Look, Governor Snyder, announced his intention to run for re-election February 2014. While on the subject, get this, he has introduced the idea of eliminating term limits in Michigan:
June 1, 2018
By Emily Lawler
Mackinac Island -- Gov. Rick Snyder (click here) told MLive on Wednesday that he saw room for improvement to the state's term limits.
"The term limit question, what I've generally felt is they're not flexible enough," Snyder said in an interview with MLive at the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference.
"You can argue, should there be term limits or not, but the six years in the House in particular is very constraining."...
...Snyder has hired several term-limited lawmakers into key positions. Former representative and House Appropriations Committee chair Al Pscholka now serves as his budget director, and former representative Earl Poleski heads up the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. Former representative John Walsh serves as his Office of Strategic Policy director....
Now, I don't know about anyone else, regardless of Snyder talking about legislative term limits; if a bill ever passed the Michigan legislature to remove term limits or increase them; there would be a measure in there to increase the number of term limits a Governor could serve.
Governor Snyder, better than anyone else involved with the Flint Water Crisis, knows the sure way he can stave off any charges for the poisoning of the Flint water and the deaths (including miscarriages), illnesses (rashes and visits to the doctors') and permanent brain damage of children, is to remain Governor. So, here we are now with a gubernatorial election in November 2018 and Snyder is pandering to the legislature to increase or remove term limits.
Ready?
The Republican candidate right now, for Michigan Governor is Attorney General Bill Schuette. The Attorney General carrying out the investigations and prosecutions of the Flint Water Crisis. Do I hear a pardon coming on? A Democratic hopeful has already released his tax returns and what tax returns they are:
May 30, 2018
By Joel Kurth
Mackinac Island – Michigan Democratic (click here) gubernatorial candidate Shri Thanedar on Wednesday released his 2015 and 2016 tax returns and other financial details and says he plans to release his 2017 returns as soon as they are filed.
The disclosures show the Ann Arbor entrepreneur has assets of about $30 million, making him most likely the wealthiest candidate in the race for governor. Republican candidate Bill Schuette disclosed more than $13 million in assets last week.
The release followed requests Bridge Magazine made of all candidates for governor of their tax returns and other financial documents....
So, now that term limits are noted as a high priority for Governor Poison, let me start again.
Snyder was elected in November 2010, the year when all the Republican incompetents were elected.
February 3, 2016
By Josh Hakala
...According to Scorsone, (click here) Public Act 72 was rarely used in the approximately 20 years it was in effect through the administrations of Gov. John Engler and Gov. Jennifer Granholm. When Snyder took office, one of the first bills that he signed in 2011 was Public Act 4, which Scorsone says was a “beefed-up” emergency manager law.
Michigan voters rejected that law by referendum in 2012, (click here) only to see a new bill passed, PA 436, a month later. The new version made some changes to the original version, including requiring the state to pay the salary of the EM, rather than the cash-strapped local government they were appointed to rescue, and giving the local government the power to vote out the EM after 18 months. The most controversial change made to PA 436 was that it stipulated that the public could not repeal it.... That is probably unconstitutional, but, I don't recall it being challenged.
November 29, 2011 - After the city declared a state of financial emergency three weeks earlier, Governor Snyder appointed Michael Brown as the city's Emergency Manager on November 29, effective December 1.
March 22, 2012 – County officials announce plans for a new pipeline to reduce costs by delivering water from Lake Huron to Flint.
April 16, 2013 – The city approves the KWA contract.
April 17, 2013 - Detroit terminates its water service contract.
Governor Snyder announced his intention to run for re-election in February 2014.
April 21, 2014 – After construction delays, the water source switch to the Flint River is completed. This date is considered the start of the water crisis.
...Just months after the water source changed, hospitals (plural, not one hospital as a source as Snyder states, but, more than one) were reporting large numbers of people with Legionnaires' disease....
An outbreak of Legionnaires' disease (click here) that killed 12 people and sickened at least 87 in Flint, Mich., in 2014 and 2015 was caused by low chlorine levels in the municipal water system, scientists have confirmed. It's the most detailed evidence yet linking the bacterial disease to the city's broader water crisis....
October 2014 – Flint’s General Motors Flint Truck Assembly plant discontinues using Flint tap water due to corroding engine parts from high levels of chlorine
Why wasn't the detection and source of the Legionella bacteria more aggressive and conclusive one might ask? Because at this point no one had made a connection between the lead in the Flint Water. The connection between the lead in the water and the deaths from Legionnaires Disease would not be made until scientists from Virginia Tech began tracking the chemicals in Flint's water and reporting their findings in June of 2015.
November 2014 Rick Snyder is re-elected to Michigan Governor. Now, ask if that would have happened if the Flint Water Crisis was known and the Legionella bacteria were linked to the lead in Flint's water. There were many reasons why the Governor did not want anyone to know Flint had a water crisis due to his Emergency Manager Law. YES, HIS EMERGENCY MANAGER LAW. HE ADVOCATED FOR IT, SAW IT THROUGH THE LEGISLATURE AND SIGNED. HE ALSO OVERRODE THE REPEAL BY THE ELECTORATE IN 2012. IT IS HIS EMERGENCY MANAGER LAW.
February 26, 2015 – EPA manager Miquel Del Toral detects that lead levels in the water at the home of Flint resident Lee-Anne Walters is seven times greater than the EPA's acceptable limit.
June 24, 2015 – EPA manager Miquel Del Toral states in a memo (to Snyder on all occasions) that Virginia Tech scientists, led by water expert Dr. Marc Edwards, found extremely high lead levels in four homes
Snyder and his administration (remember Snyder has ONE man overseeing all state agencies as a Regulation Czar; so he has complete control over the state agencies) and all his state agencies, including his emergency managers, never declared a water emergency even with people dying. What occurred instead was a complete denial by the Mayor of Flint (shown drinking Flint water in a public display to allay fears) and by the Snyder's Department of Environmental Quality.
July 13, 2015 - From Snyder's Department of Environmental Quality; “Anyone who is concerned about lead in the drinking water in Flint can relax.”
The US EPA along with Dr. Mark Edwards continues to demand action by the State of Michigan. Snyder's DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) states they are skeptical of Dr. Edwards findings.
The Snyder administration denial continues despite illness and deaths; until pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha reports many children from Flint, Michigan had high lead levels in their blood. The only thing the children had in common was the water.
About three weeks later Snyder finally signs a bill to provide $9.35 million to reconnect to the Detroit water supply and the connection is made the next day.
The reconnect occurred on September 25, 2015. There were 18 months of poisoned Flint River water provided as potable water by Snyder's administration. Eighteen months of denial regardless of the illness, complaints and deaths.
January 21, 2015 – Flint residents complain of health issues caused by city water. Residents bring bottles of discolored tap water to a community meeting
February 26, 2015 – EPA manager Miquel Del Toral detects that lead levels in the water at the home of Flint resident Lee-Anne Walters is seven times greater than the EPA's acceptable limit.
June 24, 2015 – EPA manager Miquel Del Toral states in a memo to the Michigan Governor that Virginia Tech scientists, led by water expert Dr. Marc Edwards, found extremely high lead levels in four homes.
In court testimony in 2017;
...what some of Gov. Rick Snyder’s staff knew (click here) about the Flint area Legionnaires’ disease outbreak and away from what their client knew....
... Harvey Hollins, the governor’s urban affairs czar, was caught off guard (while giving testimony) when...presented him with emails from Brad Wurfel, a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality spokesman, discussing Legionella in spring 2015. In response to the...question, Hollins said Lyon had nothing to do with the city of Flint’s switch to the corrosive Flint River that some experts link to the outbreak of Legionnaires’.
In the March 13, 2015, email, Brad Wurfel asked DEQ water quality director Liane Shekter-Smith and Drinking Water supervisor Stephen Busch to “try to keep formal written powder dry” until they could meet with Department of Community Health officials on a Legionella information request from the Genesee County Health Department....
...Hollins told Willey the governor’s staff in March 2015 wasn’t aware of the Legionnaires’ outbreak.
“No, it’s not fair to say that,” Hollins said. “I received information from a public information officer from DEQ. That tells me nothing. Even if I had the information, I’d still have to get the information from the department director. I was aware that his director was copied on an email that was sent to me.”
Hollins said he became aware that Brad Wurfel’s wife Sara Wurfel, then the governor’s spokeswoman, and Communications Director Jarrod Agen were blind copied on the email after reading media reports about the email. Agen went on to become Snyder’s chief of staff in January 2016 and is now working for Vice President Mike Pence.
Hollins said he did not tell concerned pastors about the Legionella issue in summer 2015 “because there was no conclusive evidence” but that “it was the department’s responsibility to follow up on this stuff.” But he admitted that there appeared to be more than 40 cases of Legionnaires’ at the time....
The first cases of illness were taking shape within months of the water change date of April 21, 2014. The illnesses started by June of 2014 and supposedly Snyder's inner cycle didn't know anything about it by the summer of 2015, but, there were more than 40 cases by then.
...The state didn’t warn the public about the outbreak until mid-January 2016.
Under questioning, Hollins spoke about his two summer 2015 meetings with Snyder and others state officials where he detailed how the city’s water was causing Flint residents to suffer rashes and mar baptismal tubs with brownish water. He testified that lead had become a major concern to residents amid a backdrop of several pictures presented in court by Special Prosecutor Todd Flood.
Hollins also testified that he told the governor about the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak about three weeks before the Republican leader revealed the problem to the public.
Hollins said he told Snyder about the Legionnaires’ outbreak on a Dec. 24, 2015 conference call. Snyder announced the the deadly form of pneumonia on Jan. 13, 2016 at a hastily arranged press conference in Detroit.
Hollins, who last month in court contradicted Snyder’s congressional testimony that he first learned about it in January 2016,...
Rick Snyder is guilty of withholding important facts and necessary changes in the Flint Water Crisis. He colluded to maintain a tight hold on information to the public before and after his 2014 election.
In trying to place blame on the local hospital of Flint, Rick Snyder is hiding the facts that the SOURCE of the Legionnaires Disease was known by a Virginia Tech scientist in June of 2014. The usual cause of any Legionella outbreak is stagnant water. If the Flint hospital or any other hospital involved was trying to obtain information of where the stagnant water could be found; they would be thwarted by the fact, the water was not stagnant, but, instead not buffered to prevent corrosion with now high levels of lead that GAVE OPPORTUNITY FOR THE INCREASED LEVELS OF LEGIONELLA BACTERIA TO GROW OUT OF CONTROL.
Governor Snyder knew before his staff knew about the many crises in Flint. Since June of 2014 Snyder was receiving memos from the USA EPA in cooperation with a Virginia Tech scientist who had conducted conclusive studies about the lead AND OTHER heavy metals in the water in Flint.
Snyder deliberately concealed the crisis until after his election and even then was reluctant to act to assist the citizens of Flint. See, his ideology got in the way. As a Republican, he was going to eliminate regulations and make every Michigan city profitable. It was his politics that created the dilemma for the people of Flint that was suffering at the deliberate negligence of their state's governor.
...Rather than taking responsibility, (click here) the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is now pinning these deaths on a local Flint hospital—just as the court trial against some of the department’s top execs is nearing the end.
You see, Attorney General Bill Schuette launched a case in 2016 against those who contributed to the water crisis that exposed a city of nearly 100,000 to severe levels of lead in their drinking water. Some of the biggest names include Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells and health department Director Nick Lyons, both of whom face involuntary manslaughter charges for the deaths from Legionnaires disease, an extreme form of pneumonia. The pair of studies found that the Legionella bacteria that cause the disease likely grew from a lack of chlorine in the water.
