Their cases are pending.Follow the news in Flint, the rest of Genesee County, and surrounding communities with a Flint Journal newspaper subscription. Meanwhile, nine people, including Snyder and Baird, were charged with crimes in January after a new investigation. Flint's water quality greatly improved after it returned to a regional water supplier. The case was erased after a year, under a deal with special prosecutor Todd Flood. But charges were dropped in 2019 in exchange for a no-contest plea to an obscure misdemeanor. After her dismissal, Shekter Smith was charged with misconduct in office and neglect of duty, and put on notice that an involuntary manslaughter charge would be pursued because bacteria in the water were linked to a fatal outbreak of Legionnaires' disease. Creagh testified that Baird "encouraged Shekter Smith's termination." Richard Benzie, who supervised the state engineers making key decisions in Flint, was not disciplined but "promoted and given more responsibility!" the arbitrator said in highlighting the different treatment. Rick Snyder, a Republican, said his environmental agency misapplied lead-and-copper rules and "caused this crisis to happen." The arbitrator's report reveals behind-the-scenes moves by Snyder's influential fix-it man, Rich Baird, who asked Creagh to take control of the department after a director quit amid the scandal. In 2016, a task force appointed by then-Gov. The disaster in majority-Black Flint has been described as environmental racism. The highly corrosive water wasn't properly treated before it flowed through aging pipes to roughly 100,000 residents, causing lead to leach from old pipes. In 2014-15, Flint's water was pulled from the Flint River, a money-saving decision that was made by state-appointed managers who were running the poor city. A message seeking comment wasn't immediately returned by an attorney for Shekter Smith. The state agency, which now is known as the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, declined to comment but said an appeal was being considered. He ordered $166,053 in back pay and $25,827 in retirement compensation. "Politics and the need for a public scapegoat helps explain why Shekter Smith might have been terminated when so many others who were directly involved and actually did make" decisions in Flint were not fired, Stark said in his September report. "No one ever asked (Shekter Smith) for her story," Stark said. The arbitrator noted that Keith Creagh, director of the Department of Environmental Quality, fired Shekter Smith without even speaking to her about Flint or waiting for a state police investigation that exonerated her. Sheldon Stark said the state had failed to show by a preponderance of evidence that there was "just cause" to fire Shekter Smith, who had an "exemplary" record in government. Shekter Smith was dismissed while engineers in her department - the "boots on the ground" in Flint - were suspended with pay before ultimately returning to work, the arbitrator said in a 22-page report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. Rick Snyder And 8 Others Criminally Charged In Flint Water Crisis
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