The governor’s office is asking the Michigan Court of Appeals to overrule an order by a lower court judge that invalidated the appointment of an emergency manager to run the city of Flint.
This week, Ingham County circuit court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina ruled that the state panel the governor appointed to review Flint’s finances failed to abide by Michigan’s open meetings law.
The judge found that violation invalidated the appointment of emergency manager Michael Brown and all his decisions since taking over Flint in December.
In the legal paperwork filed with the Court of Appeals, state officials are asking the court to put the lower court judge’s order on hold and eventually toss it out completely.
The legal brief describes the judge’s ruling as “devastating” since it puts the city “back to square one” even as it teeters on the “brink of insolvency”.
Flint is an estimated $20 million dollars in the hole and only has $10 million in hand.
