Tonight, Flint’s Emergency Manager plans to lay out what has to be accomplished before the city can begin the transition back to local control.
Flint has been under an emergency manager since 2011.
Darnell Earley is the third man to hold the post. At tonight’s city council meeting, he will present seven points that will have to be met to insure he will also be the last.
“When is the city going to come out of the emergency management? When is it going back into local control? It won’t until we satisfy those seven points,” says Earley.
Earley’s ‘seven points’ include:
1) Deficit elimination plan
2) Five-year financial forecast
3) Governance
4) Organization development
5) Legacy costs
6) Strategic planning
7) Sustainability
He says he like to see the city make significant progress toward meeting his seven points by September, which would be the first anniversary of his assuming oversight of the city.
“I can tell you now I doubt seriously we’ll be ready before that because it will take us at least another six or seven months to resolve the issue of retiree health care,” says Earley.
The city of Flint is currently fighting a lawsuit challenging its effort to change retiree health care plans.