Interim Ottawa County administrator abruptly resigns after losing sheriff bid
Anderson, whose last day will be Oct. 4, said he accepted a job with a previous employer.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to include comment from Anderson.
OTTAWA COUNTY — Ottawa County's interim administrator has resigned after five months.
Jon Anderson submitted a resignation letter on Friday, Sept. 6, to the board of commissioners with a final day being Oct. 4.
“The purpose of this memorandum is to provide my final notice of resignation from the position of Interim County Administrator. With your approval, my last day with the county will be Friday, Oct. 4,” the letter said.
Anderson said he had accepted an offer of employment from his previous employer.
“Thank you for the opportunity to serve as the Interim County Administrator for Ottawa County,” he said.
The resignation comes just before the county is set to approve its budget for fiscal year 2025, which begins Oct. 1, with a public hearing set for the next board of commissioners meeting set for Sept. 10.
Anderson responded to a request for comment Friday afternoon, saying he had a decision to make on whether to return to his former employer or stay on with the county.
“Prior to being appointed as the interim county administrator and running for sheriff, I was conducting background investigations for police and fire departments throughout the country,” he said. “I essentially took a leave of absence while campaigning and working full-time as the county administrator. The company contacted me recently and asked if I could return due to a high volume of investigations or resign so they could fill my position.”
Anderson was appointed by the Ottawa Impact majority on the board of commissioners in March after previous administrator John Gibbs was fired in February.
Read More: Ottawa County board appoints sheriff's candidate as interim administrator
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,” Moss said at the Feb. 29 meeting.
At the time, the OI commissioners cited allegations reported by Deputy Administrator Ben Wetmore and administrative aide Jordan Epperson — both controversial hires by Gibbs — 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 said Moss defamed him on social media that “lack factual support” and that Moss “knew that the defamatory statements were false.”
The case has been assigned to Jane M. Beckering. Although no hearings have been scheduled, there have been several filings over the summer, most recently with the county requesting that the lawsuit be dismissed; Gibbs’ attorney argued against the request in a response last month.
On March 13, the OI majority put three internal names up for interim administrator — three internal employees, including Wetmore, and Anderson as the lone outside candidate.
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.
Four districts currently represented by OI commissioners will flip to traditional Republicans during the new term, which also from two years to four beginning in January.
Anderson said that because the current board majority will no longer be in place, he wanted to ensure his employment stability.
“Since some of the presumptive incoming commissioners have stated one of their goals is to replace the administrator, I simply wanted to ensure I still had some employment into the new year,” he wrote in the Friday email.
Anderson is a retired sheriff's commander from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office in southern California with 32 years of experience in law enforcement. He’s lived in Michigan for eight years and in Ottawa County for the past five.
He is co-owner of Bullet Hole Firearms and Training in Holland.
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So unsurprising. The only commitment of OI members is to themselves.
Maybe they can just get Gibbs back and end the lawsuit. Most likely they will hire another incompetent crony at a high salary with a huge severance bonus. Or maybe Moss gets the board to hire him, giving him a high salary with a huge severance bonus. Whatever happens, we know it will cost taxpayers a lot of money and will provide no improvement to county government.