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Fmr. Ottawa County administrator speaks following termination from the post

John Gibbs' termination from the job came about a week after county commissioners put him on administrative leave following numerous allegations from employees.

OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — On Thursday, Ottawa County's Board of Commissioners voted to terminate the employment of their embattled and controversial administrator.

Now, he's responding.

"I would like to say it was surprising," now-former Ottawa County Administrator John Gibbs told 13 ON YOUR SIDE. "But unfortunately, it wasn't too surprising, given the direction things have been going in the past few weeks. You know, I kind of felt this was coming."

In their vote, commissioners determined Gibbs "had been dishonest, committed gross misconduct, and/or committed willful malfeasance."

It comes just about a week after the board placed Gibbs on administrative leave.

"It has seemed that John's relationship with the board has become more strained during this time period and it was around this time that I started hearing some concerns from commissioners," Board Chair Joe Moss said last week. "At first, I thought it was related to the stress of the situation, to the lawfare, to the media reports constantly sharing false narratives. However, concerns became more pronounced in December and in January and board members began to tell me they thought that the administrator had begun to disregard their direction."

After placing Gibbs on leave, Moss publicly released a letter detailing multiple complaints from county employees.

The complaints alleged that Gibbs had done things including making threats to physically harm Joe Moss and county legal counsel Jack Jordan, making disparaging comments about female commissioners and commissioners of protestant faith and creating a degrading and hostile work environment.

Many of the claims, including those aforementioned, Gibbs said are false.

"If someone doesn't want to go along with it, they come full guns against them, like me, and like they've done with others also," Gibbs said.

All commissioners voted for the measure except for commissioner Doug Zylstra.

"I voted no on the Motion to Terminate Mr. Gibbs' Contract because, while I understand there are a number of serious accusations against Mr. Gibbs, especially the allegation of threat to bodily harm Counsel Jordan, and the allegation that he made degrading remarks about some of the female commissioners, I believe we have not given the matter full due process," Zylstra wrote on the social media platform X. "I would have preferred that we carried out more investigation and then mediate our differences before taking the action we did, and was disappointed that my motion to do so failed."

Gibbs' tenure that began last year was often marked by controversy, including what some members of the public believed to be lack of transparency.

But the rapid about-face in his public relationship with many commissioners, especially given his claims he noticed problems within months of his hiring, brought up the question of why he stayed and continued his initial posture.

"Because I wanted to do what's right," Gibbs answered.

"I knew that the board didn't really have anyone among the board members who knew a lot about how the government works, about good governance, about policymaking, about budget making. So, I wanted to try to stick it out so I could provide that for them, and really work for the people of the county who I know needed that in their leadership."

Barring any potential legal action or outcomes regarding Gibbs' termination, the county will now go through the process of finding a new administrator in the coming weeks.

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