House Oversight Committee member Jack O’Malley, of Lake Ann, today issued the following statement after the committee heard testimony from former Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon. The committee subpoenaed Gordon to speak on a $155,000 payment as part of a separation agreement following his resignation from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration. The agreement originally included a non-disclosure provision, but it was later scuttled amid public outcry:

“The House Oversight Committee raised a very real constitutional question on top of the many existing questions regarding how Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has made decisions in response to COVID-19.

“Article 11, section 3 of the Michigan Constitution is clear. I invite anyone to go and read it. They’ll find that someone in the former director’s capacity can’t receive these types of payments after their employment has ended if it’s apparent there are no claims against the state. Mr. Gordon readily admitted today that he has no intention of filing suit against the state and wants to move on with his life. He received over $150,000 in taxpayer money roughly a month after leaving the administration anyway.

“I hope the Attorney General can explain why the state did this given what we heard today. The governor already has made one constitutional blunder during this crisis when she extended a state of emergency without approval from the Legislature – citing a 1945 emergency powers law which was found to be unconstitutional. As a member of the Legislature and the Oversight Committee, it’s important to me to ensure that state spending is done effectively and efficiently. It is one of the top concerns I hear about in northern Michigan.

“People are also very concerned about how the governor’s decisions have impacted lives and livelihoods over the past year. Mr. Gordon said he poured himself into this responsibility. We learned that his reward for making recommendations to the governor as a health expert was being coldly discarded out of the blue in a conference call. This information continues a troubling trend we’ve seen of the governor thinking she knows best and following her own inclinations instead of science, data and logic.”