Rick Snyder’s Emails Raise More Questions Than Answers About What Happened In Flint

All seemed fine as Governor Rick Snyder released the emails pertaining to the Flint water crisis.

BREAKING: To read and download my emails regarding Flint, please click here: https://t.co/xZ0PoDtKwx #MISOTS16

— Governor Rick Snyder (@onetoughnerd) January 20, 2016

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From Snyder’s administration’s announcement on the government website, it seems this is ALL of the emails! Oh, blessed transparency, “Gov. Rick Snyder today released all emails he sent and received regarding Flint from Jan. 2014 through Dec. 2015.”

But wait.

When you go the PDF and download them, the actual form signed by Governor Snyder does not say all emails. Does it mean anything that Snyder didn’t sign a document saying all but one or all?

The very fist image is a redacted email, which they claim is being redacted due to privileged attorney-client communications on an unrelated matter. So now it’s feeling a little shroudy and we still don’t know how these long-asked for emails were even vetted.

The questions about how these emails were picked and if they are all of the emails are only an issue because Snyder’s internal records are exempt from Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act. Michigan does not have the same Freedom of Information Act laws as other states — in fact, the executive office’s is exempt. Pretty handy and very hypocritical.

When Snyder said he was going to release his personal emails on the Flint issue, it was unclear how these emails would be vetted. “In effort to restore trust and be more transparent, Snyder announced that he will release his personal emails on Flint from 2014 and 2015 on Wednesday.”

Snyder didn’t rush to share his emails on this matter and he didn’t come to this decision lightly. It was the recommended course of action by crisis management people. You know, to look like he’s not hiding anything and yet this entire tragedy has been covered up and buried from the onset, which is how it ended up hurting so many innocent people. The Detroit Free Press reported:

But given the fact complaints about the taste, smell and appearance of Flint’s drinking water began shortly after the switch in April 2014 and continued for 18 months, many citizens aren’t buying Snyder’s claim that he wasn’t aware of the seriousness of the health issue until about Oct. 1 of this year.

No matter what Snyder says, the issue is not going away, and a series of disclosures such as a July e-mail from Snyder’s chief of staff expressing frustration that the health concerns of Flint residents were being “blown off,” have made the scandal worse, Strachan said.

The fact that the emails are being released at all is due to the huge pressure that has been put on Snyder by transparency groups and the current national outrage over the poisoning of Flint children due to Snyder’s emergency manager choosing to save money by using the Flint River as the city’s water source, sans any filtration. The President declared an emergency in Flint over the past weekend (notably not an emergency from natural causes — cough cough), before Snyder offered up this belated gesture of transparency.

Rev. Jesse Jackson pointed out after Snyder made the promise that we don’t know how thorough this release will be:

Snyder said Tuesday night he has nothing to hide and his personal emails on the Flint crisis will be released Wednesday morning.
“He’s wounded,” Jackson told The Detroit News. “Now what happens to him should be determined by the Department of Justice. How thorough are those emails? He has known about this for some time and did not act emphatically and quickly.”

Melanie McElroy, executive director of advocacy group Common Cause Michigan, talked to the Huffington Post and made the case for why the emails would not be enough. “The Governor should not be allowed to operate in secret and outside of public scrutiny, McElroy said in a statement. “Picking and choosing the emails that he wants the public to see is not accountability.”

More to the point, Common Cause also wants to see all documents and correspondence in the executive office on matters dealing with the FOIA requests (great question):

“Common Cause Michigan calls on the governor to drop his executive privilege and submit all documents and correspondence in the executive office on all matters dealing with the Flint water crisis to Freedom of Information Act requests,” said Melanie McElroy, executive director of Common Cause Michigan.
“The public deserves to know why Flint’s children were poisoned with lead. In addition, Michigan should end special exemption from FOIA and subject the Governor’s Office and the Legislature to the same transparency laws that 48 other states follow,” the statement says.

The first question that should be asked is how was the timeline frame chosen and what was the process for choosing the emails. Next up, how about all of the documents in the executive office relating to the Flint water crisis? And next, who about the documents relating to the FOIA denials.

It’s not as if this is some conspiracy. Snyder has a history of going shady to get around FOIA laws. He also didn’t release his staffs’ emails or his administration’s emails.

“A lack of state government transparency is one reason it took Flint residents so long to learn they were being poisoned with lead, McElroy told the Detroit Free Press.

To not ask these questions is to ignore Rick Snyder’s systemic trampling of the very foundations of democracy — the way he worked his way around the voters’ referendum against his emergency manager system is but one example of his dictator-esque style. Snyder doesn’t do democracy.

So it would be a mistake to take these emails at face value, no matter what they uncover.

Image: Common Cause via Twitter