LANSING, Mich. (AP) – Under fire for his administration’s role in Flint’s lead-tainted water emergency, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder did something that would be legally required in most other states by releasing his government emails related to the crisis.
He did not release them all, however.
The 274 pages cover 2014 and 2015, including an 18-month period during which the city switched its water source to the Flint River while under state financial management until it reconnected to Detroit’s system because of lead contamination blamed on state regulatory failures. Snyder withheld the emails of everyone else in the 70-person executive office along with his own emails from his first three years in office.
Also left out were an unknown number of messages the public sent to the governor’s office about Flint water through the state website and his staff’s responses.
Michigan is one of two states to wholly exempt the governor’s office from public-records requests. Some others exempt their governor’s “working papers,” which can include memos and correspondence.