Sex Minister turned Experi-Mentor given property tax millage funds to operate social recreation services for disabled, Preaches LGBTQ+ and CRT – and Serves Ice Cream!
The title of this article is not satire, but is an introduction to the Momentum Center. The following public comment (based on FOIA documents) was given to the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners on March 14, 2023 to raise awareness, and request an investigation:
“Good Morning Commissioners.
At recent Board meetings, the Board was pressured to vote for various grants without the benefit of reflection and deliberation. But grantors expect something in return for their money making it prudent for the BOC to know what that is and if that reflects what the voters they represent want.
In that spirit of reflection, I suggest the Board study the County's Agreement with the Extended Grace Momentum Center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Ottawa County, on behalf of the Community Mental Health (CMH), executed the Agreement on October 1, 2021. The Agreement is for $290,799.92 yearly, paid monthly in the amount of $24,233.33 from the property tax millage. Inexplicably, invoices suggest the County paid Momentum Center $1,163,866.28 before this agreement.
The agreement is for the Momentum Center to operate a social recreation program to promote participation and community integration for persons with disabilities. The agreement asserts that the Momentum Center is fully qualified to provide these services.
As for qualifications, the center is run by and founded by Barbara Lee VanHorssen, who holds herself out, not as the Momentum Center's president or officer, or even as a clinician, but as the Experi-Mentor.
Before Barbara Lee took the moniker of Experi-Mentor, she was a Sex Minister and authored the book, Sacred Sex: Replacing the Marriage Ethic with a Sexual Ethic and was an advocate for radical inclusivity and justice. See her Amazon book review and bio.
Again, the agreement is for the Momentum Center to operate a social recreation program to promote participation and community integration for persons with disabilities. The Momentum Center's monthly reports and calendars promote the LGBTQ+ affinity group, LGBTQ presentations, Pride month celebrations, a visit from Dana Nessel for an expungement event, town halls on race and racism, and get out the vax and vote events.
The Center also just opened the Moo-Mentum Ice Cream Parlor in Holland to the general public. The Center sent invoices to the County for purchases made for this parlor of about $26,000 to build and equip it.
Notably, as I understand it, for a 501(c)(3) to keep its tax-exempt status, it cannot be politically partisan; but in my opinion, the Center is being used for partisan political activism.
Finally, the County may terminate this agreement for cause. At the very least, I think an audit is in order to determine if the county is getting its benefit of the bargain. For the champion of transparency (Bonnema), here is your opportunity.”