On Wednesday, the Michigan Attorney General, Republican Bill Schuette, filed charges against three low-level workers.
Mike Glasgow is the Flint water quality supervisor, while Mike Prysby is an engineer for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Steve Busch was the former DEQ district supervisor.
Both Busch and Prysby were suspended from the DEQ in January.
To have officials at this level charged is not the way this usually works.
"These types of charges — charging environmental regulatory officials with falsification and evidence tampering — are extremely unusual," said Jane F. Barrett, a law professor at the University of Maryland's Carey School of Law who has practiced environmental law for 40 years. "I can't think of another case."
Though Rick Snyder seems extremely satisfied with the results.
After a day of information leaks and press conferences, it seems very unlikely that this is the end. In fact…
Schuette, who has his eye on the race to replace Republican Governor Rick Snyder, salted his press conferences with statements indicating that this was step one. Already word is circulating that Mike Glasgow is reporting that he was ordered to change the water quality reports at Flint by “a state official,” which is exactly the reason bottom-level workers like Glasgow are rarely charged—someone else gave the orders. The charges against Glasgow, a “misconduct” charge, are expressly for people who have done something wrong that doesn’t benefit them. But modifying those reports did benefit someone.
It benefited appointed emergency manager Darnell Earley, who made the change from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to the Karegnondi Water Authority which introduced corrosive, untreated water into Flint’s aging lead pipes. It also benefited Governor Rick Snyder, who was out to assert authority over both Flint and Detroit.
The number of people who think this is confined to the three workers charged today is exactly zero. As additional charges are filed, you may see Glasgow, Busch, and Prysby back on the bricks very soon.
Last year, Wayne County Circuit Judge Vonda Evans dismissed a misconduct-in-office charge against Steven Collins, a county lawyer who was part of a failed jail project, ruling that he was an employee, not a public officer.
The charges filed against the three are usually reserved for elected officials, and it seems clear already that elected officials put them up to changing the numbers.
It seems clear that Snyder is ready to blame the guys on the front line, throw a little lead-tainted dirt on the whole thing, and move on. Only Schuette may find his ambitions are helped more by digging than joining in the cover-up.
Now we see how long it takes for the second move.