LANSING, Mich. _ A joint select committee of the Michigan Legislature on Wednesday called for sweeping changes in state government in response to the Flint drinking water crisis, including reforms of the state's emergency manager law and help to raise awareness and replace lead service lines statewide.
"Our primary task was not to find fault or place blame, but rather to identify the means to bring positive change to the people of Michigan and particularly those in Flint," the committee's chairman, Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, said in an introduction to the 33-page report.
The bipartisan committee, with representatives from the House and Senate, took more than 18 hours of testimony from more than 60 witnesses at hearings in March through May, but Democrats criticized the committee for not calling witnesses such as Gov. Rick Snyder and former Flint emergency managers.
Many of the recommendations are likely to have bipartisan support, but it wasn't clear Wednesday how many were likely to be acted on before next year.
"The committee urges the Legislature to act ... as soon as possible," Stamas said in his introduction.
Among the recommendations the report says the Legislature should enact or consider enacting:
_Expressly prohibiting cost from being "the primary factor in any decision ... that would directly affect public health and safety."
_Replacing the single-person emergency manager structure with a three-person financial management team.
_Prohibiting an emergency manager from switching drinking water sources without approval of experts and a majority of voters in the community.
_Making emergency managers liable "for certain harms they cause" and requiring them to post a bond for faithful execution of their duties.
_Fairer billing practices for water customers and requiring water suppliers "to identify the source and destination of all water fees and assessments in a customer's bill."
_Help for low-income customers to pay water bills.
_Creation of a Flint Toxic Exposure Registry to track all children and adults exposed to lead as a result of the crisis.
_Spurring economic development in Flint, and making the city a promise zone, similar to Kalamazoo, to promote affordable post-secondary education.
_Help for residents and communities to replace lead service lines, and ensuring homeowners are better informed about potential exposure.
_Establishment of a State Employee Ombudsman inside the Legislature to encourage "the reporting of governmental misconduct and strengthen the Legislature's oversight role of the executive branch."
_More robust lead blood screening for public schools.
_Moving responsibility for safe drinking water from the Department of Environmental Quality to the Department of Health and Human Services.
_Changing civil service rules to make it easier to "discipline employees who egregiously fail to perform their duties."
_Requiring greater competency and experience for water treatment plant operators.
_Tougher criminal penalties for misconduct in office if the offense results in bodily injury. The current maximum sentence for the felony offense if five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
_Creating a system similar to the Amber Alert system to alert residents to significant public health hazards as they arise.
_Requiring state and local health departments to promptly share medical and epidemiological information on public health matters with interested experts and medical professionals.
_Making Michigan's lead and copper standards more stringent than the current federal requirements � a move already pushed by Snyder and Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint.
Flint was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched its water supply, in April 2014, from Lake Huron water treated by the Detroit water system, to Flint River water treated at the Flint Water Treatment Plant. The DEQ has acknowledged a mistake in failing to require the addition of needed corrosion control chemicals. As a result, toxic lead leached from pipes joints and fixtures, causing lead levels in the blood of Flint children to spike.
"Unlike environmental crises that result from a natural disaster, what happened in Flint in 2014-15 is the result of human errors and poor decisions made over the course of months by officials and employees at the local, state and federal levels," the report said. "This series of bad decisions compounded a growing problem that ultimately proved disastrous."
Ananich, a member of the committee, issued a statement Wednesday that said Flint families want results "and that's what we must deliver." He said not every item in the report is the way he would have drafted it, but "there is an opportunity to make some important changes," and "we need to act on them."
"I've said all along we need to change the state's emergency manager law and this misguided culture," Ananich said. "We need to make public health the top priority when it comes to decision-making, and we need to have long-term solutions for the people in Flint."
Lonnie Scott, executive director of the liberal group Progress Michigan, said a needed reform not included in the report is making the governor and Legislature subject to the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. Bills that would make those changes have passed the House, but not the Senate.
"A lack of transparency and accountability contributed to the Flint water crisis and we must overhaul the secretive culture of the Republican-controlled state government," Scott said in a news release.
