Michigan Governor Faces Racketeering Lawsuit Over Flint Water Crisis

[AbominableDro-Man]

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/06/flint-water-crisis-racketeering-lawsuit-governor-rick-snyder
 

A federal racketeering lawsuit by hundreds of resident in Flint, Michigan, is alleging the city’s two-year water crisis was the result of an“intentional scheme” crafted by state officials and Michigan’s governor, Rick Snyder, to balance the city’s budget.

In a press conference announcing the 17-count racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations (Rico) complaint on Wednesday, attorneys said the state of Michigan ran Flint’s day-to-day operations through an emergency manager, who prioritized balancing the city’s budget through a cost-cutting measure: switching Flint’s water source in April 2014 from Lake Huron, which serviced the city for more than 50 years, to a local river.
 

 

 

The decision, estimated at the time to save the city between $1m and $2m annually, sparked a cascade of problems for the cash-strapped city, when the state department of environmental quality didn’t require the river water to be treated with corrosion control agents, which allowed lead to leach off pipes and flow into households.

“They wanted to save money,” said attorney Chet Kern, of New York-based Bern Ripka LLP, which also represented thousands of workers in World Trade Center environmental litigation.

The potential class-action suit, which names more than 400 plaintiffs, said Michigan had the option to use “time-tested, well-honed” federal bankruptcy protections for Flint, rather than appoint an emergency manager with a mandate to balance the books. John Clark, an associate with Bern Ripka, said that decision was driven by state officials’ fear of succumbing to municipal bankruptcy.

“Bankruptcy seems like a cop-out, and it seems like government is failing,” Clark told the Guardian. “Balancing the budget seems like the government’s gaining ground, functioning properly.” To balance the budget, he continued, the city used the Flint river until a new water system was operational, while still charging sky-high water rates for Flint residents.

“They were able to create a budget surplus,” Clark said. “Emergency managers, for them, that’s the best case scenario. They look like they’re executing flawlessly in their plan. Governor Snyder avoids the headache of Flint going bankrupt.”

In a Rico statement filed to federal court, the attorneys said state officials, contractors and emergency managers appointed to run Flint had “the intent and purpose of balancing the Flint City budget through a pattern of racketeering activity.”
 

“This association … misrepresented the suitability of the toxic Flint River water to Flint’s residents for approximately a two-year period, and billed Flint’s residents at rates that were the highest in the nation for toxic water that was unsuitable for use,” the lawsuit stated.

“By collecting an estimated $50m in revenue during the two year period Flint was connected to the Flint River, Flint’s City budget deficit was reversed and resulted in a $3.3.m surplus as of June 30, 2015.”

 

Flint reconnected with the city of Detroit’s water system in October, after Snyder admitted the gravity of the situation was far worse than he initially understood. State officials have yet to declare that Flint’s water is safe to drink.

“If water is distributed from this plant in the next couple of weeks, it will be against my direction,” Glasgow wrote to officials with the state environmental agency. The lawsuit alleges that Flint’s emergency manager at the time, Darnell Earley, nonetheless forced the transition to meet an “aggressive deadline”, despite knowing the water treatment plant wasn’t prepared to properly treat Flint’s river.Kern, co-counsel in the case, cited an April 2014 email from Flint’s water quality supervisor, Michael Glasgow, in which he said that officials were pushing for the water treatment plant to be operational far too quickly.

“Why did they do that?” Kern said. “They did it to balance the budget of the city of Flint.”

 

 

The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case follows a flood of lawsuits that have been filed in recent weeks against key state officials and the private contractors hired to prepare the Flint water treatment plant for full-time operation. The lawsuits could potentially generate billions of dollars of damages.

The attorneys on Wednesday said they did not take filing a Rico lawsuit lightly.

“That’s why we waited,” said attorney Marc Bern. “We could’ve filed a lawsuit weeks, and even months ago. But we wanted to make sure that we were going to get every single person compensated. That we were going to get everybody what they deserve.”

He added: “The damages here can go on not only for a year or two, but for generations. The tenor of this entire area has been changed forever as a result of this scheme, and that’s why we worked hard to uncover the scheme.”

The lawsuit also requests a jury and seeks compensatory damages for future medical costs and legal fees, and treble damages for property damages, loss of business and financial loss.The attorneys asserted that the legal doctrine of governmental immunity will not be an issue in the Rico case, as the numerous state officials have been named as defendants individually – not in their official capacity. The attorneys declined to estimate the possible financial damages associated with the lawsuit, but said repayment for water bills alone to Flint residents could exceed $50m. Appropriate damages determined by the court will be tripled, as stipulated under civil Rico statute, said Kern.

 

 

Several investigations by federal, state and local agencies are ongoing and could potentially lead to criminal charges.

Edited April 7, 2016 by AbominableDro-Man

[t-pain]

lawsuit was just filed about snyder's EAA/school shenanigans too.

 

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2016/04/07/detroit-school-board-names-gov-snyder-in-federal-lawsuit/

 

Detroit School Board Names Gov. Snyder In Federal Lawsuit

April 7, 2016 12:50 PM

(Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

 

DETROIT (AP) — Gov. Rick Snyder has been named in a federal lawsuit filed by the Detroit school board that — in part — blames the district’s financial troubles on Michigan’s emergency manager law.

 

The suit seeks class-action status on behalf of about 58,000 students enrolled since 2011.

ADVERTISING

 

It also names three former emergency managers appointed by Snyder and says that under state control the district has been turned into a “virtual financial hell-hole.”

 

Snyder signed into law $48.7 million in emergency funding last month to keep schools open through the end of the academic year.

 

He also is pressing state lawmakers to enact a $720 million restructuring plan that would pay off the district’s operating debt.

 

Governor’s spokeswoman Laura Biehl says Thursday that his office “can’t comment on pending litigation.”

[Willy]

Here's hoping he gets his azz kicked. Its time gets what he deserves.

[Greg Rx]

This makes scene to you?

[Willy]

on the off chance it sticks, more power to them... he is guilty of so much more we dont know about, (IMO)  would look good if he is punished for his role. we all know he did something .. LOL 

Edited April 7, 2016 by Willy

[dutchfarm]

If you break the law, you get punished to the fullest extent of the law, why should he be treated differently than any other citizen? Prison time for snivvely snyder!!!!!!!!!!

Farmer Brown

[Restorium2]

This makes scene to you?

You mean sense? Yes, it does. You charge someone with RICO when they hire folks to do crimes for you. It was enacted to help prosecute crime bosses that were always one step ahead of being prosecuted because they had someone else do their dirty work for them. Fits Snyder perfectly. 

[cristinew]

NO  he is a republican  he should be able to walk free ,  Republicans never do wrong   blame the black kids for not buying Nestle water  not Snyder.

[bobandtorey]

http://news4ktla.com/22-dead-bodies-discovered-flint-river-found-source-water-contamination/

[t-pain]

sorry bob, looks like a satire fake site

[bobandtorey]

Yup didn't know until i posted it and then i read it

 

should i take if off ? 

[pic book]

nah leave it on.  the right to use comedy and farce vs public figures was guaranteed by the our nation's founders who came from king-governed places where you could be jailed or killed for targeting authority figures as fools.

[pic book]

as fools, and incompetents, or worse.

obama hasn't gotten pilloried enuf for doubling the national debt.  as a nation we ignored Kasich's (and others) earnest words.  we will pay the price by becoming another puerto rico, another greece.  all it will take is for interest rates to spike and hold from around one percent interest to 5%, and we will be forced to default on our $19 trillion principal or to forego expenditures for every other function of the federal gov.

we will be more strapped for essential services and functions than puerto rico, and we too will default as is puerto rico,  our protectorate who has already stepped into the doooo doooo the 50 states are a few interest rate points from copying.  oh the gnashing and wailing, when that happens.

[solabeirtan]

Same re-tired(re-tread) judge is doing the Puerto Rico bankruptcy that did Detroit.  Funny thing he now has  Darnell Earlys' old job at DetPubSchools which he was anointed to after poisoning Flint. Appointed by the Rotten One himself, both of them.  wtf?  mLive article

 

It's only money  monetary policy. Actually their only f F Reserve Notes. Some things are more important, believe it or not. Like civil liberty. The right to clean, safe  drinking water ...esp when you're paying top dollar for it, and it's being sucked out of your own largest fresh  water reservoir on the planet. And a few other things...

 

Re: The Fed Reserve Ponzi Scheme (...16:01) explained:

 

... a taste of the pulitzer prize winning broadway play/story by the young man from Puerto Rico: Lin-Manuel Miranda about our first Sec of Treasury: A. Hamilton

Edited May 7, 2016 by solabeirtan

[Wild Bill]

Just signed a petition to recall that p.o.s. down at Eastern Market today.

[t-pain]

Retired judge Steven Rhodes, who presided over the city of Detroit's bankruptcy trial, has been named the next manager for the financially struggling Detroit Public Schools, Gov. Rick Snyder announced Monday.

it all makes sense now. wow. flower everything.

[imiubu]

And then we have this;

 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/09/us/flint-mayor-water-crisis-lawsuit/index.html

 

[snip]

(CNN)The former city administrator of Flint, Michigan, filed a federal lawsuit against the current mayor's office, claiming she was fired after

raising concerns about donors being directed away from a charity for victims of the city's water crisis and toward a fund sharing a name with

the mayor's campaign fund.

 

In the suit filed Monday, fired administrator Natasha Henderson claims that in February 2016, Flint's current mayor, Karen Weaver, directed

a former city employee and a city volunteer to stop directing potential donors to a charity called Safe Water/Safe Homes. That charity was

run by the Community Foundation of Greater Flint and had been approved by the city for water-crisis donations