Ex-Detroit official reignites Flint water switch tiff

[SpartanDem]

Source: Detroit News

A former Detroit water official is reigniting a controversy about whether Flint could have saved money by staying with Detroit’s system and avoided a switch that eventually led to contaminated water in the Genesee County community.

While under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager in 2013, Flint rejected an offer to remain with Detroit’s water system that could have saved an estimated $800 million over the life of a 30-year contract, said Bill Johnson, former public affairs director for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

Critics say that decision led to Flint joining a new regional authority and put the city on course to draw water from the Flint River — a move that eventually resulted in lead contamination issues.

But supporters of the new regional body — the Karegnondi Water Authority — reject that version of events and say it represents the kind of public relations battles waged three years ago between officials in Genesee County and Metro Detroit. They stress that the decision to break from the Detroit water system was separate from the later choice of tapping the Flint River as a temporary water source.

Read more: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/01/26/ex-detroit-official-reignites-flint-water-switch-tiff/79379770/

[rladdi]

1. If anyone knows anything about the power of an Emergency Manager, they know the EM has

total power over the community. They are the dictator of that community. People lose all power and their voices. If you review what Emergency Managers have done in other communities in Michigan, they sold assets. They sold public parks to private concerns. In one case they sold a public park along Lake Michigan, a park that was willed to the city. The purchasers made it a golf resort. Usually the EM has an interested in these dealing also. So when Gov. Snyder said the local officials made the decision to turn on the Flint river for water, he is LYING. The EM and Snyder made that decision, it was not the local officials.
Snyder has used the Emergency Manager several times in MICH. IN most cases the final outcome was not good. Snyder never tried to save a community, but drained it of its funds and then took over with an EM.

[StevieM]

3. K&R. Snyder is a liar. And I'm glad you talked about selling the public lands.

It may seem like an unrelated issue, but it's not. It highlights how ruthless Snyder was in pursuing his agenda.

[Freelancer]

2. Compared to poisoning a whole city, Blagojevich did nothing. Why isn't this Mich Gov. in jail? -- nt