Every time the Flint, Mich., water crisis seems to have finally hit rock bottom, a new development tosses that assumption out the window. A lawsuit filed this week claims Flint city administrator Natasha Henderson was fired by Mayor Karen Weaver unjustly, but why?
According to Henderson’s lawyer, her dismissal came after becoming aware of allegations that Mayor Weaver had been instructing her staff to redirect donor funds to the mayor’s PAC — not the actual campaign aimed at helping Flint families.
The suit asserts City Administrator Natasha Henderson was approached by a city employee “in tears” with fears of going to jail. She told Henderson that Weaver had specifically ordered her and a volunteer to show would-be donors, step by step, how to contribute to the “Karenabout Flint” fund, rather than the official Safe Water/Safe Homes charity.
Henderson didn’t recognize the innocuously named “Karenabout Flint,” an immediate red flag. Disturbed by these claims, she sought to open an investigation into Mayor Weaver’s potential corruption. Henderson emailed Flint’s legal council, requesting an investigation and the guarantee that the employee who had made these allegations would not face retaliation.
“I will take prompt action and advise you later today.” This was, much to her disappointment, the first and last Henderson heard from Flint’s lawyer on the matter. What came next, however, truly surprised Henderson.
Just three days after emailing Flint’s legal council, she was called into Weaver’s office and abruptly dismissed. When asked why she was being fired, Weaver claimed the State of Michigan could no longer afford Henderson’s salary — a patently untrue assertion, because, as Henderson pointed out, Flint pays her salary. Without providing any other reason, Mayor Weaver fired Henderson.
Henderson and her attorney first sought to resolve the matter with the city and, initially, much of the city council supported her. That changed after Mayor Weaver held a closed door…