Darnell Earley Appointed as Flint Emergency Manager, Will Oversee Disastrous Water Switch

Governor Rick Snyder appoints Darnell Earley as emergency manager of Flint, Michigan, the third of four unelected managers who would control the predominantly Black city during its financial crisis. Earley takes control of a city of 100,000 residents where more than 40% of the population lives below the poverty line and the city faces a $13 million deficit.

Earley serves from September 2013 until January 2015, a period that encompasses the catastrophic decision to switch Flint’s water source. Under Earley’s authority, in March 2014 Detroit’s final water rate offer is rejected, and on April 25, 2014, the city begins drawing water from the polluted Flint River without adequate corrosion control treatment—a decision made to save approximately $5 million over two years while awaiting connection to a new regional water authority.

The emergency manager structure concentrates decision-making power in Earley’s hands while eliminating democratic accountability to Flint residents. This governance model prioritizes cost-cutting over public health in a city where the majority of residents are Black and economically disadvantaged. When residents begin complaining about discolored, foul-smelling water almost immediately after the switch, there is no elected government with the authority to respond to their concerns.

Earley would later be indicted on felony charges in January 2021 related to his role in the water crisis, but all charges were ultimately dismissed in 2022 on procedural technicalities related to Michigan’s one-person grand jury law. He resigned from his subsequent position as emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools in February 2016 amid the unfolding Flint water scandal.