Flint Mayor: City Shouldn't Pay Manager's Water Legal Bills
FLINT, Mich. (WWJ/AP) - The mayor of Flint says she's troubled by an attempt to get the city to pay the legal costs of a state-appointed emergency manager who had a role in the drinking water crisis.
Mayor Karen Weaver says Darnell Earley's legal tab - $75,000 so far - is "not a bill we should be footing." She says she's been "very clear and outspoken" about the city's position. She spoke to reporters Tuesday.
Earley has hired a lawyer for various investigations related to lead-contaminated water.
He was hired by Gov. Rick Snyder and was running Flint when the city tapped the Flint River in 2014. The decision was made months earlier by another emergency manager.
In prepared statements made during a congressional hearing in March, Earley stated that he relied on state and federal experts, but the experts failed him and the city of some 100,000 people. He said, in hindsight, he should have done more to challenge the experts who told him Flint's water problems were harmless to human health and geographically limited in nature.
The water wasn't treated to reduce corrosion. Earley says he was "grossly misled" by experts.
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