FLINT, MI -- After a night of explosive exchanges between council members, the public -- and, at one point, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver -- Flint City Council voted to extend the city's contract with the Great Lakes Water Authority to September.
The council meeting was held on Monday, June 26 -- the deadline set by the state Department of Environmental Quality for Flint to approve a 30-year contract with the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA), provide an alternative long-term water plan or face legal action.
Postponing any long-term contract talks, the council voted 7-0 to approve a short-term extension of the contract to September 30. Ninth Ward Councilman Scott Kincaid was absent from the meeting. Fifth Ward Councilman Wantwaz Davis was also absent as he remains in the Genesee Council Jail on a probation violation.
Citizens and protesters, dressed in black, filled the audience and cheered, applauded and booed the council as they debated the future of Flint's drinking water.
Weaver and members of her administration -- who have publicly butted heads with the council and urged them to approve the 30-year contract immediately -- took up the front row.
While the council voted on Friday, June 23, to delay a decision on the 30-year contract for two weeks, three council members -- Eric Mays, Monica Galloway and Herbert Winfrey -- took turns suggesting alternative options to submit to the state by the end of the night to avoid legal penalties.
"My position is we've had two months to hold meetings and subpoena the public," 1st Ward Councilman Mays said. "Now it's the day, it's in the consent agreement. We're at this deadline day and I've done my due diligence."
Winfrey, of the 6th Ward, read aloud from a letter he wrote suggesting several alternatives involving temporarily using GLWA as the city's water source until resources could be put in place to operate a water plant in Flint.
"The rationale for the alternative proposal is how the citizens of Flint have been injured by countless bad decisions by the state government," Winfrey said. "It seems unfair that the state would impose deadlines on a city in an emergency situation induced by the state."
Galloway, of the 7th Ward, suggested that Flint residents continue to receive water on a month-to-month contract.
However, 4th Ward Councilwoman Kate Fields called the idea of writing an alternative plan before the end of the night "premature" and "short-sighted" as she said the council did not have all the facts and that Weaver was "trying to push GLWA down our throats."
"June 26 is an arbitrary date imposed by the MDEQ," Fields said. "It's not like they're going to cut off our water. As long as we have access to safe, treated water, we're in no danger if we do not approve this contract."
Council President Kerry Nelson said that the council members with alternative plans could send them to the MDEQ, but that he "wasn't going to play games with this crowd."
After Galloway said the city was previously "forced with their backs against the wall" to move to the Detroit water system, Weaver stepped up to the microphone.
"Councilwoman Galloway, you made a point when you said our backs were against the wall, but our backs were against the wall from the council that was in place when the former mayor asked for an emergency manager and nobody spoke up for us," Weaver said. "They sold our pipe, they took away our revenue source, they went to the KWA for 30 years and $7 million dollars a year, and nobody said one word ... We've been asking for an alternative. We gave you 10 to 12 different options and said, 'If you have something better, give it to us.' We didn't get it. We need it now. Our backs are against the wall because it is a public health issue. So, what happens with the long-term plan -- it eliminates the projected $10 million deficit in the water fund that we're going to have in June of '19. We save $7 million a year in bond repayment to the KWA. The long-term deal lowers the wholesale water rates so we save between $2 and $2.3 million over the fiscal year, and by not doing the water plant, since we didn't get the money for what we asked for, we invested in the infrastructure and saved $1 to $2 million annually. This contract needs to be approved and it needs to be approved tonight."
Projections provided to council and the public have only laid out costs for the first 20 years of the 30-year deal.
In May, the council requested to delay a vote on the contract to allow more time for public comment on the matter.
The city is on a short-term contract with GLWA, set to expire in July. Council previously voted to request an extension of the contract through November while it reviewed a long-term deal, but it's a decision that Weaver said she opposes as it will increase water rates by 4.7 percent and cost the city an extra $600,000 per month.
David Sabuda, Flint's interim chief financial officer, said during the meeting that the 30-year contract with GLWA will allow the city to "fix the long-term deficit."
He said without going with GLWA, Flint residents may be looking a 42 to 48 percent increase in water rates.
That water authority has also agreed to compensate Flint for its long-term debt tied to the construction of the new Karegnondi Water Authority pipeline in exchange for a 30-year contract.
GLWA was created from part of the old Detroit water system, which supplied Flint with pre-treated water from 1967 until 2014.
Flint broke away from the Detroit water system while the city was being run by a state-appointed emergency manager in 2014, choosing to treat Flint River water in the short term -- until the KWA pipeline was completed.
The decision triggered the Flint water crisis, which developed after state regulators failed to require the city to treat the river water to make it less corrosive to transmission pipes and home plumbing.
Flint reconnected to GLWA in October 2015.
Both Weaver and Gov. Rick Snyder announced their support of the contract with the GLWA, negotiated by officials from the state, city, GLWA, Genesee County and KWA.
City council has received letters from the MDEQ as well as the Michigan Attorney General -- regarding violation of a settlement agreement in a lawsuit filed by the Concerned Pastors -- threatening legal action if the 30-year contract is not approved on June 26.
"It could start as early as tomorrow," John Young, the city's state-appointed water consultant said in regards to Flint facing legal action. "We're now looking at a contract charging the city $600,000 a month more."