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Flint leaders intend to challenge current emergency financial manager in court

Michigan Municipal League
/
Flickr

Michigan's emergency manager law has been put on hold.

Its fate will be decided by voters this November.

In the meantime, cities and school districts once ruled by emergency managers now have emergency financial managers overseeing their budgets.

Public Act 72 was revived when Public Act 4 went up on the shelf.

Flint's City Council voted last night to challenge this rollback in court. Kristin Longley of the Flint Journal reports:

The Flint City Council has announced its intent to file a lawsuit against the emergency financial manager, with council members saying Public Act 72 doesn't exist and the manager was wrongly appointed over city operations. The council voted tonight to seek injunctive relief in the appropriate court against the state of Michigan's appointment of Ed Kurtz as Flint's emergency financial manager.

Flint's current emergency financial manager says he's staying.

"From my standpoint, until a judge somewhere sa ys I can't be there... I'm there," Kurtz said.

Kurtz told Michigan Radio that the city council has not shown the ability to handle the city's $19 million deficit.

"From my perspective, I haven't seen any evidence since I left the last time that they're able to live with a budget," he told Michigan Radio.

Longley of the Flint Journal reports the city council also voted to investigate the actions of outgoing emergency manager Michael Brown, who passed dozens of resolutions affecting the city right before his position was put on hold.

Mark Brush was the station's Digital Media Director. He succumbed to a year-long battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in March 2018. He was 49 years old.
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