Flint, Mich., citizens are campaigning to recall the mayor responsible for managing last year’s water crisis over the Democrat’s handling of a trash collection contract.
Genesee Circuit Judge Geoffrey Neithercut approved Monday resident Arthur Woodson’s language requesting Flint Mayor Karen Weaver be recalled for supposedly bungling a multi-million government contract.
“The court finds the recall petition refers to the actions of the mayor, not the validity of a contract,” Neithercut said about Weaver’s decision to recommend the city sign a contract with Rizzo Environmental Services, a trash collection company being investigated on public corruption charges in Detroit.
Woodson must collect more than 5,800 signatures for the recall language to be placed on the ballot.
City Council members voted against Weaver’s recommendation in June, when the city’s contract with Republic Services was due to expire. Republic Services eventually got the one-year, $3.7 million contract, yet both companies were picking up trash in Flint at the same time last September.
Weaver, who publicly supported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s run for president, defended herself against the recall effort.
“My goal is, and has always been, to do what is in the best interests of the citizens and the City of Flint,” she said in a statement after the initial approval of the recall language.
She also sought to have a personal protection order issued against Woodson over claims that she was fearful for her life. A judge denied the request.
Weaver lauded then-presidential candidate Clinton last March for working with her on a Flint jobs initiative. “She heard our cries,” Weaver told the press at the time. “She said she was going to do something to make this happen. It was her inspiration.”
Weaver has also been the subject of intense criticism from her handling of the Flint water crisis.
A former city administrator filed a lawsuit against the mayor last May claiming Weaver directed city employees to stop potential donations to a charity called Safe Water/Safe Homes in February.
Weaver labeled these claims “outrageously false,” and an independent attorney later said there was no validity to the employee’s allegations.
The lawsuit came after a report showed burglars broke into city hall offices containing documents related to Flint’s water system and to the water crisis in general, just before federal investigators sifted through evidence of wrong doing. The only thing taken was a TV.
Henderson’s lawsuit also came less than a month after Michigan’s attorney general filed charges in April against three low-level Flint environmental employees for their roles in allowing lead to leach into the city’s water supply.
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