LANSING, Mich. — Fortune magazine asked its readers on Wednesday to rank the “world’s 19 most disappointing leaders” and placed Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder atop the ballot for his role in the Flint drinking water public health crisis.
Snyder joins Brazil President Dilma Rousseff, who faces impeachment for allegedly cooking the government’s books; Sepp Blatter, the former chief of the corruption-plagued world soccer governing body FIFA; former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli, villainized for huge mark-ups and profit margins on life-saving pharmaceuticals; and former Volkswagen chairman Martin Winterkorn, named for his role in an emissions test cheating scandal.
Snyder was ahead in early voting, with a significant lead over the only other governor to make the list — Chris Christie of New Jersey, nominated for his role in the “Bridgegate scandal.”
Snyder spokesman Ari Adler said, “Gov. Snyder is focused on fixing problems, not Internet polls.” But Adler added, “It is unfortunate that a major news publication would ask its readers to vote on something like this and then give them incorrect information on which to base their vote.”
In placing Snyder on the list, the magazine said: “Snyder and his team sparked national outrage after an attempt at cost-savings left the impoverished city of Flint, Mich. with a lead-tainted water supply that is being blamed for illness and brain damage, especially among its youngest residents.”
Fortune said that when called to testify before a congressional committee on March 17, “Snyder, who touted his competence in his gubernatorial campaign, labeled the experience the ‘most humbling’ of his life — then attempted to shift blame” by blasting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its “dumb and dangerous” Lead and Copper Rule.
Adler said the failure to add needed corrosion control chemicals to Flint’s drinking water after an April 2014 switch to the Flint River as its water source “was not about saving money, but rather was a mistake made by bureaucrats who misinterpreted a flawed federal rule.”
He said Snyder “is the only leader at all levels of government involved in the Flint water crisis who has been willing to stand up and apologize, take responsibility for what happened on his watch, and tackle the problems head on to fix what happened in Flint and fix the system that caused it to happen.”
Snyder has rejected repeated calls to resign over the lead contamination of Flint’s drinking water, which a task force he appointed said was primarily caused by mistakes in the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Snyder says he wants to stay on to fix the health, infrastructure and other problems in Flint.
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