Judge rejects Kleinjans’ request to be reinstated to post with MSU Extension
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LANSING — Ottawa County’s newest commissioner was denied his request to be reinstated to his job after he claimed Michigan State University Extension fired him over political pressure exerted by far-right group Ottawa Impact, which holds a majority on the board.
On Friday, Aug. 9, an evidentiary hearing took place in Michigan’s U.S. Western District Court in Lansing. During proceedings, Chris Kleinjans testified that he was fired from Extension because Ottawa Impact’s founder and president, Joe Moss — who also is chair of the county board — threatened Extension’s contract in December with the county if the school didn’t fire Kleinjans or transfer him to another county.
Chris Kleinjans filed the lawsuit June 21, claiming through his attorney, Sarah Riley-Howard, that Extension violated his First Amendment Rights after giving him an ultimatum after he defeated OI Republican Lucy Ebel in a special recall election May 7. The choice was to take an unpaid leave through the remainder of the year or face termination.
On Aug. 9, Kleinjans and two of three MSU Extension supervisors testified over what led up to Kleinjans separation from the school. The hearing’s purpose was for federal Judge Hala Y. Jarbou to consider Kleinjans’ request for a preliminary injunction to restore him back to his position and award him back pay from his June 4 separation date.
M. Scott Korpak, the new District 7 director, and Matt Shane, associate director of Extension’s field operations, had several conversations with Kleinjans from before he was a commissioner candidate to after he was elected.
Shane and Korpak are personally named in the lawsuit, along with Erin Moore, assistant director of Extension’s Health and Nutrition Institute. Moore didn’t appear for the Aug. 9 hearing, claiming an unavoidable medical appointment.
In her ruling, Jarbou noted that Ottawa County Board Chair Joe Moss, who also is the president and founder of Ottawa Impact, “began to exert pressure on MSU Extension to terminate or relocate Kleinjans. Their primary tactic was to threaten the approval of the (memorandum of understanding).”
Ottawa Impact is a far-right fundamentalist group formed in 2021 over frustrations with the county and state over COVID-19 mitigation measures.
Since taking office in January 2023, OI commissioners pushed through a series of controversial decisions, resulting in several lawsuits against the county.
After being seated, “they immediately began making … charitably speaking … aggressive decisions,” Kleinjans said in testimony Aug. 9 during an evidentiary hearing in the Western District’s courthouse in Lansing. “It was a different interpretation of freedom than what we were operating under before.”
Jarbou said it is “undisputed that the OI majority sought political retribution against Kleinjans” because of his comments about OI and involvement in the recall effort of Lucy Ebel, who he ultimately defeated in May by a 20% margin.
That all led to the “OI-affiliated commissioners to exert pressure on MSU Extension to terminate or relocate Kleinjans,” Jarbou said. Testimony on Aug. 9 by M. Scott Korpak, the new District 7 director, confirmed that during a Dec. 7 meeting he had with then-interim director James Kelly as well as Moss and OI Commissioner Allison Miedema where the commissioners “threatened” the MOU, or annually renewed contract between Extension and the county.
The issue, Jarbou wrote, is that Extension refused to grant Moss’ request and sent emails in January explaining that they couldn’t alter Kleinjans’ employment just because he was running for office.
ECF 27 – Opinion on Motion for TRO
“Had OI been successful, Kleinjans would likely have a clear-cut case for First Amendment retaliation,” Jarbou wrote. “He would certainly have shown a sufficient likelihood of success on the merits to obtain a preliminary injunction. But OI was not successful — Defendants rebuffed OI’s retaliatory effort. In other words, Defendants protected Kleinjans’s First Amendment rights in the face of pressure from OI. And Kleinjans does not show what, if anything, changed for Defendants between January and May.”
Jarbou’s ruling only pertained to Kleinjans’ request for reinstatement as a community nutritional instructor and back pay from the point he was fired, which was June 4.
“The Court … has one and only one question — whether Kleinjans has shown a substantial likelihood of success of establishing a causal connection between his political activity and his termination. The Court concludes he falls shy of that burden,” Jarbou said.
The lawsuit is now expected to proceed, as some facts are disputed — mainly what occurred during a meeting between Kleinjans and his supervisors on Dec. 5.
“According to (MSU), they communicated to him that while he was free to campaign for office, his employment would need to be re-evaluated should he win office. Kleinjans, however, testified that he was not told that he would be fired should he win office and that he cannot recall if potential conflicts of interest were discussed,” Jarbou wrote in the opinion.
Assuming the lawsuit proceeds to the discovery phase, where both parties exchange information and evidence to prepare for trial. The goal of discovery is to ensure a fair and just resolution of the dispute by preventing either party from surprising the other with new information at trial, so additional facts could not currently publicly known could come to light.
Kleinjans issued a release after the ruling, calling it “disappointing,” but said he was “confident that as the litigation process moves forward, a more complete picture will be revealed. That image will prove that my dismissal was simply an attempt by MSU Extension to avoid further pressure from certain members of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners.”
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