By Meegan Zickus
I have spent 10 years serving on the Allendale Public Schools Board of Education. I have worked as a lawyer and taught bioethics. In those roles, I learned that the first step toward a good decision is listening to the people it will affect. On the school board, that meant weighing what students needed, what families could afford, and what our community could build together. I supported the millage that made Allendale’s first early childhood education building possible.
That is the approach I want to bring to Lansing. I want to talk with families about childcare and healthcare, with workers about the cost of housing, and with local businesses about finding people they can hire and keep. I want to find common ground on those issues, make a plan, and measure whether it helps.
Joe Moss offers a different approach. He describes himself as “100% committed to Make America Great Again,” and his campaign centers conservative principles, parental rights, local control, and reducing government. He calls his time as Ottawa County board chair a record of reform.
During Moss’s chairmanship, the board’s attempt to remove health officer Adeline Hambley became a prolonged legal dispute. The board considered a proposed $4 million payment for her resignation; the eventual agreement kept her in the job. Former county administrator John Gibbs later sued the board and Moss. These disputes consumed time and public attention that residents had every right to expect their leaders to spend on county needs.
People in the 89th District will disagree on many things. We can still ask the same practical questions: Can families afford to stay here? Can they get care when they need it? Are our schools preparing young people for good jobs? Are we planning for growth responsibly?
Those are the conversations I want to have in Lansing. I will listen, work with people who disagree with me, and keep bringing the discussion back to the problems we can solve together.
Disagreement about policy does not establish bad faith. People can have urgent concerns about different issues at the same time; working on shared problems does not make other concerns unimportant.