During the June 27, 2023 meeting of the Ottawa County Commissioners, Jacob Bonnema was censured again. He was first censured by the Ottawa County Republican Party on June 20, 2023 for violating guidelines established by the Republican Party to ensure elected officials act in accordance with their campaign promises and conservative principles. On June 27 he was censured for abuse of power and making baseless, defamatory accusations.
After introducing the resolution, Commissioner Cosby detailed the exchange she witnessed between Commissioner Bonnema and Administrator Gibbs which resulted in the harassment claim. The incident was reported to human resources by Commissioner Bonnema, sent to an outside legal firm for investigation, and determined to be unfounded. Commissioner Cosby disclosed that she saw the complaint for the first time at the Republican Party Executive Committee meeting which took place the prior week on June 20, 2023.
Commissioner Belknap stated the facts. “A claim of harassment was made against administrator Gibbs by Commissioner Bonnema. Evidence was gathered and investigated by the county’s labor council. News stories were published ahead of the investigation’s conclusive report. The result of the investigation found no evidence of harassment per correspondence on June 7 from the county’s human resource director.” He continued, “So those are the facts that I’ve heard and my thoughts are this. I believe the news articles were intended to harm Administrator Gibbs, and I agree that these issues could be addressed in closed door meetings and conversation. However, at this point, we have moved past that and now we’re in a situation where we have an individual who has had his reputation tarnished in media, and we have a report that found no ill will on his behalf, or I should say, he was not found guilty of harassment. So, I do think that there has been a lot of conversation about Commissioner Bonnema being the victim in this situation, but I don’t necessarily agree to that synopsis. I do believe that due to the unfounded conclusion of the report that an apology should be made to Mr. Gibbs.”
Jacob Bonnema responded to the claim by emphasizing the need for communication. “There’s a lot that has been said about this, that before I read my statement, could have been handled had we had an opportunity to meet. I 100% agree. I think public comment has even said that we need to be communicating more. We need to meet with each other. We need to agree to meet with each other. I am for that.” He then provided his view of the incident and again emphasized the need for communication. “I’ve offered real solutions to these issues to meet face-to-face, both publicly and privately, to work things out. [] It has been my goal to work together. To foster open and honest transparent communication between all eleven commissioners and the administrator.”
Later during the meeting, Vice Chair Rhodea noted, “For the record, I’ve received no communication from you [Bonnema] on this situation with Administrator Gibbs, ever.”
Commissioner Cosby agreed that the board could have more internal communication, and she made a comment that demonstrates Commissioner Bonnema’s statement desiring more communication is not reflected by his actions. “In the complaint that was filed with HR; I witnessed the event. I was included in the conversation with Mr. Bonnema, yet I was left out of the complaint. I do think it would have been resolved, had we actually been able to have that communication.”
Commissioner Moss added his comments, “I agree that we don’t want to just escalate situations, and so if you could just sit down and figure things out, the proper time for that would have been three months ago when this occurred. But instead of that process, we had a process that looked to me like a targeted HR complaint in an attempt to get someone fired.”
Commissioner Bergman was concerned that the board did not have the authority to censure and asked, “Where do we have the authority? Who gives us the authority?”
Chairman Moss responded, “The authority is actually quite simple. We act as a board. Anywhere in our board rules that is not spelled out default to Robert’s Rules. A censure can be brought under Robert’s Rules at any time. The board is under full authority, if it so chooses, to censure a member, for behavior that the board believes, was inappropriate.”
Chairman Moss explained how harassment complaints are typically handled. “The person who is working under a department head or such, will go to HR with a complaint. The person they are complaining about, typically never knows. These investigations and complaints are done privately, by policy. It is policy to keep those types of complaints confidential, and part of the reason for that is to allow people the freedom to be able to make complaints when they feel there is an issue. And if an investigation is done and it comes back unfounded or baseless, that’s it. It’s done. The supervisor, the department head, or whoever it is, they never even know. If it comes back and there is an issue, then HR would obviously address the issue. This is not the situation we have. This complaint was made with multiple people copied onto the email. It was not handled at the board level. The board is the group that oversees the county administrator. [] We do have a situation here that’s quite different from the norm. A singularity, according to our labor council.”
Vice Chair Rhodea provided a statement, “I was saddened to see Commissioner Bonnema choose to initiate the incident and then subsequently place Administrator Gibbs in a defamatory situation of a public HR investigation, where he must defend his character and his job. I do believe that that would have been the time for those closed-door conversations to have happened instead of all that has transpired.
Commissioner Bonnema’s actions were unjust, and came at an expense to the taxpayers, both requiring a legal investigation, as well as at the expense of eroding public trust in Administrator Gibbs and the county for an accusation without merit.”
Commissioner Rhodea also noted that “there has not been a public apology from Commissioner Bonnema to Administrator Gibbs.”
Commissioner Miedema stated, “It did cost the taxpayers of Ottawa County and Administrator Gibbs, and the county was slandered. It saddened me more, that once an investigation took place and was determined to be unfounded, that there was not a desire from Commissioner Bonnema to make things right. Instead, divisive and untrue words continued to come from Commissioner Bonnema to plant seeds of distrust of Administrator Gibbs.”
Chairman Moss read a statement, “Commissioner Bonnema has told me he believes Administrator Gibbs is incompetent and he wants him removed as administrator. His complaint alleged a litany of charges including harassment, threats, insubordination, and indecent conduct. On March 14, 2023, Commissioner Bonnema, in my opinion, attempted to subvert the statutory authority of this board of commissioners, and subvert the democratic process by which the board of commissioners oversees the administrator. His baseless, unfounded, and in my opinion, defamatory complaint, disenfranchises nearly 300,000 citizens in Ottawa County because he attempted to ignore the oversight role of the county board. Instead, he weaponized the county HR process. His actions removed ten commissioners from having any voice in the process and kicked off a months-long investigation that cost thousands of dollars. This type of abuse of power must not be allowed to stand. This board is elected to curb abuse of power and government overreach. A censure is an official rebuke. It’s an expression of strong disapproval for actions taken. It’s one of the only mechanisms a board has to hold a member accountable for their actions. If the board chooses not to censure, or sanction Commissioner Bonnema, then we condone his actions.”
Commissioners Moss, Rhodea, Ebel, Miedema, Belknap and Cosby voted to censure Commissioner Bonnema.
Commissioners Zylstra, Bergman, Terpstra, Curran, and Bonnema voted against the censure.
You can see the exchange for yourself here.