October 6, 2017
by Alisha Anderson
Flint — Gov. Rick Snyder (click here) knew about Flint-area outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease in December 2015, the month before he said he found out, according to testimony Friday from one of his top aides.
Harvey Hollins III, Snyder's point man for the state's response to the Flint water crisis, revealed the information in a Flint courtroom. Hollins said he told Snyder in a phone call in December 2015, which contradicts what Snyder has said previously: that he first learned of instances of Legionnaires' disease in Flint in January 2016.
“As soon as I became aware of it, we held a press conference the next day,” Snyder said in a March 2016 interview before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that was played in court.
The news conference was held on Jan. 13, 2016....
February 6, 2016
by Matthew Dolan
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder speaks to the media regarding the status of the Flint water crisis on January 27, 2016 at Flint City Hall in Flint. A federal state of emergency has been declared in Flint related to the city's water becoming contaminated.
Gov. Rick Snyder's (click here) point man for the state's response to the Flint water crisis said he did not brief the governor about a growing Legionnaires' outbreak in the Flint area until January of this year despite first learning about a potential problem in March 2015.
Harvey Hollins III, director of Michigan's Office of Urban and Metropolitan Initiatives, said in an interview Friday that he received an e-mail from a Department of Environmental Quality official in March about concerns over Legionnaires' disease in Genesee County. But Hollins said he told the e-mail's author, former DEQ spokesman Brad Wurfel, in a follow-up call, that there was not enough information for him to take the issue to the governor....