WEST OLIVE, Mich. — Ottawa County Commissioners have passed a resolution that publicly opposes any federal vaccine mandates that might be put in place.
At Tuesday's Board of Commissioners meeting, the members spoke passionately back and forth for more than 45 minutes about the resolution with input from the county attorney, as well.
It ultimately passed, but not unanimously.
"If the mandate comes down from the federal government, which we hope it doesn't, this resolution says that we're certainly not supportive of it," said Chairperson Roger Bergman, "but at the same time, we would not go against the federal government."
The resolution is being proposed due to statistics that some states and cities with mandates having a large number of employees quit their jobs rather than be vaccinated.
It goes on to say that Ottawa County can't afford to lose a significant number of employees, especially law enforcement officers.
"This doesn't have any teeth," said Bergman. "We're only suggesting that this not be done, and we can't do anything about it if it is done."
"We can just say that we're opposed to it, and that's what the majority of the commission did," he added.
But not all of the commission.
Four out of the 14 board members voted no on the resolution. Bergman was one of them. He said it goes against the policy the board agreed on months ago.
"The policy states that we're only going to pass resolutions that have something to do with what we can do as a commission," he explained, "and this resolution that we passed goes against that policy."
"We're voting on something to say that, just in case there is a mandate, we're opposed to it, but there currently isn't a mandate," Bergman added.
Bergman also said the resolution was not clear. Something that several other board members agreed with during the meeting.
"We should have clear expectations of a vote on a resolution," he said, "it should have a clear outcome. This does not have a clear outcome."
The resolution also stated that if and when it was passed, that the County's clerk would need to forward a copy of it to the White House and to OSHA.
You can watch Tuesday's full Board of Commissioners meeting here.
13 ON YOUR SIDE verified if Ottawa County passing resolution is legal:
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.