OLIVE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Ottawa County Administrator John Gibbs has hired a senior executive aide with connections to far-right politicians, The Holland Sentinel reports.

Twenty-three-year-old Jordan Epperson, of China Township, will start Aug. 21, The Sentinel reported Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Gibbs told commissioners he had made a hire but would not name the person, saying he didn’t “want it to be a public spectacle,” according to The Sentinel.

Several county officials, who were given anonymity, told The Sentinel that Epperson had been hired for the newly-created position.

The Sentinel reported that Epperson was previously a legislative aide to state Rep. Neil Friske, a far-right Republican from Charlevoix.

According to The Sentinel, Epperson also has connections to other far-right Michigan Republicans — including Meshawn Maddock, who is facing “fake elector” charges, and Joel Studebaker, chief of staff for Michigan GOP Chair Kristina Karamo.

Based on social media, The Sentinel reported that Epperson had recently graduated from Michigan State University and had graduated from Algonac High School in 2018.

In March, the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners approved about $37,000 more per year to upgrade the executive assistant position to that of senior executive aide. Gibbs had requested the upgrade, saying he had an increased workload.

Ottawa County Commissioner Doug Zylstra, the sole Democrat on the board, posted on social media Wednesday that although Epperson “has not officially been introduced to the Board,” Epperson’s “extensive political work” seemed to represent a deviation from the customary role of the assistant as “an apolitical assistant to the Administrator and the Board.”

Zylstra also wrote that Epperson “would also, from all appearances, not fulfill many of the criteria that the Board majority deemed part of the new position of Senior Executive Aide when it approved the position, and the pay increase, back in March.”