MORE PROOF THAT RUNNING A GOVERNMENT AS A BUSINESS DOESN'T WORK

…A Flint, Michigan police volunteer delivering bottled water to a Flint, MI household.

 

The Michigan Governor’s “arrogant public-policy experiment” has proven to be potentially deadly.

 

We now have the perfect example of why attempting to run America like you might run a technology company or a real estate development corporation is not a workable option.

 

Those people that want to support someone like Donald Trump or Carly Fiorina because of their previous big-business background just need to look at Flint, Michigan and Governor Rick Snyder’s business approach.  The Michigan Governor’s philosophy is a perfect example for why a business model is not appropriate for governing a democratic community.

 

In addition, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s idea of blaming a failure of government at all levels in Michigan including federal, state and local government has also proven to be totally bogus.  But in total desperation, Governor Snyder is jumping on this “blame government” band wagon as he said “Government failed you…federal, state and local leaders…by breaking the trust you [Flint citizens] placed in us.”

 

The real answer is that yes, there were some failures in some government levels that allowed the “lead-in-the-water” problem in Flint to go on for an extended amount of time.  But the basic Flint water problem is 100% in Governor Snyder’s arena with his assumption that the “experience of corporate-style managers was superior” to the checks and balances of an elected democracy. This is the real reason why Flint’s failed water system became a reality.

 

For those of you that have been living in a cave, here’s how the Flint problem started.  (Now everyone should pay close attention, as this could happen in your town if a business man like Donald Trump or Rick Snyder were allowed to run the show.)

 

The Washington Post writer, Dana Milbank also wrote an article on the Flint water problem.  He had written a short synopsis on the background of the problem, and I am going to borrow that from him for setting the stage for what happen in Flint.

 

Per Mr. Milbank:

 

“The [Michigan] governor, former head of Gateway computers, was first elected as part of the Tea Party wave of 2010 with a plan to use his tech industry skills to run Michigan. He spoke of “outcomes” and “deliverables,” called residents “customers” and sought to “reinvent” the state to make it business-friendly.

 

A centerpiece of Snyder’s agenda, and one of his first actions, was a new law that gave the state dramatic powers to take over failing municipalities and school boards by appointing emergency managers with unchecked authority. Michigan voters killed that law in a November 2012 referendum, but a month later Snyder got the [Republican] legislature, in a lame-duck session, to enact a law very similar to the one voters had rejected. This time, legislators attached it to a spending bill so it couldn’t be undone by referendum.

 

These unelected viceroys had mandates to improve municipal finances but little incentive to weigh other considerations.”

 

Flint’s appointed emergency manager, Darnell Earley is the one that made the fateful decision to use the water from the Flint River as the city’s water supply starting in 2014.  This was decided while the new Great Lakes pipeline was being completed.  This decision was made even though Detroit was willing to continue providing high-quality water under a short-term contract. This Flint River decision was supposed to save Flint $5 million. 

 

What’s really disturbing is that this whole episode could have been avoided if the emergency manager had at least approved spending between $100-$150 a day to treat the water.  This treatment would have kept the corrosion from allowing the lead to seep into the water.  The water may not have tasted good and the water may have been cloudy, but it would not have ruined the pipes and it would have been OK to use it without allowing lead in the water.

 

By the way, this same Mr. Darnell Earley is now the emergency manager of Detroit’s school system.  The schools are in such dire straits that there is a “Sick-Out” going on with the district’s teachers.  The courts have approved some schools to stay closed because with an emergency manager with total power, the teachers have no place to go to with their grievances against their manager or regarding the dilapidated schools.  The pictures of the Detroit schools look like schools in third-world countries.

 

It is obvious that these appointed managers were directed to focus on the financial aspects of their city assignments   They ignored whatever the town’s Mayors or City Councils had decided and they made their decisions based on what saved money, with no regard to what effect their decisions had on the quality of life of Flint’s citizens. 

 

In some towns, to increase the towns income, these managers even sold municipal and local park properties to private corporations.  Many of these local parcels had been the town’s public properties for decades.  These emergency management decisions could only be reversed by Governor Snyder, as he was the only one to which they were responsible.

 

It is true that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deserves blame for failing to sound early warnings about the Flint River lead.  But even they knew that only the appointed managers had the power to make final decisions.  The EPA also became too deferential to the appointed authorities.  The EPA had warned the state of Michigan as early as February 2015 that lead contaminants were leaching into the water system in Flint.  Unfortunately, because of the strong Flint manager, the EPA didn’t press publicly or aggressively to fix the problem.  This failure led to the regional EPA administrator’s resignation last week

 

But even with all this, the EPA still had no role in the decisions that had initially caused the problem. That was entirely the responsibility of Snyder’s administration and his appointees.

 

An ACLU attorney, Curt Guyette has stated, “You cannot separate what happened in Flint from the state’s extreme emergency-management law.”   Attorney Guyette had personally uncovered much of the original water scandal in Flint.  Guyette added, “The bottom line was making sure the banks and bond holders got paid at all costs, even if the kids were poisoned with foul river water.”

 

As Dana Milbank wrote, “Governor Snyder had undertook an arrogant public-policy experiment.”  And it was a total failure.

 

Governing in a democracy is not like running a corporation.  Corporations are dictatorships that are run by the guy at the top.  When the CEO fails a company, sometimes the company fails and it disappears.   That’s not possible for a large city with a failed emergency manager.  The community cannot just disappear.

 

As a former CEO of a computer company, Governor Snyder was trying to make his democratic communities into small dictatorships where his only concern was the financial status of the town.  His program totally ignored the other important aspects of a living community.  That focused attitude has now caused the poisoning of thousands of youngsters in a town of over 100,000 citizens.

 

Flint, Michigan is a perfect example for not electing an experienced business man for running an established democratic community, or even a democratic nation.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2015