“In light of the charges filed against Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon today in connection with the Flint water crisis, I am calling on Gov. Rick Snyder to terminate Director Lyon immediately. My office began calling for an investigation into state officials involved in the Flint water crisis in September 2015, and we revisited these attempts more vigorously in February 2016 after Mr. Skidmore lost his life. How Gov. Snyder can continue to have ‘full faith and confidence’ in members of his administration who are being charged in connection with the loss of human lives is incomprehensible, and absolutely unacceptable. Even more so when the individuals he is defending are those within a state department whose mission is to ‘improve the health and wellbeing of Michigan citizens by promoting safe and healthy environments.’ Director Lyon’s actions fly in the face of that mission and as such he should no longer be acting as the head of that department. Moving forward, I can only pray that the hardworking taxpayers of this state will not continue to be penalized by paying for legal counsel for emergency managers and others who have contributed to the trouble that Flint and our state has faced in recent years.”
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