Can this Michigan county, deeply divided on politics and policy, reach a truce?

Adeline Hambley’s employees at a county health department in Michigan saw her as their protection from political interference by conservative Christians on the county board. Then the board offered her $4 million to quit.

December 23, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EST

Adeline Hambley has been the health officer in Ottawa County, Mich., since December 2022. Shortly after her appointment, new conservative members of the county board began an effort to remove her. (Kristen Norman for The Washington Post)

WEST OLIVE, Mich. — All year, the new conservative Christian majority on the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners had been searching for a way to get rid of Adeline Hambley, who ran the west Michigan county’s health department. It wasn’t as easy as it seemed.

They had discussed firing Hambley, whom they saw as an instrument of government tyranny. But her job came with protections, written into state law, that were intended to insulate her from political influence or retribution.

They had proposed paying Hambley $4 million to leave. She accepted in early November. But the commissioners backed out a few days later when they learned that the payment could damage the county’s bond rating and tank its finances.

Now it was Nov. 14. The commissioners huddled with their lawyers in a windowless conference room at the county’s boxy, brick government complex. Hambley and her lawyer waited anxiously in a small room just down the hall. The two sides were stuck.

All over the country, deep partisan divisions were making it harder for American government to function and its citizens to coexist. The number of intractable disputes seemed to grow by the day: climate change, racial equity, gender-affirming care, guns, immigration, abortion. The battles were paralyzing Congress and pitting red and

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Tag: truce

Adeline Hambley’s employees at a county health department in Michigan saw her as their protection from political interference by conservative Christians on the county board. Then the board offered her $4 million to quit.