OTTAWA COUNTY — In at least two lawsuits filed against the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners, attorneys for the municipality waited months to place a litigation hold on essential documents, according to emails obtained by The Sentinel.

As the community awaits the Monday conclusion to a termination hearing for Health Officer Adeline Hambley, testimony and internal communications this week have revealed Ottawa County's corporation counsel took no steps in the nearly nine months since Hambley's lawsuit was filed to preserve any records pertaining to the case — until after the discrepancy became publicly known.

More: Ottawa County delays vote on termination of Adeline Hambley until Monday

On Tuesday, Oct. 24, Hambley's attorney, Sarah Riley-Howard, called Ottawa County IT Director Paul Klimas to the stand and asked him if he was ever instructed by corporation counsel Kallman Legal Group to put a litigation hold in place on the county's internal servers and systems.

A litigation hold is a notification from a legal department to employees not to delete any electronic or physical records that may pertain to current or imminent litigation.

Klimas said Tuesday he's never had a litigation hold request in his four years with the county. He said any such request would come to his department for implementation.

The county currently has four pending lawsuits filed in 2023, largely alleging misconduct by the current Ottawa Impact majority on the board. In those cases:

• Hambley sued in February over attempts to demote her. Even if Hambley is terminated on Monday, Oct. 30, her lawsuit is still active and is expected to see additional action in Muskegon County's 14th Circuit Court, where the case has been assigned.

• In March, four residents sued the board, claiming OI commissioners violated Michigan's Open Meetings Act when they made several controversial decisions during their first meeting — including the vote to "demote" Hambley. That case is awaiting oral arguments before the Michigan Court of Appeals after the residents appealed a lower court's ruling granting the board's request to dismiss the lawsuit. Briefs for arguments are due to the COA by Nov. 13.

• On Oct. 3, a Grand Haven pastor sued in federal court, claiming religious discrimination by Board Chair Joe Moss, the founder of Ottawa Impact. Rev. Jared Cramer of St. John’s Episcopal Church said Moss is using his position to "endorse a particular set of religious beliefs and exclude a particular set of religious beliefs" and therefore "is discriminating against certain religious beliefs," which is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

• On Oct. 24, a finalist for an executive aide position to County Administrator John Gibbs sued in Ottawa County's 20th Circuit Court, alleging age discrimination by Gibbs when he hired a younger candidate with fewer qualifications than the county required.

Ottawa Impact is a far-right fundamentalist group formed in 2021 in response to school mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. OI now controls a six-seat majority on the 11-member board — down since infighting caused at least one member to sever his relationship with the group. Two other conservatives on the board have publicly distanced themselves.

Howard requested the litigation hold the day she filed Hambley's lawsuit on Feb. 13, according to emails provided to The Sentinel.

"Please consider this email a formal litigation hold notice in this matter, although I presume you’ve already implemented a litigation hold given all of the events of the past few weeks," Howard wrote to Jack Jordan, the designated KLG attorney for the board.

In her email, Howard advised the county and commissioners about the "legal obligation to preserve potential discovery material. To that end, we respectfully demand that you take all necessary steps to identify, locate, and preserve potential discovery material.

"This material includes but is not limited to electronic data, such as emails, text messages, audio files, social media communications, and any other data kept in any form or on any device — whether county-owned or personal, including all commissioners’ and employees’ business and/or personal cellphones or computers, that in any way relate to or could potentially relate to this dispute."

When Howard asked Klimas about the implementation of the hold, he said, "The litigation hold would have been requested by corporate counsel of us and we would have set it aside such that it wouldn't get purged."

"And you have not been asked to do that by corporate counsel?" Howard asked.

"We have not," Klimas replied.

"The discovery that the county has not asked its IT Department to implement a litigation hold in this case was extremely concerning," Howard wrote in a statement to The Sentinel on Friday. "It almost guarantees that relevant email, text, and messaging app evidence has been lost while the county pursued its appeal of the ruling that Ms. Hambley has been the rightfully appointed health officer. We will be following up with defense counsel on this point, and pursuing it with the trial court if necessary."

In fact, not two days after that testimony, Jordan made the request to Klimas and notified the commissioners and Gibbs.

"After Ms. Howard's questioning of Paul Klimas on Tuesday, we were confused as to her line of questioning of a 'litigation hold' being placed on this litigation with the county," Jordan wrote in an email dated Thursday, Oct. 26.

Jordan blamed the error on Howard's email being sent to his "personal email account," despite listing that account on his public profile with the State Bar of Michigan for attorneys and prospective clients.

"Having said all that," Jordan continues in the Thursday email, "I immediately requested that Mr. Klimas place a 'litigation hold' now to preserve all evidence connected to this matter."

Despite the 256-day gap between Howard's notice and Jordan's action, he assured commissioners and Gibbs that it wasn't an issue.

"Mr. Klimas responded that the request was made in 'plenty of time' from the county's standpoint, but we are requesting that if you have any communications on your personal telephone, computer, or any other electronic communication device connected to this case, you preserve it."

Jordan went on to mention the OMA-related case and asked officials to preserve any records pertaining to that, despite a 232-day gap between the filing of that lawsuit and Jordan's request.

"Although the trial court dismissed the case, they have appealed the matter to the Court of Appeals," Jordan wrote. "Therefore, we request that you preserve those communications as well for this case."

When asked for comment in that case, plaintiffs' attorney Mark Brewer said he sent his own notice of litigation hold in March to four attorneys within Kallman Legal Group: David Kallman, Stephen Kallman, Jordan — at his county-issued email account — and Lanae Monera.

"On March 15, 2023, David Kallman and several of his colleagues were sent the attached litigation hold notice," Brewer wrote in a Friday statement to The Sentinel.

"This email is a formal litigation hold notice in this matter," Brewer wrote in the email. "To that end, we respectfully demand that you take all necessary steps to identify, locate, and preserve potential discovery material."

"If they have allowed any potential discovery material to be destroyed, plaintiffs will seek all available sanctions," Brewer told The Sentinel.

Gibbs gives conflicting statements

During a Sept. 26 budget hearing, the board heard Gibbs say he communicated "many times" the Ottawa Food program and funding for its director position not be cut.

"That is my directive that I have given to the health department as to not cut within the current budget we have given them," Gibbs told Vice Chair Sylvia Rhodea when she asked about the program.

"How many times have you communicated that?" Rhodea asked.

"Many times I've communicated that desire, so the (department) is aware of that," Gibbs said.

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During Hambley's termination hearing, however, Gibbs testified he did not, in fact, communicate that directive to the health department, but rather to Karen Karasinski, the county's finance director.

The only evidence entered by the county to support Gibbs' claims is one email to Karasinski dated Sept. 22 — four days before his statements to Rhodea — that says: "Please find a way to retain the Ottawa Food program and staffing based on the current proposed budget, similar to what we did with the epidemiologist position."

The funding for that third epidemiologist position was "found" by reassigning it to the health department's environmental division. Similarly, the health educator coordinating the Ottawa Food program has now been reassigned to work on health education in another area of the department, according to health officials.

Howard said the email was proof Gibbs didn't effectively communicate.

"The first time (Hambley) or I saw the email that the county produced from John Gibbs which mentioned Ottawa Food was during the hearing on Tuesday. So clearly, Mr. Gibbs had never instructed public health nor Ms. Hambley not to make cuts to Ottawa Food, contrary to what he told the board on Sept. 26."

Howard said the revelations underscore the inconsistencies in statements by OI-backed commissioners and what actually transpired in the health department's budget.

— Sarah Leach is executive editor for The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at sarah.leach@hollandsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @SentinelLeach.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Emails: County waited months to tell officials to save pertinent documents