Flint’s former emergency manager proved that critics of Michigan’s emergency manager law had a point

[jpak]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/15/flints-former-emergency-manager-just-proved-critics-of-michigans-emergency-manager-law-were-right/

If and when a list of recent political wonders of America is drafted, the story of former Flint, Mich., emergency manager Darnell Earley should probably rank among them.

Earley is perhaps best-known as the emergency manager in control of Flint and its major governmental and financial decisions during the time when the city moved to a cheaper and more corrosive water source. As a part of that change, city officials opted to ostensibly save funds with the new water source, then put that water through the city's pipes without the kind of additives that can prevent lead from leaching into drinking water.

As is by now well-known, that decision ultimately saved the city some short-term costs. However, it put more than 8,000 children at particular risk of permanent neurological damage — long-term health and decision-making problems that are quite likely to leave an already high-poverty city with many related challenges in need of wide-scale and long-term social and economic supports.

Now that the extent of the damage done has begun to become clear, or at least public, two things remains incredibly cloudy: 1) exactly who is responsible, and 2) how do the people of Flint ensure that anyone — anyone at all — is held accountable.

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[JustABozoOnThisBus]

1. If someone is found to be responsible, and is held accountable, ...

... how does that help the people of Flint?

Fixing the pipes, getting the lead out of the water, these are imperative.

Attaching a cause to a specific problem in a child, developmental, behavioral, etc, this is a more difficult issue. And doing something to "cure" the afflicted, this may be even more difficult.