CHICAGO -- Flint, Mich. will get its third emergency manager within one year after the current EM, Michael Brown announced Sept. 11 he is stepping down.
Gov. Rick Snyder appointed Darnell Earley, the current city manager of Saginaw, to take his place.
Brown’s resignation comes only two months after he took the post. Snyder first appointed Brown in late 2011. He was forced to step down in August 2012 when the state’s law for distressed local governments was repealed. Snyder appointed Ed Kurtz to take over, and Brown was re-appointed in July when Kurtz resigned.
Brown’s decision was due to personal reasons, including the recent death of his brother, he told local reporters.
“This job demands 24/7 attention and you have to be on your game,” Brown told local reporters at a press conference.
Brown said the city’s 2013 budget will be balanced for the first time in seven years. But he also said Flint was still about 18 months away from being able to begin to transition back to local control.
“We’re on a very different path from Detroit,” he said. “We are on a path toward solvency and not bankruptcy.”
Early starts Oct. 1. He has been the Saginaw city manager for the past eight years. Before that, he served as a city administrator in Flint and was acting mayor for a six month period in 2002. Earley has also served as the State House of Representatives director of policy and research and as Deputy County Controller for Ingham County.
“I am certain he will work together with the mayor, other elected officials, residents, and community leaders to resolve the city’s fiscal crisis with the goal of returning Flint to local control as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Snyder said in a statement.
Located 60 miles outside Detroit, Flint has been taken over by the state twice in the last decade. An emergency manager ran the city from 2002 until early 2006.
