Meet Darnell Earley, the man behind Flint’s water crisis and a lot of other municipal messes

Let’s not allow one name to slip out of the chaotic conversations about Flint’s water crisis: Darnell Earley, the man who sealed the deal on the city’s poisoned system.

Earley, 64, is the former emergency manager of Flint and the current emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools. In other words, his haters now represent the intersection of People Who Drink Water and People Who Go To Schools.

This emergency manager keeps managing to make emergencies, putting him at the center of a public health crisis that has poisoned tens of thousands of people, as well as a protest movement that brought Michigan's biggest school district to a standstill. (His office did not return requests for comment.)

Most national discussion over Flint has centered on Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, but what about Earley? Here’s what you need to know about the man behind Michigan's municipal meltdowns.

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