# Darnell Earley **STATUS: STUB — expand.** **Darnell Earley** was the state-appointed [[Emergency Manager]] of Flint, Michigan from roughly September 2013 to January 2015 — the official in unilateral control of the city when, in April 2014, Flint switched its drinking-water source from the Detroit system (Lake Huron) to the corrosive Flint River to save money. He had earlier declined Detroit's offer to extend the existing water contract. Because Flint was under emergency management, this decision was made by an unelected appointee answerable to Governor [[Rick Snyder]], not by the city's elected officials. Earley subsequently moved on to run the Detroit Public Schools under the same emergency-manager statute. ## KB significance Earley is the concrete human node where the abstract policy of the [[Emergency Manager]] regime meets the specific decision that triggered the disaster. He was among the officials criminally charged (including involuntary manslaughter in some filings); like the rest of the Flint prosecutions, his case ultimately collapsed after the Michigan Supreme Court invalidated the one-judge grand jury. ## To expand - Full career as city administrator (Saginaw, Flint city administrator before EM role) - The March 2014 decision to decline the Detroit contract extension - Criminal charges and their dismissal - Congressional testimony and his "I relied on the experts" defense