STATE PUBLIC OFFICIALS PAY TAXPAYER MONEY AFTER POLITICALLY CORRECT "SAVINGS."

 

 

Image of algae bloom in Lake Sinclair provided by NASA.

People who live in the City of Flint, Michigan used to get their drinking water from Lake Huron.  They were healthy people, or at least they were not particularly poisoned by their tap water.

Then the State of Michigan took Flint over.  The State installed an "emergency manager" because the elected City Council supposedly made poor financial decisions that hurt the taxpayers.

The City's emergency manager installed by the State decided to save taxpayer money by switching the source of drinking water from Lake Huron to the Flint River.  After that City residents complained that they were getting sick from drinking water from the Flint River.

The State of Michigan's environmental regulation department, by whatever name, at first said that test results did not support the residents.  Then the State said that, actually, they aggressively ignored test results which reflected that drinking water from the Flint River likely causes lead poisoning and is otherwise harmful to human health.  They told the residents of Flint to stop drinking tap water.

The State then started spending taxpayer money on buying and distributing bottled water to the entire City of Flint.

And the Governor apologized.  See Mitch Smith, " Flint Wants Safe Water, and Someone to Answer for Its Crisis" (New York Times Online, Sunday, January 10, 2016).

So, as far as the Michigan Public Officials and Entities go, they were against spending taxpayer money on Flint's water supply until they were in favor of spending taxpayer money on Flint's water supply.

This raises interesting potential issues of Public Officials and Entities Liability Insurance Coverage, putting to one side sovereign immunity issues for purposes of examining insurance coverage issues.  Would the State's "emergency manager" be a Public Official or Entity under the State's insurance policy, if any, or under the City's, if any?  Would there be coverage under the Insuring Agreement of the applicable Public Officials and Entities policy, if any, for the decision to save money by switching water supplies?  These and other insurance coverage issues are presented by this situation.

Please Read The Disclaimer.  ©2016 by Dennis J. Wall, author of "Insurance Claims and Issues" (forthcoming Thomson Reuters 2016).  All rights reserved.