Tagged: emergency financial manager ed kurtz

A battle is brewing over where the city of Flint will get its tap water.

Last month, the Flint city council voted to join a project to get fresh water from Lake Huron.   Supporters say the project will save the city millions of dollars by replacing its current water source: the city of Detroit.

But the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is asking the state Treasury Department to veto the plan.

Bill Johnson is with the DWSD. He says state officials need to step in to prevent a “water war.”

A private company will start picking up Flint’s residential trash next month.

Emergency Financial Manager Ed Kurtz says Republic Services can handle Flint’s waste collection for a million dollars a year less than the city can itself.    The two sides signed a contract this week. 

The state Treasury Department is changing the rules for people hired by emergency financial managers.

Barnett Jones was hired last year as Flint’s Public Safety Administrator by the city’s emergency manager.  He resigned earlier this month after it was discovered he had a second full time job as the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department security director.

To avoid having that happen again, the state Treasury Department is inserting language in future contracts that says emergency financial manager appointees can not engage in other employment, unless approved by the EFM.

Flint’s Emergency Financial Manager says he’s ‘concerned’ about ending Michigan’s Personal Property tax.

Governor Snyder signed the phase out of the tax on business equipment today.

Flint relies on the tax for about 10% of its property tax revenues.

Ed Kurtz is Flint’s Emergency Financial Manager.   He hopes the legislature will help cities replace the money they’ll lose.  

Kurtz needs every dollar he can get to lift Flint from its multi-million dollar budget deficit.

A stalled housing project in Flint is finally moving forward.

Smith Village has been a longtime headache for Flint city leaders.

The Smith Village project started in 1998 when the federal government gave the city of Flint money to build low and moderate income homes.  The plan was to rebuild a neighborhood with more than 80 new, low-to-moderate income homes.

But numerous delays and lawsuits stalled the development.