to alter his employment, a job he has held for more than a dozen years.

A contract with the Extension was approved by the Finance & Administration subcommittee since November but not brought up for a consent vote by the full board. The Extension directors met with Chair Joe Moss and OI Commissioner Allison Miedema in December, one day after Kleinjans’ candidacy was publicly announced.

While in compliance with university policies, Moss cited conflicts of interest and Kleinjans’ political activism as concerns. Based on Freedom of Information Act requests, emails between Moss and MSU stated some of Kleinjans’ social media posts were false and inflammatory. The contract was finally approved in January.

However, Kleinjans’ employment is an ongoing issue. University leadership has said because of the nature of the work that we do within the county, it’s impossible to separate the work of Extension and the role of county commissioner. Strange but true, Moss’s role as Board Chair and his association and work with the Kallman legal group is not even questioned even though his business partner’s last name is – wait for it – Kallman. And yes, he is related to the legal representation the county spends hundreds of thousands of dollars with.

County Republican Party subverted by OI

The Ottawa County Republican Party Endorsement Convention just happened to endorse OI candidates and other selected loyalist extremists such as constitutional sheriff candidate Jon Anderson, while shunning other more traditional Republican candidates.

Ottawa impact extremism Spreads

As recorded in the above video, non OI aligned candidates were asked to step down and not run in the primary, ensuring OI extremists would run unopposed in the Republican primary.

Ottawa County, The Next Four Years

Ottawa Impact has lost their Board of Commissioners majority for the next four years. If there is a God, Joe Moss and Sylvia Rhodea will also lose their Chair and Vice Chair positions as well.

Do not be deceived, this is not a Republican versus Democrat issue. Ottawa County has been under Republican control for the last century. If there are complaints about how the county government functions or its constant expansion and rising cost over the years, Republicans have no one to blame but themselves.

The recent extreme arm of the Republican party is neither legitimately Republican nor Christian. It is simply extremism for extremism’s sake. Some of the traditional values of the Republican party include:

• Fiscal conservatism – lower property taxes
• Limited government
• Law and order
• Privacy and less government interference

The extremist arm of the Republican party may say they still honor these values but then act in conflict to them. Traditional Christian values include:

• Agape – charity, compassion, caring about others
• Forgiveness, tolerance, non judgmental acceptance of all God’s creation
• Faith – a belief in God and the teachings of Jesus who brings a new covenant of grace versus the old covenant, adherence to old testament laws
• Honesty in all things
• Humility – humble in spirit

Again, while extremist Christians may voice those same values, they then act in conflict to them. Review just some of the actions of the Ottawa Impact Commissioners and try to reconcile their actions to the values of traditional Republicans or Christians. Ask yourselves how these political shenanigans protect the children?

Religion is not, and never will be democratic – nor should it be. This is why it will always be in conflict with the basic principals of the constitution, the bill of rights, and democracy in general. Traditional religion is personal, not something that can be enforced by state or federal laws. Religion should make us better people, not angry and violent activists. Religion used to advocate winning people to Christ, not hitting them over the head and dragging them kicking and screaming.

Extreme Christians only recognize freedom of religion for themselves, but no one else. When they say where freedom rings, they mean where my religious beliefs are free to be imposed on everyone else.

What Ottawa Impact should have heard in this primary and apparently did not, is that the citizens of Ottawa County want their county government to return to the work of governing the county. They want the Board of Commissioners to:

• Get out of the culture war business
• Stop fighting the health department and let them do their jobs
• Get your act together and stop creating useless legal battles
• Focus on county infrastructure like housing, water and parks

The people have spoken. It is time our Commissioners listened!