Former MSU Extension instructor and current Ottawa County commissioner Christian Kleinjans is suing three MSU Extension directors, alleging that his first amendment rights to free speech and association were violated when he was terminated from his job at MSU Extension following his victory in an Ottawa County commission recall election.
The lawsuit was filed on Jun. 21 and claims that the given reasons for Kleinjans' termination were not legitimate and a “pretext for unlawful discrimination which violates the First Amendment.”
Following the lawsuit, Kleinjans' filed a preliminary injunction.
“We've asked the court for a preliminary injunction, which means for her to order MSU to put him back to work now instead of waiting through the course of litigation,” Kleinjans' attorney Sarah Howard said.
Most recently, in a ruling on Aug. 16, the judge rejected Kleinjans' request to be reinstated to MSU Extension.
MSU Extension is a part of Michigan State University that provides educational resources to communities throughout Michigan. Before being terminated, Kleinjans worked as a nutrition educator with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education at MSU Extension in Ottawa County.
MSU Extension receives funding from Ottawa County. According to the lawsuit, “funding is provided by contracts between the County and MSU Extension, which must be approved by the Commission.”
On May 7, 2024, Kleinjans won a recall election against former commissioner Lucy Ebel.
Later he was informed by defendants Matthew Shane, associate director of MSU Extension, Michael Korpak, director of MSU Extension District 7, and Erin Moore, associate director of the MSU Extension Health and Nutrition Institute, that he was being placed on unpaid leave and that he would later be terminated if he won a full four year term come elections in November of 2024.
Kleinjans was told that his position on the commission would conflict with his role at MSU Extension.
The suit states that, in a meeting on May 23, 2024, with defendants Michael Scott Korpak, Matthew Shane and Erin Moore, Shane told Kleinjans that “being in both roles would violate a state law prohibiting the holding of more than one ‘incompatible’ public offices.”
In an interview with the State News on Jul. 29, Kleinjans said, “the defined reason…for why I was given the choices I was given relied on the Incompatible Offices Act.
“I don't agree with its application in this context, simply because that was put into the NCL for a very specific reason, which doesn't apply here,” Kleinjans said.
The suit instead alleges rather than the MSU Extension directors being concerned about Kleinjans violating the Incompatible Public Offices Act, the real reasons for his termination were based on his political membership as a Democrat, his lack of alignment with the far right, Ottawa Impact (OI) majority on the Ottawa County commission and the OI’s “intimidation of Defendants and either actual or implied threat of retaliation against MSU Extension” if they did not terminate Kleinjans.
The relief that Kleinjans is seeking through the suit include economic damages in the form of back wages, compensation for all of his non-economic damages such as suffering and stress, punitive and exemplary damages as well as costs and reasonable attorney fees.
The suit also asks that the defendants “adopt and abide by a policy of non-discrimination for outside political activities by employees on their personal time” as well as reemploying Kleinjans at MSU extension immediately.
Ottawa Impact is a far-right political action committee that was founded in 2022. Candidates endorsed and funded by OI won eight of 11 seats on the county commission in 2022, gaining a voting bloc majority.
The lawsuit alleges that following the announcement of Kleinjans' candidacy, the OI majority began attempts to punish Kleinjans through his MSU Extension employment.
“On November 17, 2023–just three days after the announcements…County Administrator John Gibbs told James Kelly, then the interim district director for MSU Extension in Ottawa County, that the contract with the Extension would not be on the Commission’s consent agenda for the next meeting,” the lawsuit stated.
After the contract was pulled from the agenda, the lawsuit alleges that defendant Moore and Kleinjans met and discussed the consequences that MSU Extension was facing as a result of Kleinjans' candidacy.
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“Moore told Plaintiff that the controlling OI Majority of the Ottawa County Commission sought vengeance and would seek to defund anyone it viewed as ‘against’ the OI Majority,” the lawsuit stated.
According to the lawsuit, “Defendant Moore was clear…that Plaintiff running for county office while working for MSU Extension was only a problem because it was in Ottawa County and would not have been a problem if it were ‘any other county.’”
The lawsuit also alleges that Moore told Kleinjans that he would have to abstain from votes related to MSU Extension and Shane assured Kleinjans that his job was not at risk.
“That's the part that I find to be almost the most hurtful,” Kleinjans said to the State News, “I was allowed to…operate under the impression that there were workable situations that would allow me to do this without being in some type of conflict.”
Moore, Shane and Korpak declined requests for an interview with the State News.
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