Interim Ottawa County administrator resigns — again
In an email to commissioners on Monday, Oct. 14, Deputy Administrator Ben Wetmore informed the officials that Interim Administrator Jon Anderson had resigned from his position the previous evening.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to include comment from Anderson.
OTTAWA COUNTY — The interim administrator of Ottawa County has abruptly resigned — for a second time.
In an email to commissioners on Monday, Oct. 14, Deputy Administrator Ben Wetmore informed the officials that Interim Administrator Jon Anderson had resigned from his position the previous evening, effective immediately.
“We are thankful for Jon’s service to the county, as well as his service during his long career as a law enforcement officer,” Wetmore said.
Anderson originally submitted a resignation letter on Friday, Sept. 6, to the board of commissioners with a final day being Oct. 4.
Read More: Interim Ottawa County administrator abruptly resigns after losing sheriff bid
However, Board Chair Joe Moss said at the commission’s Sept. 10 meeting, for which Anderson was not present, that he asked Anderson to stay on “through the search process” for a new administrator.
Moss created an executive search committee at the board’s next meeting on Sept. 24.
Just last week, at the board’s Oct. 8 meeting, Anderson (who again wasn’t present) asked county fiscal services Director Karen Karasinski to read a statement to the commissioners.
“Jon said he would be willing to stay on — or beyond — based on the success of your search,” Karasinski said.
Five days later, it appears Anderson has another change of heart and resigned again.
In a text message response to a request for comment, Anderson said: It was just going to be too hard to dedicate the necessary time to the county while doing my other job and assisting with the gun store.”
After the first resignation, Anderson said he needed to decide 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 in a Sept. 6 email. “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 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.
Wetmore told commissioners that “county operations will continue to run smoothly.”
“Administration will continue to coordinate between departments to best serve the needs of our county residents, as well as assist the Executive Transition Committee in the search for a permanent county administrator,” Wetmore wrote in Monday’s email to the board.
Read More: Ottawa County poised to pay more than $60K to search for its next administrator
The executive search process comes after the incoming Ottawa Impact commissioners fired previous administrator John Shay on Jan. 3, 2023 — the day they took office — after he had been in the job for only seven months.
They immediately used their majority to vote in former Republican Congressional candidate John Gibbs, who worked in the role for 13 months before he was fired Feb. 29 this year; he has since sued for wrongful termination and claims Moss defamed him.
The OI majority then appointed Anderson, who already had filed to run as a Republican for the county sheriff position, as interim county administrator.
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.
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.
Anderson lost to Undersheriff Eric DeBoer in the Aug. 6 primary by 20 points.
The primary election also determined that OI will likely lose its board majority at the beginning of 2025.
— Contact Sarah Leach at SentinelLeach@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @SentinelLeach. Subscribe to her content at sentinelleach.substack.com.
It's absolutely astonishing to look back over all the chaos, costliness and mismanagement that has resulted from the incompetent leadership of Ottawa Impact. It's truly mind-blowing. And straight up sad. This is but a tiny glimpse, I fear, of what will come on a national scale if Trump is elected President.
As far as I can tell Anderson hasn't done any work in the last few months anyway. He was never even around. Moss and everyone he hires is totally unreliable, inexperienced and incompetent. And as I have pointed out several times, this is exactly what Trump will do in a second term. I know there are a lot of Republicans who are disgusted with OI but still seem to think Trump will be great. Please look at what OI did to Ottawa County and remember that when you vote for President.