MSU denies 'bowing' to Ottawa Impact pressure in response to Kleinjans lawsuit
MSU denies 'bowing' to Ottawa Impact pressure in response to Kleinjans lawsuit
Filing: “The record here is clear. The Defendants did not succumb to pressure by the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners to retaliate against Plaintiff for running as a Democratic candidate."
GRAND RAPIDS — Michigan State University’s Extension Office has denied any wrongdoing in response to a lawsuit filed by Ottawa County’s newest commissioner, who claims he was fired from the school over political pressure from the far-right majority on the board.
Chris Kleinjans, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit June 21 in the U.S. Western District Court claiming MSU’s Extension violated his First Amendment Rights after giving him an ultimatum: Take an unpaid leave through the remainder of the year or face termination.
The lawsuit claims MSU’s reasoning was due to “bowing to political pressure from the (Ottawa Impact) majority on the Ottawa County Commission. The OI majority placed political pressure on Defendants to retaliate against Plaintiff for Plaintiff running against and winning a recall election to unseat their political ally, Lucy Ebel. (MSU) do not have a non-discriminatory reason to fire (Kleinjans) and have merely capitulated to the OI majority.”
Read more: Was Ottawa County's newest commissioner punished for running?
Read more: Ottawa County commissioner files federal lawsuit against MSU Extension for wrongful termination
Ottawa Impact is a far-right fundamentalist group formed in 2021 over frustrations with the county and state over COVID-19 mitigation measures.
Since taking office in January 2023, OI commissioners pushed through a series of controversial decisions, resulting in several lawsuits against the county. A recall petition targeted one OI commissioner — Lucy Ebel — and Kleinjans ultimately defeated her by a 20% margin in May.
Two weeks later, he was informed by MSU that his continued employment was in jeopardy.
Kleijans worked for MSU Extension for more than a dozen years; he confirmed that he was dismissed June 4 after the school decided his employment as a nutritional instructor was “incompatible” with his new elected office representing District 2 on the board of commissioners.
Prior to filing the lawsuit, Kleinjans came forward with audio recordings, including one in November with Erin Moore, assistant director of MSU Health and Nutrition Institute, where Moore outlined to Kleinjans a problematic political environment and that his candidacy could jeopardize the renewal of MSU Extension’s contract with the county.
“I do want to put on the table in front of you, just so that you have a very clear picture of what happens if this budget does not pass,” Moore said in a recording of the Nov. 27 meeting. “This could … really scare your colleagues: If that budget does not pass, we no longer have an office in Ottawa County. We no longer function as Extension in Ottawa County. Three people are directly funded through our budget and … it is possible that jobs could be lost.”
Moore characterized the political climate as “dire” regardless of whether Kleinjans pursued the elected office.
“If this were any other county, any other part of the state, where it was just a little less contentious, we wouldn't be talking about us being defunded because of your interaction with politics,” she tells Kleinjans on the recording. “But that is our reality right now … is that there is a vengeance-type of relationship that this board has with the only power that they have with this money, and that is to defund those that are ‘against them.’”
Kleinjans responded: “If this were any other county, I probably wouldn’t be considering this.”
Kleinjans said he notified his supervisors long before November that he had been asked to run in the recall election should it be confirmed for the May ballot — which the county clerk’s office finalized Nov. 14.
However, MSU Extension claimed in its response filed July 24 that they were not aware of the candidacy until the Nov. 27 conversation between Kleinjans and Moore. They also denied bowing to political pressure from the board.
In the response, MSU attorney Matthew R. Daniels said there was no connection between Kleinjans’ candidacy for public office and his termination and that MSU leadership never told Kleinjans that he would be able to serve simultaneously as an Ottawa County commissioner and a community nutrition instructor if he ultimately won the election.
In the Nov. 27 recording, Moore advised Kleinjans that should he win the seat in the recall, he would need to abstain on any votes relating to the MSU Extension.
In a Dec. 14 meeting with Matt Shane, associate director of the Extension’s field operations, told Kleinjans that county commission board Chair Joe Moss, who also is president of Ottawa Impact, and OI Commissioner Allison Miedema pressured Extension district leaders James Kelly Extension’s District 7 to transfer Kleinjans out of Ottawa County or the contract with the school would not be reapproved.
“Their basic request, if you will, throughout the course of that conversation, was that they wanted your responsibilities for work in Ottawa County to cease and do your work in another county, another location, or in some other fashion, not representing MSU Extension in Ottawa County during the course of your campaign, and in essence, without that, the MOA would not be up for further discussion,” Shane told Kleinjans on Dec. 14.
“So right now … the MOA for Ottawa County will be on hold indefinitely, or at least for the foreseeable future, and not make it on a board agenda to have further discussion, which obviously has impact on our 4-H and agriculture programs,” he says on the recording.
Shane also says Moss and Miedema insinuated that the Extension’s office space in the county would be in jeopardy.
“There was also some mention in that meeting about how highly desirable our Ottawa County MSU Extension space is in that building, and that there are other departments that certainly would benefit from having access to that space as they look at restructuring some of their other departments and forming other departments and offices within the county,” Shane told Kleinjans on the recording. “They're sort of holding up our MOA and relationship with Ottawa County government while you're continuing to work as an MSU Extension employee in Ottawa County and running a campaign at the same time.”
Shane also indicated that Kleinjans had the support of the Extension leadership and was not at risk of an employment change.
“Our stance is our stance,” he said on the December recording. “From the beginning, we have these policies in place for a reason. We are adhering to those policies. As long as you adhere to the guidelines that we've put in place for you, you're not in violation of those policies, we do not plan to change our stance on the work that you're doing. We're not planning to relocate you to another county. We're not planning to change your work responsibilities in any way other than what we've already asked you to do, in terms of not wearing logo wear.”
Despite MSU’s response claiming that Kleinjans “was told expressly that if he was elected to the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners he would not be able to continue to work as a community nutrition instructor,” neither Moore nor Shane address said that in the three recordings Kleinjans provided.
Moss and Miedema have never returned requests for comment from this reporter.
In MSU’s response filing, the school said the decision to fire Kleinjans “was premised entirely on concerns relating to potential conflicts of interest” and compliance with the Incompatible Public Offices Act, which regulates how many and what type of roles public officers or employees may hold.
The response said Extension is funded in part through a memorandum of understanding that is voted on annually by the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners. Kleinjans previously said his position was not funded through county dollars but rather through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which then funnels down to Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services and then to the Extension.
Daniels said Kleinjans also would not “realistically be able to continue work as a community nutrition instructor, which requires 40 hours of work per week during normal business hours and serve as an Ottawa County commissioner.” The elected commissioner positions are classified as part-time paid positions.
In a May 23 recorded conversation, again with Shane, Kleinjans asked for a transfer out of Ottawa County after Shane explained that Kleinjans could not remain employed with Extension.
“To be honest, having been apprised of a conversation that took place between commission members and members of Extension staff, I was kind of surprised that no one stumbled upon the idea of just transferring me out of the county earlier. But if I was not in Ottawa County, I would not be working in Ottawa County. Therefore any conflict of interest, theoretically, would not be in existence,” Kleinjans says on the recording.
Shane said that wouldn’t be possible: “That’s not completely true, because you still represent Extension in both capacities.”
“So, out of the several thousand contracts that the county commission approves, as far as budgetary matters, this all rests on my inability to recuse myself from one budget vote for a budget that actually has nothing to do with my personal role in Extension?” Kleinjans asks in the recording.
Shane said Kleinjans was “oversimplifying” the matter.
“Because Extension is a statewide, county-wide organization that has many partnerships in Ottawa County and connections that you work with that have some connection to Ottawa County government … there's a lot of implications of how Extension does work in the county. It's not necessarily just about one contract and one budget vote,” Shane says in the recording. “That's not where the university sees the conflict. Inherently, that's part of it, but it's not the whole of it. … Because of the nature of the work that we do within the county, it’s impossible to separate the work of Extension and the role of county commissioner.”
In response to the lawsuit, Daniels said accommodations could not have been put in place that would have allowed Kleinjans to serve in both roles, but that MSU had the right to fire him for any reason.
“Even assuming Plaintiff is correct on this point, terminating Plaintiff based on the above-described issues does not impair or infringe on his First Amendment rights. Plaintiff is an at-will employee, and under Michigan law, as a general rule, an at-will employee may be terminated at any time and for any reason,” the July 25 response read.
“The record here is clear,” Daniels wrote. “The Defendants did not succumb to pressure by the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners to retaliate against Plaintiff for running as a Democratic candidate in Ottawa County.”
However, emails obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request provided July 10 from MSU seemingly confirmed that at least Moss made the request of Extension to move Kleinjans out of the county in December.
Read more: Emails: Ottawa Board Chair requested political rival's employment be reassigned
“Our Extension leadership and university counsel reviewed your request to have us relocate Christian, and have determined that we are unable to implement requests that would violate an employee's rights to participate in political activities outside of their workdays and hours,” Kelly wrote in an email to Moss on Jan. 5, indicating a second meeting took place after the initial Dec. 7 meeting when the request was first made.
Moss, in a subsequent email Dec. 15, told Kelly and Korpak: “You mentioned wanting to better understand the types of information one of your employees was posting publicly on social media. You state that your team at MSU Extension are strictly non-political, and do not use their position of authority for personal or political reasons.”
He goes on to write in the email that several of Kleinjans’ social media posts around in December 2023 were “false and inflammatory” because they said, among other things that “children in District 2 are going to go hungry bc (sic) Ottawa Food will be eliminated” and that “District 2 families that are struggling will lose access to dental care for their children.”
The comments reference Ottawa Food — a collaboration of over 45 local agencies and individuals that exists to ensure all Ottawa County residents have access to healthy, local and affordable food choices — announcing in November 2023 it was suspending operations after the board made deep cuts to the county’s public health department.
At the time, Kleinjans was a member of the Ottawa Food Advisory Board and was listed as the media contact for the November announcement.
Moss has insisted the funding was there, despite Administrative Health Officer Adeline Hambley saying the cuts would lead to the potential demise of the food collective.
“The board was abundantly clear, the Ottawa Food program should continue, and be a priority,” Moss wrote to Kelly and Korpak on Dec. 15.
In March, Ottawa Food also suspended Senior Project Fresh, a popular service that helps older adults eat healthier as they age. Normal operations have still not resumed to date.
— Contact Sarah Leach at SentinelLeach@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @SentinelLeach. Subscribe to her content at sentinelleach.substack.com.
It seems like MSU is claiming that what was said on the tapes was not said, but if it was, it doesn't matter. They may be correct in their conclusion because of at-will employment, but it's difficult to see how the tapes don't implicate MSU as a major part of this fiasco. I just hope voters understand that once again Joe Moss and Ottawa Impact are creating problems rather than solving them.
MSU is just trying to remain as neutral as possible, and maintaining what county programs it can, where it can. They know that OI is being belligerent in wanting certain outcomes to suit their (OI's ) needs, but is also following the law, even if OI isn't. Chris just made a locality problem, with what his career (at the time) was dealing with, a more personal one, and stepped into the politics ring. By doing so, he lost his job. The loss of his main job is quite unfortunate, and it didn't have to be, nor shouldn't be the consequence of wanting to fix extremist politics. But if colleges are to remain a neutral ground in preserving their community programs, and dealing with certain aspects of dirty politics, they have to distance themselves from it if they're able to. And they did, at the expense of Chris' job.
Ottawa Impact's christian nationalism is deplorable in every regard. Please vote them out.