Further Thoughts of the January 28, 2025, Board of Commissioners Meeting

Further thoughts I shared Tuesday evening about the unnecessary and divisive graphs that were added to the January 28 Board packet regarding 2025 Committee Assignments:

Graphs labeling majority and minority under Board Assignments

I have a few thoughts I’d like to share about the graphs that were put in our packet today under this section.

In our past rough draft of Board Rules on January 7 that were brought to this Board from Chair Teeples, one of the items John brought forward to us from his perspective is “We must be open and receptive to changing preconceived opinions based on what we hear, observe and learn.” Additionally, he stated that “Pre-set voting blocks are a breach of our fiduciary duties to listen, learn and independently assess”. And a third point he made was “Ostracizing particular Members is an affront to the portion of the County that has elected them and will not be tolerated.”

In front of us today, we now have graphs that label us into groups of a majority and minority. It doesn’t take long to analyze who the 4 are in the minority. It is Commissioners Joe Moss, Sylvia Rhodea, Kendra Wenzel and myself, the four courageous conservative parents that ran for office, abolished DEI and stopped the woke agenda that was being promoted in Ottawa county government. It is very interesting that this graph doesn’t fall along party lines, which would be the exact opposite way that government and politics have been designed.

Our elected positions are partisan ones – each of us ran with either an R for Republican behind our names or a D for Democrat.

We have a very big problem in our county and state for fair elections due to an open primary.

Many people are simply living their lives, caring for their children, going to work and do not realize that when we run for office, that there is no litmus test you need to prove that you are a Republican or a Democrat. You simply gather a certain number of signatures or pay $100 to have your name on the ballot. That’s it.

The people deserve to better understand who they are voting for, so they can know if their values and thoughts about local government align with someone running for elected office. I am transparent about who I am and is a large reason why I signed the Contract with Ottawa. It is my promise to the people on what I will stand for as a Republican and also be willing to stand in the gap against. It can be found on Ottawa Impact’s website.

In some ways, while I was disappointed due to the hypocrisy, I was also thankful to see this graph.

This graph sends a transparent visual to our community about what is happening here locally. Much like Trump, lawfare, lies and distorted facts from the media, working in tandem with certain elected officials were waged against the true conservative Republican majority from 2022-December 2024.

There may be a few of you on this board and many in the community that recognize what is happening. I invite further conversations with you. Take the time to test the assumptions you have made about some of us. Test your questions about what you thought you knew from others who had your ear or from watching the news. Dare to be curious.

I’m honored to be considered a minority on this current board and an America First Trump majority Republican which I believe is consistent with the values of the people in our county.”

In the picture is one of the graphs used in the Board packet. In the comments below, I’ll post another graph interpretation that someone created to further help explain the division intended in the packet.