The Ottawa County Commissioners want the public to believe that they had no control over the masking of our children in school. This, however, is not accurate. The Ottawa County Commissioners chose to enforce some masking guidelines recommended by the health department while choosing to ignore other masking guidelines. In addition, when vaccine mandates were put in place by the Biden Administration, the Ottawa County Commissioners chose to oppose them as well.
The decisions by the Ottawa County Commissioners were not based on any scientific data. In their own words they explain how they had no choice but to follow some mandates, but decided to stand-up to others. On one hand Commissioner Greg Dejong states the health department “is much smarter” than him in regards to health matters, yet he believes government should not be involved with masking. Why did he oppose the health department when they recommended what masks should look like and from what material they should be constructed? I thought the health department was much smarter than him? Why did he oppose vaccine mandates? There is simply no data to support the inconsistent decision making from the county commissioners.
Another topic addressed in the following interview clips is oversight of the health department. Ottawa County Commissioner Greg Dejong states that the commissioners could not fire the public health department administrator, yet he points out that the health department reports to the county administrator and the county administrator reports to the commissioners. While they may not have been able to directly fire the public health department administrator, they could have certainly put pressure on the county administrator or changed the county administrator. The claims that they had no influence and that their hands were tied when it came to masking our children is not true. The truth is that they either did not understand the powers they have as county commissioners or they personally agreed with certain mandates which they chose to enforce and disagreed with others which they did not enforce.
This 6 minute video featuring Ottawa County Commissioners Matt Fenske and Greg Dejong is a collection of clips from interviews they did with the Homes Politicast on June 16, 2022 and June 27, 2022.
Ottawa County Commissioners Matt Fenske and Greg Dejong Discuss Masking
You can watch the complete interviews below.
Full Interview: Interview with Matt Fenske Ottawa County Commissioner and Board Chair, June 16, 2022
Full Interview: Mr. Greg Dejong of Ottawa County MI. Interview, June 27, 2022