(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/05/23) A petition to recall Lucy Ebel, the 2nd district Ottawa County commissioner, was filed on Monday by Larry Jackson, former Democratic candidate for the Michigan House of Representatives’ District 86 seat.
Jackson represents the Committee to Recall Lucy Ebel, saying she and the Ottawa Impact PAC are “too extreme for Ottawa County”.
Though Ottawa County leans conversative, petitioners cite Ebel’s ties with the PAC and moving a resolution to close the county Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Department in January after it had been established in 2018 as showing her loyalty to the PAC before the people she serves.
In February, the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners voted 6-5 passing a motion to revise the resolution that hired Adeline Hambley as the county’s administrative health officer.
The following day, the board’s attorney said the resolution that hired Hambley was written incorrectly, omitting the requirement that Hambley only be appointed if she received approval from the board. The attorney said the vote from the previous night was to correct the error.
However, Commissioners Roger Bergman and Doug Zylstra said there was no error in the resolution and another vote wasn’t needed to appoint Hambley.
The altered resolution was used to invalidate Hambley’s appointment and expedite her removal and carry out Ebel’s Jan. 3 vote to appoint Nathaniel Kelly, HVAC Safety Manager, as health officer.
According to the story from WZZM 13, Kelly has been an “outspoken critic of pandemic safety measures like masking and social distancing.”
The press release from the Committee to Recall Lucy Ebel said terminating Hambley was done without a showing of incompetence, misconduct or willful neglect of duty, and Ebel was harming her constituents, justifying an attempt to recall her from her seat.
The press release says Ebel has shown her loyalty to the PAC that helped her rather than the best interests or wishes of her constituents and has “served as a rubber stamp” to the desires of Chairperson Joe Moss.
The six members of the board associated with the PAC have revealed their intention of dismantling elements of county government that threaten them, regardless of public opinion, the press release reads.
“There’s a big idea that Latinos should automatically think a certain way, the liberal way, and in reality we have conservative values; faith, family, finance and freedom. That’s why Lucy has been diligent about voting those ideas. If they’re trying to remove Lucy, that’s removing our voice in the Latino culture,” said Cindy Amante, director of Proposito of Michigan.
Joe Spaulding, a Latino that ran against Ebel and lost in the last general election, said he is looking forward to himself and other Latinos having the ability to exercise their First Amendment right to petition the government for Ebel’s recall.
Spaulding was present at a press conference Wednesday defending Ebel’s seat. He said the event was a “run of the mill GOP gathering.”
“If these were Latinos that were showing up to tell me that I’ve got everything horribly wrong, you would hear me trembling,” Spaulding said.
During the press conference, Ebel asked the crowd to repeat two declarations:
“Jesus is Lord of Ottawa County,” the crowd orated three times. “I speak life in Ottawa County.”
