JimEverett
More than 15K posts served!
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2001
- Messages
- 24,977
- Reaction score
- 7,842
Offline
When I first heard "Emergency Manager" I thought it was equivalent to hurricane prep officials or such. Maybe that's what has you confused.
Wiki (sorry) but you can confirm through links. This supports everything written by the people of Flint blogging/tweeting. (No idea what is being reported on TV.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_emergency_in_Michigan#Public_Act_4_of_2011
What's really sad and scary is the people of Michigan (rich poor black white urban farmers) voted to repeal this draconian concept...and boom, the state legislature enacted a stronger version which is not subject to voter action. Incredible.
The vote to switch to the regional water authority was made in March 2012. In March, 2012 the powers of the Council were restored. Judge: State violated law in appointing Flint emergency manager; Powers of mayor, city council reinstated | MLive.com
Not sure about the exact dates because I cannot find them. So maybe the COuncil had full power at the time of the vote or maybe they did not. Regardless, it seems more than mere coincidence that the Council votes and then shortly thereafter the State Treasurer approves the ordinance/request of the Council under the EM law.
But I wonder, also, why it matters. The Flint City Council voted 7-1 to switch water sources, and the mayor approved it. No doubt that the Emergency Manager and the State Treasurer had to approve it - but, as I wrote earlier - its functionally the same. Flint's elected representatives voted to switch.
More to the point that started my questioning - that was the trigger appears to have started the problem. Not, as so many seem to report, that the State wanted to save a few million dollars so they poisoned Flints residents.