D2 / SUNDAY, MAY 8, 2016 / THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
All the governor’s men AS FLINT WAS SLOWLY POISONED, SNYDER’S INNER CIRCLE FAILED TO ACT By Julie Mack, Ron Fonger and John Counts
the people of Flint to consume undrinkable water for so long. MLive.com Red flags were being waved furiously at year ago, Gov. Rick Snyder the highest level for a year before Snyder was stoking rumors of a presitook action, as Snyder’s top aides — includdential bid as a metrics-driven ing his chief of staff and his legal counsel Republican whose ability to run — expressed concern to the governor about government like a business transFlint water quality reports. formed a troubled state. “If they weren’t passing along those But the leadership style so lauded a year assessments to the governor, that’s a huge ago — the emphasis on problem-solving problem,” said Eric Rothstein, a member of over politics, the laser-like focus on the botthe Snyder-appointed Flint Water Advisory tom line, the reliance on emergency finanTask Force. “But, if they were passing along cial managers to whip troubled cities into those assessments and the governor wasn’t shape — has proven to be his undoing. taking action, that’s a huge problem, too.” Now, he is viewed as the person ultiSnyder declined requests to be intermately responsible for one of the nation’s viewed for this story, but his spokesman Ari biggest public-health disasters in memory Adler submitted written answers to ques— the lead contamination of a water system tions from MLive. serving 100,000 people, and a possible link “The Governor isn’t going to get into between the water system and an outbreak Gov. Rick Snyder playing what-ifs on what staff could have of Legionnaire’s disease that killed 12 peo(Neil Blake | MLive.com) or should have told him,” Adler wrote. “His ple. focus is on fixing the problems in Flint and Snyder has apologized repeatedly for the It has never been fully explained how cru- on changing direction on how we are doing crisis and has vowed to fix Flint. But, to this things in state government, all the way up day, he and his administration push a story- cial information didn’t reach the governor, to the Executive Office.” or why the Snyder administration allowed line that diminishes their role.
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DEFLECTING BLAME
A team of MLive reporters conducted an investigation reviewing thousands of emails and other documents and interviewing numerous key players in an attempt to get to the bottom of what exactly happened in Flint. That investigation shows the water crisis was an unintended consequence of the state’s takeover of Flint in 2011, after which a series of four emergency managers were given near-dictatorial powers so they could cut the city’s budget and bring the books in line. Among the cost-saving measures: Change the city’s water supply and do it on the cheap. Snyder was aware by fall 2014 that using the Flint River for the city’s water was causing serious water-quality issues. But, for the next 12 months, he and his administration saw fixing Flint’s finances as the higher priority. In explaining the decision to continue using the Flint River for drinking water until October 2015, the governor said he was relying on DEQ’s false assurances that the water was safe. That was despite growing evidence to the contrary in the months leading up to Snyder’s acknowledgement of widespread lead contamination. The MLive investigation also found many of Snyder’s claims downplaying his administration’s role in the crisis are contradicted by the facts. • “This was never about money,” Snyder tweeted on March 6. From Day One, the decision to switch Flint’s water supply was to cut costs. Once it was clear the new drinking water had serious problems, state officials wouldn’t switch back to buying water from Detroit because of finances. • “You have a handful of quote-unquote experts who were career service people that made terrible decisions,” Snyder said during a Jan. 22 interview with MSNBC. Snyder has repeatedly blamed the crisis on Michigan
“It’s sort of a single dimension for decision-making — thinking that, if it can’t be solved on a spreadsheet, it can’t be solved,” said Schornack, who was Snyder’s senior transportation advisor for three years. “The people of Flint got stuck on the losing end of decisions driven by spreadsheets instead of water quality and public health.” Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, a Democrat who lives in Flint, said Snyder doesn’t see himself as a part of state government; he views state government as something he is fixing. “If it’s not something he wants to hear, he says, ‘It’s not on my agenda,’” Ananich said. He isn’t alone in perceiving Snyder as too insular. The governor-appointed Flint Water Advisory Task Force report, released last month, offered a similar criticism. Snyder “seems to have managed the communication Flint resident Gladyes Williamson holds a jug of her discolored tap water, a bag containing hair lost after between cabinet officials and she began drinking tap water that originated in the Flint River and a sign calling for Gov. Rick Snyder’s resig- him in a way that he gets very nation April 25, 2016, in front of City Hall in downtown Flint. She joined more than 50 people who showed limited information,” said Ken their disdain on the two-year anniversary of the switch to the Flint River as the source of the city’s drinking Sikkema, task force co-chairman water. (Jake May | MLive.com) and a Republican who was Michigan Senate majority leader Department of Environmental and EPA do not change — and government. from 2002-06. Quality civil servants, two of if the dumb and dangerous fedThe people of Michigan bought For instance, instead of reguwhom now face criminal charges eral lead and copper rule is not into his message — twice — lar meetings with his full cabinet, for their alleged role in the crichanged — then this tragedy will electing him governor in 2010 Snyder organized his cabinet sis. But Snyder’s defense belies befall other American cities,” and again in 2014. into subgroups called “rivers the fact that his inner circle was Snyder said in his March 17 testiTaking office on the heels of of opportunity” and meets with deeply involved in the decision mony before Congress. the Great Recession, the venture only a few department heads at to switch Flint’s water source Snyder and members of his capitalist and former president of a time. and were well aware of problems administration have suggested Gateway computers touted himThat may be a more efficient with water quality long before it numerous times the Flint water self as “one tough nerd,” a probway of driving a proactive became a national scandal. crisis could happen in any city lem solver who would rise above agenda but, “in a crisis, it doesn’t • “This was a failure of govwith aging infrastructure. partisan politics. He preached work as well, and you’re not ernment at all levels,” Snyder While aging infrastructure about measurable outcomes, going to get the same quality of said in the March 6 tweet. is certainly a problem, this dashboards and the philosophy information,” said John Truscott, While mistakes were made was a preventable crisis — one of Relentless Positive Action. president of Truscott Rossman by local and federal employees, that could have been avoided Snyder is known around the public-relations firm and a top the Flint water crisis occurred if the DEQ had followed the capital as an introvert more com- aide for Engler. because of decisions by the federal Lead and Copper Rule fortable analyzing a spreadsheet It wasn’t just the governor’s Snyder administration. It was his and required proper treatment than chatting up colleagues. management style, some of his governing priorities, his emerof Flint River water at a cost of Dennis Schornack, a former policies helped fuel the crisis. gency managers and his state about $80 per day. Snyder aide who also served The Flint task force’s report employees who made the deciunder Gov. John Engler, told the specifically cited Snyder’s use sions that resulted in the poison- CULTURE IS THE ‘CULPRIT’ Detroit Free Press in February of emergency managers and a ing of Flint. Snyder, 57, an accountant by that Snyder is “basically a good problematic culture within the • “There are many communitraining who had never held guy,” but tends to be tone-deaf to DEQ. ties with potentially dangerous public office, promised to bring problems that defy a cost-benefit CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 lead problems. And if the DEQ bottom-line, corporate culture to analysis.
FLINT WATER CRISIS TIMELINE Jan 1, 2011: Rick Snyder sworn in as governor. July 2011: Rowe Engineering completes an analysis of the Flint River as a permanent water supply for the city of Flint. Commissioned in advance of Snyder’s declaration of a financial emergency in the city, the report concludes the most cost-effective drinking water option is for Flint to join a water authority to build a new pipeline to Lake Huron. The river has been a backup water source for five decades while Flint
purchased pre-treated lake water from the city of Detroit. November 29, 2011: Snyder appoints Michael Brown as Flint’s emergency manager, the second time the state has assumed control of the city’s finances in less than a decade. 2012: Brown and his replacement, Wyant Ed Kurtz, consider joining the Karegnondi Water Authority, which will draw water from Lake Huron.
February-March 2013: Officials at the highest levels of state government — the Department of Treasury and Governor’s Office — correspond about Flint joining the KWA. DEQ director Dan Wyant writes to Treasurer Andy Dillon, warning of the potential for elevated levels of total trihalomethanes (TTHM) if the Flint River is used for drinking water. Officials press forward with the idea, even though one report advises
the city to stay on Detroit water. Detroit gets an emergency manager. March 25, 2013: Despite having been stripped of its power because of the state’s emergency manager law, the Flint City Council votes 7-1 to join the KWA. Late March-April 2013: Snyder fails to negotiate a deal between Detroit and Flint, one of its biggest water customers, according to Dillon. Kurtz asks Dillon to sign off on Flint joining the KWA.