The nation is rushing to try to help Flint, a city whose water has been disastrously contaminated with lead because of a decision made by an emergency manager appointed by Michigan’s governor. By all accounts, the state was, at the very least, painfully slow to react — something even Gov. Rick Snyder has tacitly admitted in a series of public apologies.
State and federal lawmakers, as well as residents, are understandably asking: What did the governor know, and when did he know it? Citizens need and should have every right to this information. But in Michigan, there are huge legal roadblocks to their finding out.
A recent report by the Center for Public Integrity ranks Michigan dead last in government transparency. One big reason: The governor’s office and Legislature are both legally exempt from the state Freedom of Information Act. In Ohio and nearly all other states, the executive and legislative branches are subject to “sunshine” laws.
After his office was engulfed by the Flint water scandal, Governor Snyder made a show last month of releasing his emails on the crisis from 2014 and 2015 — a move reminiscent of tactics employed by a desperate President Richard Nixon to prevent disclosure of the Watergate tapes. Some of the Snyder emails were heavily redacted.
The governor did not release communications involving his executive-office point person on Flint. Nor were any emails disclosed from 2013, when crucial early decisions may have been made.
Michigan passed its open records law in 1976, in the wake of the Watergate scandal. With the tainted-water scandal a national embarrassment, the state needs a new law that makes the executive and legislative branches as transparent as possible, with exemptions only for matters of personal privacy.
Mr. Snyder took office vowing to support transparency in government — a pledge he has done nothing to fulfill. Extending the Freedom of Information Act to those who do the people’s business in Lansing would be an ideal way to start.
First Published February 7, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
