Nothing on Governor Snyder and Flint?

[Michchamp]

LOL, Ned Cruz is a freak.

 

[Spartanmack]

The Detroit News article I listed above pretty clearly indicates that the final decision to break off from DWSD ran through Dillon's office. There's essentially no local control under PA 436 (only to the extent that the State allows it).



And is there any evidence showing it was the consensus decision by the elected officials of Flint? The directive to draw from the Flint River and the notification to DWSD that Flint intended to draw from the Flint River both came directly from Kurtz and Earley, respectively.

http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.ne...ion.pdf?_ga=1.129405580.1036207224.1446746452

http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.ne...ter.pdf?_ga=1.224901786.1036207224.1446746452

There's no doubt there's TONS of blame to go around here--I've posted somewhere previously (maybe early in this thread?) about the previous mayor's eventual endorsement of the project based on stories I've heard from his staffers, but you're fooling yourself if you think this was solely (much less largely) a decision made by local elected officials. That's not how Emergency Financial Management works around these parts.

Yes, Earley said the decision had been made before he took office and it was a consensus decision of the City Council. I think everyone's belief that the City Council is completely powerless and has no input into the decision and therefore no responsibility is nonsense. Even with the Emergency Manager in place, the Council is still involved in the process - are they just getting paid to do nothing? It's only the partisan hacks that want to believe the EM (both Brown and Earley were Democrats, by the way) comes in like some hard ass new sheriff and just starts making decisions entirely on his own is being naive. Again, I'm not arguing that mistakes weren't made at the State level. What I'm saying is, trying to pin this on one person is ridiculous.

 

[Michchamp]

Yes, Earley said the decision had been made before he took office and it was a consensus decision of the City Council. I think everyone's belief that the City Council is completely powerless and has no input into the decision and therefore no responsibility is nonsense. Even with the Emergency Manager in place, the Council is still involved in the process - are they just getting paid to do nothing? It's only the partisan hacks that want to believe the EM (both Brown and Earley were Democrats, by the way) comes in like some hard ass new sheriff and just starts making decisions entirely on his own is being naive. Again, I'm not arguing that mistakes weren't made at the State level. What I'm saying is, trying to pin this on one person is ridiculous.

it's not a "belief" the city council is powerless, it's what the LAW says, dumbass.

 

[Gulo Blue]

We should go hand out water, but just to Michigan fans. That would look good.

No. Harbaugh should do it. Even better.

 

[Sbee]

We should go hand out water, but just to Michigan fans. That would look good.

No. Harbaugh should do it. Even better.

I think he should give water out to people and they can drink it in two weeks as long as he doesn't find someone he'd rather give it to in the meantime.

 

[Michchamp]

We should go hand out water, but just to Michigan fans. That would look good.

No. Harbaugh should do it. Even better.

no, because then asshole MSU fans would show up, call them "walmart wolverines" and mock them for being poor. They've suffered enough.

 

[Spartanmack]

We already have big government. This is one of the things they should be doing. And of course I mean they should bid the work out to private companies.

yes, we have MASSIVE government, and look at how effective it is...how many rivers did the EPA poison in Colorado last year? And now it comes out that the EPA knew about the Flint problem for months but did nothing and told no one...

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/01/19/epa-flint-water/79022506/

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/ne...-stayed-silent-flints-tainted-water/78719620/

These federal agencies are just as feckless as the state and local officials and it's seems clear they've all contributed to the mess that Flint is in. But maybe if scapegoat someone from a political party that we hate then raise taxes and throw MORE money at them, they'll get it right.

 

[Spartanmack]

it's not a "belief" the city council is powerless, it's what the LAW says, dumbass.

No, dumbass the law doesn't say that. It says the EM has the authority to remove elected officials, can reduce pay, outsource work, reorganize departments, etc. But that's not what was done here dumbass. Flint was under EM and the Council was still voting to approve the KWA, dumbass. Are you such a dumbass that you think the EM has the ability to run an entire city on his own? You don't need to answer that - I already know.

 

[Michchamp]

Daily Beast has an article out that's interesting (link).

so they uncovered a deposition from an unrelated lawsuit that reveals the prior (circa 2012) emergency manager for Flint (Kurtz) nixed the use of the Flint River as a source of water for the city after the Mich DEQ said it was too polluted.

later under Earley they rammed it through, with a statement from the powerless Flint public works head saying this came straight from the governor's office.

in a related note: Earley has moved on to oversee the Detroit Public Schools which have gotten worse under his watch and is now beset by teacher "sick outs" and protests over unsafe working conditions.

The MO of the whole Emergency Manager scam seems to be this: target impverished areas struggling to pay taxes to maintain existing infrastructure due to industry moving out and residents departing, decimating tax revenues (ie Flint, Detroit, Muskegon Heights). The people left in these areas are exactly the type of people you can push around: poor, less educated, unaware of how to petition government/complain, etc. And as I mentioned elsewhere in this thread these areas are typically majority African American leading them to have even less sympathy with other populations of the state.

step 2 is PR blitz funded by a consortium of investment banks, consultants, law firms, and political groups (mostly GOP), aimed at further denigrating these areas and insisting drastic measures must be taken to "rescue" them.

step 3 is the Emergency Manager law, allowing a Snyder appointee to circumvent the democratic process, existing vendor contracts, labor agreements, etc, cut services to a bare minimum without regard for the health, safety, and welfare of the poor people still there, and hand new contracts to the firms that funded the PR blitz I described in Phase 2. these contracts are especially profitable because they can basically just collect tax revenues without having to provide shit or be accountable to the voters of the area.

yay... freedom?

 

[Gulo Blue]

Don't know how reliable the Daily Beast is, but this is pretty damning. Claims the 1st emergency manager rejected the plan to use the Flint River and the decision came from the governor's office.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...nally-rejected-using-flint-s-toxic-river.html

edit: watching the video, there's enough editing to not be 100% sure that's what he's actually saying. He said decisions went all the way to the governor's office "once the contract was terminated."

it's near the 3 minute mark

 

[Michchamp]

sounds like Snyder just fired either his 4th or 5th separate PR Firm over their inability to spin his involvement in this disaster so that he can walk away from it.

I'm sure if you're a Michigan taxpayer, you're just thrilled by all this responsible fiscal decision making..