Would you like a job in Joe Moss's county government?
There's not much to it. You only need the following qualifications:
- You must be angry about COVID restrictions, masks, and vaccines. (Remember those?)
- You must agree that all news organizations are fake.
- You must be a culture warrior fighting against all traces of wokeness, including Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion initiatives.
What, you thought you actually needed relevant experience? Nope, not necessary. Joe Moss has proven over and over that he'd rather have someone that agrees with him on far-right talking points than someone who knows what they're doing. Let's take a look at the types of candidates Joe Moss is looking for.
John Gibbs, County Administrator
To be honest, John Gibbs is actually overqualified for the County Administrator position. The job he really wanted was to represent Grand Rapids and Muskegon in the U.S. House of Representatives. But Grand Rapids, that famous liberal stronghold, so utterly rejected Gibbs and his conspiracy theories, that they elected a Democrat. For the first time since the 1970s. In a landslide.
Joe Moss thought this man would be perfect for running Ottawa County, and since John Gibbs clearly has no hope of ever winning an actual election in West Michigan, he was happy to oblige. Unfortunately for Joe, Gibbs didn't like the law firm Joe personally picked to assist the county (the firm owned by his friend's uncle). According to Gibbs, this was the unpardonable sin that eventually led to Gibbs's firing. Who would have thought he'd want access to counsel that could actually answer his questions?
But if you ask Joe, it's because Gibbs was an intolerable jerk that harassed his co-workers. Perhaps we'll learn more when Gibbs's lawsuit against Moss and the county moves forward.
Nate Kelly, Administrative Health Officer
Since Ottawa County's previous Public Health officer didn't push back against Gretchen Whitmer's COVID policies enough, she had to go. The natural choice to replace her was Nate Kelly, Health & Safety Manager at an HVAC and boiler specialist company. Kelly was called out (by a Fox affiliate!!!) for spreading dangerous far-right lies about COVID, and he has the word "Health" in his job title. This made him a sparkling unicorn on Joe Moss's list of candidates. So what if this would be his first job as a public health official? Maybe he could learn the job from his staff.
Joe probably should have checked with his human resources department first. They pointed out that they wouldn't be approving Kelly's application for the role, and that the State of Michigan likely wouldn't either. It turns out that the Michigan DHHS actually does value real world experience! It should come as no surprise that the Moss administration's response was to change the rules so that they could ignore their own Human Resources Director.