All I can say is that it is very, conveniently considerate, to lump all the former Wayne County Prosecutors, all in one office.
People profited from the Flint Water Crisis because it was intentional.
How do I know?
I know because you measure the ethics of officeholders based upon how they treat the children.
Right now, in Michigan, child poverty and infant mortality is increasing.
Let us see how this new Wayne County Prosecutor's Office gurlscrew proceeds because the reasons for the replacement are quite questionable to being a cover up.
The chief investigator leading the state’s inquiry into the Flint Water Crisis will be replaced by a team member, who is a former Dearborn Heights police officer.
Andy Arena, the FBI Detroit office’s former director, was relieved of his assignment as head of the investigative team earlier this week, according to a statement from Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office.
Bill & Andy. (This picture is art.)
Jeff Seipanko, a three-year member of the attorney general’s investigative team in Flint, will replace Arena.
Arena did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The decision comes roughly two weeks after solicitor general Fadwa Hammoud was appointed to take the lead on the state’s criminal cases related to the Flint water crisis. Nessel said Hammoud’s role in the case allowed Nessel to avoid conflicts of interest by not taking a direct role in either the criminal or civil cases.
Flint Special Prosecutor Todd Flood, who along with Arena, were part of the Flint investigation and appeared with former Attorney General Bill Schuette in June 2017 to make the announcement of the criminal charges in the case. Flood could not be reached for comment.
“There is nothing more important to Attorney General Dana Nessel and to me than to bring these cases home,” Hammoud said in a statement Tuesday.
Seipanko has served as the officer in charge in all of the charged cases in Flint and is the “only certified law enforcement officer” on the team, an attribute Hammoud stressed as important in the statement announcing Seipanko’s promotion.
Since the preliminary hearings began in Flint over the water crisis, Seipanko has been a fixture in the courtroom, often times in the back or in private rooms and in constant contact and communication with the special prosecution team.
In January 2018, Seipanko testified at the preliminary hearing of Nick Lyon, the then-chief of the state Health and Human Services department, that he retrieved Lyon’s iPhone for information extraction. Lyon faces trial in the Flint water crisis case on charges, among others, of involuntary manslaughter.
Seipanko testified about a July 22, 2015, meeting in Lansing with Gov. Rick Snyder’s chief of staff Dennis Muchmore, urban policy adviser Harvey Hollins and Flint residents talking about the lead-in-water problem. A screenshot of a note from Lyon’s phone confirmed the meeting.
“Jeff Seipanko possesses the institutional knowledge and experience required to manage and direct all future investigative assets to bring these cases to conclusion,” said Hammoud.
Seipanko served with the Dearborn Heights Police Department for 29 years and retired from the department as a captain of the investigative services division.
In early January, Nessel asked Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to review the Flint criminal cases, and Worthy was expected to make recommendations regarding the future of the prosecution, including Flood's future as special prosecutor. That review is ongoing.
LANSING – Weeks after taking the lead on the Flint water crisis criminal cases, Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud has selected a career law enforcement officer as the team’s new chief investigator.
Jeff Seipenko, a member of the Attorney General’s Flint investigative team for three years, replaces Andy Arena, who had been appointed by former Attorney General Bill Schuette as chief investigator in the Flint Water Investigation.
Hammoud relieved Arena of his assignment earlier this week.
Seipenko has been imbedded as the only certified law enforcement officer with the Flint Water Investigative Team since its inception.
During that time, Seipenko has served as the Officer in Charge of all currently charged cases.
“Jeff Seipenko possesses the institutional knowledge and experience required to manage and direct all future investigative assets to bring these cases to conclusion,” said Hammoud.
“It is important that we strengthen our internal team with certified law enforcement officers from within our department as we move forward with criminal prosecutions.”
Special Agent Seipenko has more than 32 years of law enforcement experience, including 29 years with the Dearborn Heights Police Department. He retired there with the rank of Captain, leading the Investigative Services Division.
During his career, Seipenko has successfully led narcotic and surveillance teams, detective units, special operations and internal affairs investigations. Seipanko has decades of specialized investigative experience where he has managed and directed complex criminal investigations.
“We are committed to bringing justice to the people of Flint,” said Hammoud. “There is nothing more important to Attorney General Dana Nessel and to me than to bring these cases home.”
“Attorney General Nessel’s appointment of Fadwa Hammoud to serve as Michigan’s next Solicitor General is a brilliant choice. She is a visionary with an excellent work ethic. This is bittersweet for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office and me personally. Fadwa has served all Wayne County residents with integrity, distinction, and honor. We are sad to see her leave Wayne County service, but the citizens of the entire State will be the beneficiary of her fairness and impressive reputation.” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy
I wonder what the gals have planned for Andy Arena?
From a fan...
Flint continued cover up and continued expolitation has officially expanded hard core into Flint and the cover up will likely continue. Unless I can get my hands on the Master Plumber who oversaw the Flint water valve turn on to help answer some questions. I bet they have info they don't realize they have and may help get to the root of the real problem. There is some pipe that is supposed to drain from under Flint City that no one seems to know where it is...as in they kinda lost where it was, or ao they kinda say but don't say.....and many others have been dead headed (sealed off) and whatever is under there is likely nasty and PFAS contaminated. Kildee is asking now for PFAS to be added for Superfund cleanup sites. How convenient. Need to find that outlet to get water tested. Oh, and people allegely from Easter Seals allegedly have a contract with MDHHS in Flint because of water and are handing out what they say are psych meds without any official diagnoses.
The state’s new solicitor general will take lead on the state’s criminal cases related to the Flint water crisis, including the prosecution of involuntary manslaughter charges against two former high-ranking Snyder officials.
Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday Fadwa Hammoud’s appointment as solicitor general, making her the first Muslim Arab American to achieve that post in the country. Hammoud is a former lead attorney at the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
Flint Special Prosecutor Todd Flood, who was appointed by Republican former Attorney General Bill Schuette, will report to Hammoud. He successfully convinced 67th District Court judges to bind over for trial former Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and former Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells on criminal charges related to 2014-15 Legionnaire's disease outbreak that killed 12 individuals and sickened at least 79 others.
Schuette's personal supervision of Flood prevented him from engaging in the civil cases related to Flint, Nessel said. Both the civil and criminal cases have continued for years and cost taxpayers millions, she said.
“We don’t prescribe to the idea of prosecution for profit in this office,” Nessel said in a a statement. “I have worked closely with Ms. Hammoud as a prosecutor and trust her to make the right decisions and take the proper steps to ensure justice for the people of Flint. This department has spent millions of dollars on these cases, and our state residents deserve assurance that these cases are handled properly.”
On Tuesday, Flood praised Hammoud.
“Fadwa is a great person and an excellent lawyer who will serve the people of state and Flint very well,” Flood said. “I look forward to working with her.”
Schuette’s position overseeing Flood has remained empty since the turn of the year because Nessel was uncomfortable with the conflicts associated with the role, said Nessel's spokeswoman Kelly Rossman McKinney. Hammoud’s appointment allows Nessel to remain “above the conflict wall” by avoiding a direct role in either the criminal or civil cases.
“For now, (Flood) will report to the solicitor general,” Rossman McKinney said. “She’ll be in court with him tomorrow to watch, listen and learn.”
Special prosecutors will be in 67th District Court for the resumption of the preliminary exam of Patrick Cook, a Department of Environmental Quality water treatment engineer who is accused of misconduct in office, conspiracy to engage in misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty for allegedly manipulating a Lead and Copper Rule report on the levels of lead in Flint’s water.
There have been talks about a possible plea deal for Cook.
In early January, Nessel asked Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to review the Flint criminal cases, and Worthy was expected to make recommendations regarding the future of the prosecution, including Flood's future as special prosecutor.
Hammoud’s appointment to the case does not interrupt the review of the prosecutions being conducted by Worthy, Rossman McKinney said. The review is ongoing and could influence the future of the cases and who leads them, she said.
Since Worthy and Hammoud worked together in the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, “there’s a trusting relationship already established,” Rossman McKinney said.
Worthy declined additional comment on the review, but praised Nessel’s appointment of Hammoud to the cases, calling it a “bittersweet” moment for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
“Attorney General Nessel’s appointment of Fadwa Hammoud to serve as Michigan’s next solicitor general is a brilliant choice,” Worthy said in a statement. “She is a visionary with an excellent work ethic.”
Not the Michigan Children's Trust, but it seems there is a viable option for each child to access their own, individual trust, like a blockchain.
That would be a logical purpose to the contact tracing, considering the fact that Michigan is #1 in the nation when it comes to trafficking tiny humans through its Child Welfare System, which is still under the purview of Nancy Edmunds.
What would be really exciting is to see if the settlement structure continues through the network of those Public Private Partnerships, that were formed as a result of the privatized contracting which falsely advised elected officials.
Just think if, in the continuance of identifying other, private, foreign corporations, there was found suspected violations of law and policy, which were referred to the proper jurisdiction of law enforcement, to provide reparations to the individual trusts of the children?
What about JonesDay and all of those Michigan advisors in Trump's White House Cabinet?
What about #perkinscoiesucks?
Light up that network.
Hey, Mittens, any comments at the Republican National Convention?
I just adore transposable models and I am sure the children will, too.
The state of Michigan has reached a more than $500 million settlement that would put to rest lawsuits arising out of the Flint water crisis, two sources with knowledge of the agreement confirmed Wednesday.
The sources weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter, which is a significant development in a years-long legal fight that's garnered national attention.
The state of Michigan has reached a more than $500 million settlement that would put to rest lawsuits arising out of the Flint water crisis, two sources with knowledge of the agreement confirmed Wednesday.
Details about the settlement arising out of the Flint lead-contaminated water crisis are expected to be spelled out Friday. The deal comes after several years of litigation in which Flint residents pursued damages from the state for the lead-contaminated water piped into many households.
The settlement would be one of the largest in the state's history.
Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech professor and water expert who tested city water at Flint households and helped expose the lead contamination, responded quickly to the news of a settlement.
"If money is how government expresses sorrow for its crimes — this is a big apology," Edwards said.
Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley was not part of the settlement discussions, but he said Wednesday that he is "anxiously awaiting closure."
"We’re just staying positive and moving our community forward in a positive direction," said Neeley, who was a city councilman during the water source switch to the highly corrosive Flint River in 2014.
Flint Councilman Eric Mays called the settlement a “good start.”
“I always believed we would be somewhat successful in the civil lawsuits,” Mays said Wednesday. “I will hold my breath and wait till Friday.
“I believe a major portion of that (money) will go towards kids 5, 6 years old in that age group,” added the councilman, who is a member of the class-action civil lawsuit. “I will be waiting to see what the attorney fee portion might be out of that.”
Ryan Jarvi, a spokesman for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, declined to provide details or confirm a settlement had been reached Wednesday night.
Flint Councilman Eric Mays
Nessel's office and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's office have been engaged in ongoing mediation effort in Flint water cases for more than 18 months, Jarvi said.
"We and the other parties are bound by a federal court order to maintain the confidentiality of detailed settlement and mediation communications until we reach a certain point," Jarvi said. "We have not yet reached the point where we can discuss a potential settlement."
Nessel said last year that she was in discussions regarding the negotiations with Whitmer and legislative leaders about the settlement, which will likely require lawmakers to appropriate state funds.
The governor's office isn't at the point where it can discuss a potential settlement in the case, Whitmer's spokeswoman Tiffany Brown said Wednesday.
"Since taking office, the governor's and the attorney general's teams have been working steadily to reach a resolution of the Flint water cases, and they continue to do so," Brown said.
Through June 2019, Michigan was the subject of 79 Flint related lawsuits in state and federal court. Over the years, some suits have been consolidated for case management purposes.
It is not clear whether the settlement expected Friday resolves all of the civil suits filed against the state or a majority of them.
The state also had filed its own civil suit against engineering companies that had been hired by the Flint government as consultants when the city switched its water source. Nessel has said she expected any settlement from the lawsuits against Veolia and LAN would offset what the state would eventually pay in the state and federal civil litigation.
The settlement comes as the state faces what experts say could be up to a $3 billion hole in next year's budget because of decreased tax revenue during the coronavirus pandemic.
The state has a fund that it draws settlement money from, but never one of this proportion. The settlement amount calls for the involvement of the Legislature to appropriate more money toward the agreement.
Between 2015 and 2019, the state has pulled $15.1 million from the Lawsuit Settlement Proceeds Fund — a fund containing settlements in favor of the state — for Flint water investigations and legal defense costs alone, according to a January 2019 report by the House Fiscal Agency.
Between 2008 and 2018, the state paid $441.4 million in settlements across all departments, according to a Senate Fiscal Agency report.
The largest settlement in the past 10 years that comes close to the expected Flint deal appears to be an agreement reached in February requiring the Michigan Department of Corrections to pay $80 million to settle a lawsuit with former juvenile offenders who contended they were sexually abused in Michigan prisons. In 1996, the Corrections Department also reached a $100 million resolution in a separate case in which female prisoners alleged sexual misconduct and harassment by male officers.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel
The Flint lawsuits were prompted after the state had appointed a series of emergency managers to operate the city of Flint after years of financial distress. Under state oversight, the city's water source was switched in April 2014 from water provided by the regional Detroit Water and Sewerage Department system to the Flint River. Flint was switched back to the Detroit system in October 2015.
The more acidic river water was not treated with anti-corrosion chemicals upon the advice of Michigan environmental department experts. A panel formed by former Gov. Rick Snyder found that the series of events led to the acidic river water corroding aging city water lines, resulting in the leaching of lead into the drinking water.
Experts have argued the contamination also resulted in two outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease that resulted in at least 13 deaths in the Flint area.
The expected settlement comes nearly two months after a divided Michigan Supreme Court ruled a class-action lawsuit against the state — one of many civil suits filed after the water contamination — could proceed on the argument that Flint residents should be able to recover the value of their property alleged to have been improperly taken due to the contamination.
Todd Flood, the former special prosecutor for the criminal cases under then-Attorney General Bill Schuette.
Todd Flood, the former special prosecutor for the criminal cases under then-Attorney General Bill Schuette, praised the civil side attorneys and officials “for their steadfast efforts in making sure the victims are whole in the city of Flint and for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer closing this deal and making sure that victims were taken care of.”
“I worked hard with Noah Hall on the civil side of this case to make sure that we could do everything we could,” Flood added. “And that’s the first step in the process of justice."
In June 2019, Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud dropped all pending criminal cases in Flint in to reboot the probe that had begun under Schuette. Hammoud replaced Special Assistant Attorney General Noah Hall with assistant attorney generals working to defend the state from civil lawsuits.
Nessel had ceded authority over the criminal cases to Hammoud to build a conflict wall between the civil cases, which Nessel oversaw, and the criminal cases, which fell under Hammoud’s purview.
Trials for former Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and former Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells on manslaughter and other charges were dismissed. Charles also were dropped against six other state and Flint officials.
Hammoud’s investigation is still ongoing.
The state needs to shift its focus to criminal prosecutions next and revive charges, Mays said.
"The second step (of justice) will be coming, I’m sure," former special prosecutor Flood said, "with the criminal side of the case. I’m prayerful that that will come.”
Yes, the Flint Water Crisis will end up in Detroit because everyone was stealin' so the new Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is going to send in her gurl, Kym Worthy, to see who is under investigation so they can be proactive in taking over the prosecution to save her crew.
It may a campaign financing promise, but, hey, what do I know?
FLINT (WJRT) (1/7/2019) - Another Michigan Department of Environmental Quality employee has pleaded no contest to charges related to the Flint water crisis.
Liane Shekter-Smith, the department's former chief of drinking water and municipal assistance, originally was charged in July 2016 with two felonies and one misdemeanor charge.
She pleaded to a misdemeanor charge of disturbing a lawful meeting, which carries a possible penalty of 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. The other charges were dropped in exchange for her plea.
As part of the plea agreement with Special Prosecutor Todd Flood, Shekter-Smith must testify against other government officials charged in the Flint water cases. She likely will be a witness in the upcoming preliminary hearing for former Emergency Manager Darnell Earley and former Flint Water Department Manager Howard Croft.
If she provides misleading statements or fails to cooperate with prosecutors, Flood said a guilty plea to a five-year felony charge of misconduct in office will automatically be entered on her behalf. A review to determine whether she complied with the plea agreement is scheduled for April.
Shekter-Smith and other DEQ officials are accused of failing to do their jobs and provide safe drinking water for Flint residents after the switch to pump water from the Flint River in 2014.
Fellow DEQ officials Michael Prysby and Stephen Busch both pleaded no contest on Dec. 26 to misconduct in office and tampering with water monitoring reports -- both felonies -- along with misdemeanor violations of Michigan's drinking water law.
With Shekter-Smith's plea, seven of 15 people facing criminal charges related to the water crisis have pleaded guilty or no contest. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as one at sentencing.
FLINT, MI -- Three days after new Attorney General Dana Nessel said she wants to replace him, special Flint water prosecutor Todd Flood showed up for work, struck a plea deal with a former state drinking water official and refused to talk about his job security.
Flood answered several questions about his future and Nessel with “no comment” on Monday, Jan. 7, following continuation of a preliminary exam in Genesee District Court.
Nessel issued a news release Friday, Jan. 4, saying she had provided Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, a member of her transition team, “with the relevant materials related to the (Flint water) cases and has requested that her office take over the prosecution of the criminal cases on her behalf.”
Worthy issued her own statement Friday, saying she would evaluate the remaining criminal cases filed by Flood but not necessarily replace him.
That sounds like code for, "I am just going to take a look to see who is going to be charged so I can put together a defensive strategy for Dana and company."
Flood was appointed to the job by former Attorney General Bill Schuette. He’s charged 15 current and former city and state government officials with crimes related to the water crisis.
Seven of those cases resulted in plea agreements, three have been bound over to Genesee Circuit Court for jury trials and five are in the process of preliminary examinations in Genesee District Court.
As a candidate for office earlier this year, Nessel was among critics of the Flint water prosecutions, calling them “politically charged show trials” but didn’t say for certain if Flood would be replaced.
Despite the uncertainty, the special prosecutor is operating as though he plans to continue working on the cases.
Flood told District Judge Jennifer Manley on Monday that he doesn’t need to return to court to check on the status of the cooperation of former Department of Environmental Quality official Liane Shekter-Smith until at least February. That’s after she’s expected to testify in the preliminary exams for former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley and Howard Croft.
Last month, Flood told Genesee Circuit Judge Joseph Farah that he anticipated remaining on the job after the transition from Schuette to Nessel.
But, the Flint Water Crisis, which happened under the Emergency Manager Law, is still a matter of interest for Elijah Cummings, Chair of the U.S. House Oversight Committee.
No Flint water crisis if no Karegnondi Water Authority
KWA started “greatest water war in Michigan history”
GLWA widened war, taking over all of DWSD
KWA initiator Jeff Wright, a Democrat, tied to scandal-plagued Synagro, alleged money-laundering, shady campaign financing
Wright prioritized selling untreated water to DTE, other businesses over the people’s need for treated water
Karegnondi Water Group members get Bond Buyers’ “Midwest Deal of the Year” award in 2014. Without them, the poisoning of Flint would not have happened.
DETROIT – The mass lead poisoning of the people of Flint, Michigan, a cold-blooded act of domestic terrorism, was contrived for the profit of the Wall Street bond market, corporations and politicians by both Republicans and Democrats with their own agendas.
The two parties are battling the matter out in electoral debates, with Michigan’s Republican Governor Rick Snyder justifiably though hypocritically castigated by Democratic candidates like Hillary Clinton for his role in this unspeakable catastrophe.
“The governor of that state acted as though he didn’t really care,” Clinton said during the NBC News debate in Charleston, S.C. “If the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and being bathed in it, there would’ve been action.” Clinton’s Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders simply asked Snyder to resign.
In the most cynically exploitative campaign move so far, Clinton just published the video below. It calls for donations to a Flint non-profit, rather than pledging billions from the U.S. Treasury to save Flint, just as the U.S. Treasury bailed out General Motors, which left Flint, taking with it 72,000 jobs.
No politician has expressed any intention of locking Snyder and cronies up for life without parole, the only sentence appropriate under Michigan law, or of providing the billions of dollars necessary to rebuild not only Flint’s water infrastructure, but the city itself, devastated for decades by its abandonment by General Motors and other corporations.
Ten Flint residents have already died from Legionnaire’s disease linked to contamination of the city’s water. Tens of thousands more, especially children and babies, face irreversible life-time damage due to the neurological and behavioral effects of lead, according to the World Health Organization.
A petition to recall Snyder has finally
been approved by the notoriously recalcitrant State Elections Board and will no doubt receive mass support, as it should.
But make no mistake—getting rid of Snyder will not cut out the cancer of racism and profiteering that has devastated Flint, Detroit, and cities across the U.S. for years.
The most blatant example of the bi-partisan midwifery of the Flint water catastrophe is the creation of the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA), in what a Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) spokesman called “the greatest water war in Michigan’s history.”
He was quoted before the creation of the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA), which has since robbed the people of Detroit, the largest Black majority city in the U.S., of the entire DWSD, the country’s third largest water and sewerage system, founded in 1836, which had been serving 40 percent of Michigan’s population.
The poisoning of the city of Flint, which is also a majority Black, would not have happened without the creation of the KWA at the instigation of Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright, a white Democrat who has been Drain Commissioner since 2001 and spent 23 years prior to that in the department under former Drain Commissioner Anthony Ragnone.
According to U.S. Census figures, Genesee County is 75.2 percent white, and 20.6 percent Black, with a 21 percent poverty level. Flint is 37.4 percent white, and 56.6 percent Black, with a 41.5 percent poverty level.
Jeff Wright, CEO of KWA, Genesee County Drain Commissioner
In 2013, the KWA began building a 63-mile pipeline to Lake Huron that runs parallel to DWSD’s pipeline for the region. While boasting it will lower water rates, the Authority admits the pipeline will only deliver raw water, unlike the DWSD, which delivers fully treated water. Communities which sign on to it will have to treat their own water, creating ways to do so at additional costs to customers and profits to contractors. Wright said in 2011 that he wanted to bring raw water in for the benefit of businesses in the area.
The pipeline was supposed to have been up for operation by 2015.
The KWA now includes the “Genesee County Drain Commissioner, Lapeer County Drain Commissioner, Lapeer City, Sanilac County Drain Commissioner and the City of Flint,” according to its website. St. Clair County is reportedly also considering membership as Wright courts more regional customers.
Wright, who has a history of shady dealings with water contractors, began the push to create the KWA in 2006. Snyder’s appointee, Flint Emergency Manager Ed Kurtz, later endorsed it as well. In 2013, Wright got the Democratic City Council of Flint to agree to disconnect the city from the DWSD, which had supplied high-quality water to Flint residents since 1967, and connect with the KWA instead.
Due to KWA construction delays, however, Snyder and Kurtz ordered the ultimately disastrous long-term use of the polluted Flint River in the interim, falsely claiming that Detroit had refused to negotiate better rates for its Genesee County customers. While the Flint Water Treatment Plant, using the Flint River, has always been a back-up water supply to DWSD, which gets its water from Lake Huron, the plant was never outfitted to operate with river water for more than 20 days, on an emergency basis.
DTE’s Greenwood Energy Center in Avoca, MI is on the proposed Karegnondi line.
VOD reader Peter Bernard wrote, “DTE has been involved in the formation of KWA since the beginning. DTE didn’t need treated water to run its turbines. Was it the demand of DTE for untreated water as soon as Flint withdrew from DWSD that caused Flint to pump untreated water into its supply system? I worked for Detroit Edison as a summer intern 60 years ago and they always thought pure water was an extra expense since super-heated stem automatically purified the water driving the steam turbines.”
In 2011, Ron Fonger of the Flint Journal reported that DTE told the KWA board it was interested in purchasing up to three million gallons of untreated water per day from the Authority for its Greenwood Energy Plant.
“Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright called the news ‘very encouraging’ during a meeting of the KWA Board of Directors today, and said others could follow ‘as more businesses are made aware of (what we are doing and) the lower cost of untreated water,'” Fonger wrote, adding that Wright said KWA would work with DTE.
Map shows KWA pipeline in red, DWSD pipelines in blue.
In 2014, the Bond Buyer magazine gave KWA the Midwest Bond Buyer of the Year award during an elaborate ceremony in New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, for its second sale of $220 million in bonds to finance the pipeline, an intake facility, and two pumping stations.
It earlier sold $35 billion in bonds despite Detroit’s bankruptcy filing.
“Long before Detroit filed its Chapter 9 bankruptcy case in the summer of 2013, Flint and Genesee County, Michigan saw the need to break away from their dependence on the Detroit water system,” the narrator of a video shown at the ceremony said in a disingenuous, factually inaccurate introduction.
“In 2010 they formed the Karegnondi Water Authority, the two governments’ long-term strategy to deliver a more reliable water supply at more reasonable rates. After years of planning and crafting a bond structure with dual backstops to protect investors, the Authority hit the market in early April with its inaugural issue for $220 million in bonds. . . .The governments expect to cover the debt repayments with system revenues, and both put their limited tax GBO payments behind the bonds.”
The narrator said that Genesee County also pledged to cover Flint’s portions of the bonds if it is not able to do so under state emergency management.
Former Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow and former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick receive Bond Buyer award in 2004 for disastrous $1.5 billion COPS deal.
“Entering a market where local governments across Michigan faced heightened penalties, the authorities sold the bonds to more than 30 investors and achieved borrowing costs below projections,” the narrator said. “The deal paves the way for the County to trade in annual rate increases of about 11.5 percent for ones closer to five.”
The presentation recalled a similar Bond Buyer award given to former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his then-CFO Sean Werdlow in 2004, for the disastrous sale of $1.5 billion in “Certificates of Participation,” or “Pension Obligation Bonds,” an amount that ballooned to $2.8 billion with default penalties and interest swaps. Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr cited the deal as one reason for his improperly authorized 2013 Detroit Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing, but never followed through on a lawsuit he filed calling it “void ab initio, illegal and unenforceable.”
Below is the video presented at the Bond Buyer 2014 awards ceremony, on the Karegnondi Water Authority and the bonds involved.
In 2013, Tucker, Young, Jackson and Tull (TYJT), a Detroit-based engineering and consulting company, was contracted by the Michigan Department of Treasury to provide a study of the proposed KWA, contrasting it with the advantages of Flint remaining with the DWSD. The study strongly contradicted claims the Bond Buyer made at the 2014 awards ceremony, and other made in a study contracted by the community of Swartz Creek. (See full TYJT study at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/FLINT-KWA-TYJT-water_report.pdf,)
DWSD spokesman Bill Johnson
“The Flint City Council’s approval of the Genesee County Drain Commission-backed idea to link Flint and a proposed multi-county connector effectively launched the greatest water war in Michigan’s history, “ Bill Johnson, communications head for the DWSD, said in a press release. “The action ignores a credible state-sponsored study that came out against the ill-advised Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) project. And the vote makes no connection to Flint’s fiscal reality. All things considered, the City of Flint is best served by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD).” (See full release at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/water_war_undermines_flint-dwsd_relations-2013-14.pdf.)
The study concluded that the cheapest and safest option out of eight through 2042 for Flint’s water supply was to provide it directly through an adaptation of DWSD’s Imlay City pumping station, which is closer to Flint. DWSD has always provided water for the area through its Lake Huron Water Treatment Plant at Ft. Gratiot, Michigan, which sends it to the Imlay City station to go to Flint. Flint then supplies it to other regional customers. (See graph below.)
TYJT noted that the KWA proposal did not account for cost overruns on construction contracts, an almost inevitable occurrence, or provide a back-up water supply as does the DWSD for all its customers in the event of failure of the primary supply.
Why did Wright ignore this study? His connections with shady contractors during his tenure as Genesee County Drain Commissioner beginning in 2001, and earlier in his 23 years serving under former Drain Commissioner Anthony Ragnone, are well-known.
Southwest community organizer Denise Hearn leads protest against Synagro’s Detroit boondoogle outside the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant July 31, 2008.
Wright himself formerly owned a water consulting business called Tara/Aqua Management. During his term as Commissioner, he has signed multiple contracts with Synagro Technologies, Inc. for sewage sludge removal, dewatering, and land application at the county’s Linden and Ragnone treatment plants, from 2002 through 2009, according to a 2010 Flint Journal expose by reporter Ron Fonger.
At least two of the Genesee Drain Commission Synagro contracts, in 2003 and 2005, were signed by James Rosendall, former Synagro vice-president of development who went to prison for 11 months, in connection with the Synagro/Carlyle bribery scandal that brought down former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, DWSD head Victor Mercado, and former City Council President Monica Conyers, among other Black city officials.
Synagro VP James Rosendall
Rosendall was the only white who was jailed, while Black officials who refused to act as FBI informants received terms as long as five years.
Judge Avern Cohn barred the defense from asking why Synagro and the Carlyle Group were not charged in the RICO indictment.
Whatever you do, do not tell anyone the reason why the defense was barred from asking why Synagro and the Carlyle Group was not charged in the RICO indictment was because there was an ongoing investigation into other matters of interest. Sssshhhh.......
Wright was an FBI informant against Conyers’ aide Sam Riddle during the probe. Many officials involved in the probe acted as informants rather than being charged as well.
Synagro was purchased by the insidious Carlyle Group in 2007, one of the largest private equity and alternative investment firms in the world which has extensive ties to the global defense industry.
The Carlyle Group’s board has included politicians from around the world, including former U.S. Presidents George H. W Bush and George W. Bush, and their former cabinet members U.S. Secretary of State James Baker III, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, also former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Arthur Levitt, who served under Pres. Bill Clinton.
It is connected to the Bin Laden family and to former Phillippines dictator Fidel Ramos, among numerous others. Synagro went bankrupt in 2013 and was sold.
The KWA’s current major contractors include the omnipresent L D’Agostini & Sons, based in Macomb, at a starting cost $24.6 million for the pipeline and $11.06 million for the intake station on Lake Huron. D’Agostini earlier sued the DWSD because it was barred from further contracting with the department after its involvement in the RICO indictment of Kilpatrick et. al. was exposed. D’Agostini previously did 70 percent of its business with the Department.
The Alabama-based American Cast Iron Pipe Company, which operates one of the largest ductile iron pipe casting plants in the world, has a contract with a starting cost of $84.1 million, while the Flint-based E & L Construction’s contract for the Imlay City pump station has a starting cost of $11.78 million. All this work duplicates DWSD pipelines and intake and pumping stations already servicing the area.
Pipe for Karegnondi Water Authority is hoisted into Lake Huron.
Recently, Channel 2 reporter Charlie LeDuff interviewed Jeff Wright in a story focusing on the profits made by contractors on the Flint water switch. They included Kurtz campaign contributors AECOM, with $18 billion in revenues in 2015, and the engineering firm hired to ensure that the switch to Flint River water would be safe, LAN (Lockwood, Andrews and Norman).
LeDuff reports that firm’s original contract began at $140,000 and ballooned later to $4 million, despite the fact that it did NOTHING to ensure the safety of the city’s water.
(VOD takes issue with LeDuff’s initial contention that Flint ratepayers decided to opt for the KWA because they were paying “outrageous” rates to Detroit. That is a claim that has been made by DWSD’s wholesale customers in six counties for decades, never with an addendum that the communities involved add their own surcharges to the wholesale rates. LeDuff also appears to conclude at the end that water flowing through Flint’s pipes now from DWSD is safe, which it will not be until complete replacement of the corroded infrastructure. )
Jordan was also talking about how VICE would not pick up his work.
Jordan never shared his information with the Michigan State Police or the FBI, or with anyone else, for that matter, because, I guess, he wants the scoop, where I believe Richard Baird may become the sacrificial lamb to cover up all the stealin' the children, land & vote up there in Genessee County Land Bank territory, but, hey, what do I know.
I know this is about to get juicy, because Kym Worthy, as word delivered to me, is not in a happy place right about now.
I wonder how Fadwa Hammoud is doing?
Todd Flood was working with Andy Arena.
Where is Andy?
Who else had their hands on these transcripts?
Who was the transcription service?
Just asking.
Perhaps, someone should ask Jordan.
Someone should ask Kym and Fadwa how come they are not focusing on all that stuff about all the contracts and land bank stuff.....oh, drats, I forgot, if they did that, they would implicate themselves in what was going on in Wayne County and all those properties that just so happened to end up in the Detroit Land Bank Authority.
Lansing — Prosecutors involved in Flint's water investigation believe someone illegally provided confidential interview transcripts featuring aides to former Gov. Rick Snyder to a media outlet.
VICE News cited transcripts of interviews with multiple former officials, including Richard Baird, in a wide-ranging April 16 expose on the Snyder administration handling of lead-tainted water in Flint. Then, on Thursday, the Detroit Metro Times published another story by the reporters of the VICE piece with the full transcripts of the Baird interviews.
A new prosecution team appointed by Attorney General Dana Nessel continues to investigate the water crisis. Courtney Covington, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office, said the prosecution team has "grave concerns about the unauthorized disclosure of investigative subpoena transcripts."
"Investigative subpoenas are, by statute, confidential, and their release without a court order is a violation of the law," Covington said. "Such conduct obstructs the investigation that the people of Flint are entitled to and threatens to jeopardize our pursuit of justice."
However, she wouldn't comment on whether prosecutors were investigating the leak.
The transcripts detail interviews between Todd Flood, who previously led the Flint water prosecution team under former Attorney General Bill Schuette, and Baird from February and March 2017.
Baird was previously Snyder's transformation manager. Snyder and Schuette left office at the end of 2018.
The interview transcripts featuring Baird are marked "highly confidential." And in one of the documents, Flood specifically tells Baird, "This is confidential. It's that simple. So I keep it confidential."
The transcript "doesn't go anywhere" and is "sealed into an evidence room upstairs," Flood adds at another point.
Citing VICE's reporting, Metro Times alleged "prosecutors were investigating alleged attempts by Baird to pay off sick, publicly outspoken Flint residents with offers that included state-funded medical treatment, expanded Medicaid and home infrastructure replacements for pipes and water heaters damaged by Flint River water."
Randall L. Levine, Baird's attorney, said in a statement to The Detroit News on Monday that claims in the articles about Baird "are false based upon presumption and wrongly place him in a false light."
Baird had been informed that he was not a target of the government’s investigation, Levine said. And Baird voluntarily appeared for the interviews and did not claim privilege as he had nothing to hide, the attorney said.
As for the release of the transcripts, Levine said it "appears the only way such documents could have been leaked would be by the government, which is extremely troubling."
"By law, confidential information obtained by the prosecution including testimony and documents secured pursuant to investigative subpoena cannot be available for inspection or divulged and are exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act," Levine added.
One year ago this month, Nessel's office removed Flood from leading Flint water prosecution.
On Monday, Flood said he had no idea how the transcripts of his interview with Baird became public. But he acknowledged their release was "absolutely" an illegal act.
"I share the concerns of unauthorized disclosures of confidential material," Flood said in a statement. "I am not in a position to know why someone would do such a reckless act to disclose protected material."
Last year, Nessel removed Flood from the prosecution team. Nessel ordered criminal charges dismissed from the past investigation.
Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy are now leading the prosecution team. On April 17, they promised criminal charges are still coming and that the criminal statute of limitations and the coronavirus pandemic will not stop them.
VICE says its new reporting into the Flint water crisis spanned "a year and a half across the state of Michigan."
The KWA’s current major contractors include the omnipresent L D’Agostini & Sons, based in Macomb, at a starting cost $24.6 million for the pipeline and $11.06 million for the intake station on Lake Huron. D’Agostini earlier sued the DWSD because it was barred from further contracting with the department after its involvement in the RICO indictment of Kilpatrick et. al. was exposed. D’Agostini previously did 70 percent of its business with the Department.
