State manager for DPS leaving job months early

By David Eggert
Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The state-appointed emergency manager for Detroit’s troubled school district is leaving the job about 4½ months early, Gov. Rick Snyder announced Tuesday.

Darnell Earley also was the emergency manager for Flint when its water source was switched in 2014. State regulators failed to require the water from the Flint River to be properly treated, allowing lead from pipes to leach into the supply and causing a public health emergency.

Earley notified Snyder of his decision Tuesday, telling the governor that he completed the work ahead of his 18-month schedule. His last day is Feb. 29.

Democratic lawmakers, who oppose the emergency manager law that gives the state broad financial powers in municipalities and school districts, had called for Earley’s resignation both because of problems in Detroit — rolling teacher sick-outs in the district have forced dozens of schools to close intermittently in recent months due to complaints about decaying facilities and wrecked finances — and his role in Flint.

The Republican governor is pushing the GOP-controlled Michigan Legislature to provide state funding to address the district’s $515 million operating debt and help transition the district, which has been under emergency management for nearly seven years, back to some form of local control.

Earley, who took charge in January 2015, “has done a very good job under some very difficult circumstances,” Snyder said in a statement, noting that he restructured the central office, cut back on costs and took “steps to stabilize enrollment.”

Earley said in a statement that the goal was “for me to be the last emergency manager appointed to DPS.”

“I have completed the comprehensive restructuring, necessary to downsizing the central office, and the development of a network structure that empowers the educational leadership of our schools to direct more resources toward classroom instruction,” he said.

But officials with the Detroit teachers union have said Earley, 64, has not responded well enough to their complaints about leaky roofs, rodents and mold in school buildings.

Snyder said he will appoint a transition leader, not an emergency manager, before the end of the month while legislators debate his restructuring proposal.

Earley, 64, was invited to testify Wednesday at a U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Flint’s water crisis but has declined the invitation, district spokesman Michelle Zdrodowski said.
Six Detroit-area Democratic state senators said that they “welcome Earley’s resignation, but it doesn’t signal the end of investigations or accountability.”

Earley was one of Snyder’s go-to guys to fix foundering cities and cities and school districts, getting two of the toughest cases.

During his 16 months in Flint, Earley approved a plan to save money by switching its water supply from the Detroit system to a new pipeline consortium, and to use Flint River water until the new pipeline was ready.
The city council and a previous emergency manager, Ed Kurtz, had approved the move to the new regional pipeline in 2013. In 2014, Earley turned down the Detroit system’s offer to continue selling water to the city, saying Flint had been actively pursuing the river as a temporary water source.

“I came along at a time when this project was already underway and it fell to me to oversee implementation of it,” Earley told WDIV-TV last month.

Anti-corrosion agents were not added to the river water because of mistakes at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, causing metal leaching in pipes and dangerously elevated lead levels among some residents.

FBI joins investigation of Flint water lead contamination

FLINT, Mich. (AP) — The FBI is working with a multi-agency team investigating the lead contamination of Flint's drinking water, alongside Environmental Protection Agency investigators who can tackle criminal violations of federal environmental law, officials said Tuesday.

Several local, state and federal officials have resigned since doctors revealed last year that using the Flint River for the city's drinking water supply caused elevated levels of lead in some children's blood. Lead contamination has been linked to learning disabilities and other problems. Michigan's governor has apologized repeatedly for the state's role.

FBI spokeswoman Jill Washburn told the AP in an email that the agency's role is "investigating the matter to determine if there have been any federal violations." She declined to say when the FBI got involved.

Officials haven't said whether criminal or civil charges might follow the investigation.

In addition to the FBI and the EPA, the team includes the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Gina Balaya, a U.S. attorney's spokeswoman in Detroit, told The Associated Press in an email. The Detroit Free Press first reported the FBI's involvement Tuesday.

In November, the EPA announced it was auditing how Michigan enforces drinking water rules and said it would identify how to strengthen state oversight. The U.S. attorney's office in Detroit said in January that it was investigating the water crisis with the EPA.

Flint switched its water source from Detroit's water system to the Flint River in 2014 to save money while under state financial management. The river water was not treated properly and lead from pipes leached into Flint homes. The city returned to Detroit's system in October while it awaits the completion of a separate pipeline to Lake Huron this summer.

The U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is expected to hold a hearing Wednesday on Flint's water crisis. Detroit schools emergency manager Darnell Earley, who was state-appointed emergency manager for Flint when its water source was switched, had been asked to testify but declined the invitation, Detroit Public Schools spokeswoman Michelle Zdrodowski said in an email.

The federal investigation is one of several taking place into Flint's water supply. Last month, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced the appointment of a special counsel to help his office investigate whether laws
were broken.

An independent panel appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder has determined that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality was primarily responsible for the water contamination. The Michigan Civil Rights Commission also plans to hold hearings to explore whether the civil rights of Flint residents were violated.


 

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