{"id":21141,"date":"2016-02-26T09:40:21","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T17:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=21141"},"modified":"2016-02-26T09:40:21","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T17:40:21","slug":"rick-snyders-staff-knew-about-flint-water-crisis-by-october-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=21141","title":{"rendered":"Rick Snyder’s Staff Knew About Flint Water Crisis By October 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"michigan-gov-rick-snyder\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As far back as October 2014, Rick Snyder’s staff:<\/p>\n

1) Knew that Flint’s water was an urgent crisis.<\/p>\n

2) Said the decision was made by the Snyder-appointed emergency manager, contrary to what Synder<\/a> and other Republicans have claimed.<\/p>\n

3) Actively worked to hide Flint’s water crisis (or at least, that they knew about the crisis) from the public.<\/p>\n

(Emphasis added by me.)<\/p>\n

Valerie Brader, deputy legal<\/a> counsel and senior policy adviser to Snyder, wrote in a 14 October 2014 email to the governor\u2019s then chief of staff and three aides that Flint should return to the previous water supplier, as it was an \u201curgent matter to fix\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know there have been problems with the Flint water quality since they left the DWSD [Detroit water and sewerage department], which was a decision by the emergency manager there,<\/strong>\u201d Brader wrote.<\/p>\n

Minutes later, Snyder\u2019s then legal counsel Michael Gadola responded by saying the use of the Flint river as a water supplier was \u201cdownright scary\u201d<\/strong>. Flint had switched water sources as a purported cost-saving measure until a new pipeline it planned to join was in operation.<\/p>\n

…Brader, it appears, specifically took steps to circumvent Michigan\u2019s FOIA law.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPS Note: I have not copied DEQ on this message for FOIA reasons,\u201d she wrote of the state department of environmental quality, which is subject to public records requests.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s then chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore, told the Detroit News that several advisers in Snyder\u2019s office advocated for switching Flint back to Lake Huron water because \u201cpeople didn\u2019t have any faith in the water system at the time\u201d.<\/p>\n

But such a move \u2013 later pegged at $12m when Snyder authorized the switch back \u2013 was deemed too costly at the time<\/strong>, he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Michigan activist Lonnie Scott sums it up: <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reasonable person who can believe at this point that every adviser to Rick Snyder knew that there was an issue [in Flint], but Snyder knew nothing,\u201d said Lonnie Scott, executive director of liberal advocacy group Progress Michigan, in a statement. \u201cAt worst, he\u2019s been lying all along and at best he\u2019s the worst manager on the planet. Under either scenario he\u2019s clearly unfit to lead our state and should resign immediately.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Via<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As far back as October 2014, Rick Snyder’s staff: 1) Knew that Flint’s water was an urgent crisis. 2) Said the decision was made by the Snyder-appointed emergency manager, contrary to what Synder and other Republicans have claimed. 3) Actively … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservative-zaniness-right-wingers-etc","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21143,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21141\/revisions\/21143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}