On April 25, 2014, a state-appointed emergency manager switched the city of Flint’s drinking water source to the Flint River to save money.
The river water was not properly treated and it released lead from aging pipes into the city’s drinking water, and caused a deadly bacterial outbreak of Legionnaires' disease.
Now, 10 years later, the Flint water crisis still looms large over the city.
Flint’s current mayor, Sheldon Neeley, joined Morning Edition host Doug Tribou to discuss the ongoing pipe-replacement program, the timeline for settlement payments to residents, and Neeley's frustrations about the handling of criminal prosecutions related to the crisis.
Doug Tribou: When the water switch happened, you were a Flint city councilor, and soon after, you became a state representative. When did you first become aware of the water crisis, and what are your memories of that time period when it became clear there was a widespread, dangerous situation?
Mayor Sheldon Neeley: Before becoming a city councilperson, I'm a lifelong Flint resident. So the level of impact, it did not only impact me as a as a elected leader, but also as a resident, and still a current resident, of this community. And so, you know, definitely disturbing and it was very uncomfortable, going through this period of time, especially when the emergency manager came into our community and made decisions that had terrible effects. Now, as we move into the level of recovery from crisis, we're still working our way through that.
DT: Do you remember a moment when you said, "Oh, man. This is is much larger or much worse than we expected?"
"[W]e had a level of concern from many residents. And I commend them for ... being champions of this community."Mayor Sheldon Neeley on early outcry from residents about Flint's water quality. Neeley served as a city councilor and state representative as the crisis was beginning.
SN: Absolutely. And at that time, you know, we had a level of concern from many residents. And I commend them for championing for this community, being champions of this community.
I was a state representative. I remember, back in 2015, asking then the [Michigan] attorney general [Bill Schuette] to engage in an investigation, to find out what was the problem and what was going on with the water inside the city of Flint. Three months later, they started to look into it, and then we discovered that we had a real serious problem.
DT: Well, you mentioned the investigation, and more than a dozen people eventually faced criminal charges over the crisis, but the state's criminal investigations fell apart, in the end. No one has served jail time. How has that affected the mindset for people in Flint and their trust in government?
SN: Yeah, it's deeply disturbing, and it's not only that they not face criminal culpability for any particular actions that they've taken. But Flint residents never got a day in court, through a technicality. It was a one-man grand jury, I think, was the hang-up with it. And they never got an opportunity to be able to hear true evidence. And they never had an opportunity for this to be truly adjudicated.
DT: And I just want to note that you were referring to a case against former Gov. Rick Snyder and other defendants. The state Supreme Court found a one-man grand jury had been used improperly for their indictments. Several other defendants had pleaded no contest to misdemeanors and eventually had those scrubbed from their records.
Back in 2019, you were a state representative, and you said in a statement, "We've been told to wait, to be patient, that justice was coming. But where is that justice today? My city is losing faith in our government."
Has that sentiment changed in the five years since you made those remarks?
SN: Not at all. Confidence was eroded because people are left out of the loop. But there are many moving parts. You know, you had the criminal portion of it, and then you also had the civil portion of it. And residents of this community are still waiting on those pieces to come to bear.
DT: Well, let's talk about some of the work that has happened since the crisis began. The city of Flint has checked about 29,000 water lines for lead and replaced more than 10,000 of them. But the city was found in civil contempt by a federal judge for its handling of the pipe replacement program over the years. Flint has missed a number of deadlines.
As of last month, there were still about 30 lines left to check. Can you give residents a timeline for when that work will be finally completed?
SN: Yeah. Probably those 31 lines still remaining to be replaced will happen before the end of this month. What we need is residents to be engaged enough to be able to be present, so we can actually replace those lines. We had a lot of issues with people giving consent to allowing us to be able to have access, and so that has been some parts of our delays. But definitely, we had obstacles after obstacles to be stacked on top of one another, even going back to the pandemic where the world shut down.
DT: Well, you mentioned that the city needs permission to inspect and work on pipes, and there are about 1,900 properties that haven't given the city that permission. Is there anything that can be done there?
SN: Yes. As we work to secure another contract with our engineering firm, we'll be doing more outreach. We have at least made three attempts to all of those, structures of the 1,900 with no response and/or people not being available to be able to allow us to replace those last service lines.
"Flint residents never got a day in court, through a technicality."Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley on state prosecutions that broke down after a ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court on the use of a one-man grand jury.
DT: There are more than $650 million in settlement funds for the victims of the water crisis, and the bulk of that money, $600 million, is coming from the state. But residents haven't been paid yet. This month, the special master in charge of the claims process suggested that the initial phase of payments could be complete by the end of June. What are you hearing about that process?
SN: How those dollars are going to be distributed has been the question from Flint residents, and definitely we want to be able to provide more answers. We are a defendant in the case. We provided $20 million into that settlement, and there's no level of compensation that's ever going to achieve the goal of being satisfactory.
But definitely we've been here at City Hall trying to support them, trying to make sure the documentation portion is satisfied so those dollars can be released. They're estimating about $40 million-plus in interest to the total sum. And so if you have $653 million, a total of maybe $40 million in interest, you're looking now at maybe $690 million. And we still have one defendant out there, so it could be, you know, more than $700 million at the at the end of it.
The children will receive the lion's share of it. I think they figured out the calculations and maybe children will receive about 80% of those dollars. And so we're trying to do many different things, financial literacy programs that we've had. We have a underbanked society inside the city of Flint. We're trying to make sure that residents have the ability to absorb those dollars, and place those dollars so we can have a level of investment in themselves.
DT: As you mentioned, you're a lifelong resident of the city of Flint, and it's been 10 years since the water switch that started this crisis. Do you use and drink city tap water the way you did before the crisis, Mr. Mayor?
SN: Not the way we used to before the water crisis because what the world has learned and what we're seeing nationally — even when we talk about President Biden's infrastructure repair program, we look at lead exposure all across the country — we know better now.
And so, we're still providing our residents with water filters, and we have multiple locations throughout the city. We provide this water filter for residents free. What we know: we need to filter all water. We know no amount of lead is safe in water. I will always now advocate for residents to use filtrations for the point that they're going to be consuming water, as me and my family do now.
You know, Flint's water is probably the most tested, the most monitored in the state of Michigan. But we have the newest infrastructure. We will continue to increase that level of infrastructure repair.
But now we're working, as well, to repair what the world's view may be of us, but definitely continue to rebuild confidence inside of our community.
Editor's note: Quotes in this article have been edited for length and clarity.
