OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — Ottawa County will not pay a 4 million dollar settlement to embattled health director Adeline Hambley. This comes after a judge ordered an evidentiary hearing to take place behind closed doors in the Adeline Hambley hearing on Friday.
According to Hambley's attorney, Sarah Howard, the judge decided not to enforce the settlement payment after testimony from Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck. The judge says while the board members intended to agree to pay that settlement, they were not specific enough in their motion to ratify that decision.
Howard says she not only disagrees with the judge's final ruling, but she disagrees with the decision for testimony to be behind closed doors, as well.
"We think the public has a right to know, we think the defendants really need to subject themselves to public testimony here," says Howard. "By continuing to oppose it, I don't think that instills public trust. But, you know, we are where we are. And I understand the judge's decision, even if I disagree with it."
On the other side of the ruling, Ottawa County's attorney David Kallman says the closed-doors hearing couldn't be avoided.
"I've said repeatedly, it's not because we don't want information out there or we don't want somebody to be heard, we do," says Kallman. "But there are laws that we're bound by and the board is bound by, and we can't make those kinds of disclosures. We just can't, not without proper, you know, court decisions and things like that. And so we're very pleased with the judge's ruling. And this $4 million thing is gone now, as it should have been way back when."
The hearing was a continuation of Hambley's efforts to get 14th Circuit Court Judge Jenny McNeill to enforce what Hambley says was a final settlement agreement with the county for $4 million in exchange for her resignation.
Judge McNeill opened the hearing by denying a motion from Ottawa County lawyers to adjourn the evidentiary hearing. Lawyers for the county then asked for an adjournment so they could appeal the case, which was also denied.
Shortly after the motion and appeal was denied, Judge McNeill granted a motion for a closed hearing.
Ottawa County lawyers argued that the hearing would use meeting minutes from an Ottawa County Board of Commissioners closed door meeting, which was not allowed to be shared with the public. They argued that because of this, the hearing needed to be closed and the records of the hearing sealed.
Judge McNeill then ordered the public and the media to leave the courtroom while they prepared to go back on the record with the closed hearing.
Hambley's argument stems from the board's Nov. 6 meeting, in which, after hours of discussions behind closed doors, commissioners voted publicly, 7-3, to accept their counsel's "recommendation on litigation and settlement activities" with Hambley.
Hambley's attorney has said she believes that vote was an acceptance of the $4 million agreement.
The county's lawyers, however, have argued that the vote did not equate to a final agreement on any settlement.
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