Former Michigan health director acknowledges disagreements with Whitmer before resignation
Updated Apr 29, 2021;
Posted Apr 29, 2021
Robert Gordon, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, is pictured on June 26, 2019. The MDHHS ordered a three-week ban on all in-person dining, as well as some other activities, starting Nov. 18. (Emily Lawler | MLive.com)Emily Lawler | MLive.com
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Former Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon testified before a state House committee Thursday that he and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer disagreed on decisions regarding “gray areas” of science surrounding coronavirus precautions before his resignation.
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Gordon to speak in a April 29 hearing after he declined to come before the committee voluntarily. Gordon abruptly resigned in February following an executive order to allow a resumption of indoor dining at restricted capacities.
Robert Gordon: Whitmer told me it was time for a new direction
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Lansing Robert Gordon, Michigan s former health director who abruptly resigned on Jan. 22, said he made the decision after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told him it was time to go in a new direction.
Gordon revealed the comment at the beginning of a Thursday morning state House Oversight Committee hearing. The Republican-controlled panel subpoenaed Gordon last week to appear before the panel. GOP lawmakers voiced concerns that the $155,606 separation agreement Whitmer s administration reached with Gordon violated a constitutional provision barring extra compensation paid to any public officer after the person s service has been rendered.
Whitmer dropped off the call before her Chief Legal Counsel Mark Totten “offered me an opportunity to resign, and I did,” Gordon testified. “I think (Totten) mentioned on the phone call that he would give me the name of an attorney who would tell me more about the possibility of an executive severance agreement.”
Republican lawmakers have blasted the resulting severance agreement as “hush money” because it included a confidentiality clause that Whitmer and Gordon later agreed to waive amid scrutiny.
Committee Chair Steven Johnson, R-Wayland, said Thursday he thinks the agreement is illegal because a provision in the Michigan Constitution prohibits “extra compensation to any public officer, agent or contractor after the service has been rendered.”
Gordon says he resigned after Whitmer told him it was time to go in a new direction.
By David Eggert
Robert Gordon spoke Thursday about his resignation as the Michigan health director.
LANSING, Mich. - Michigan s former health director said Thursday that he resigned in January after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told him it was time to go in a new direction.
Robert Gordon s statement to a legislative committee confirmed what the governor s office had refused to say publicly despite his $155,000 severance deal that he was ousted after two years on the job. Gordon, with Whitmer s support, issued COVID-19 restrictions in the fall and winter after the state Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a law that underpinned her orders.
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