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Snyder right to keep cabinet members, for now

In previous opinion pieces, The Mining Journal has taken a hard stance relative to the Flint water crisis and Gov. Rick Snyder’s role in it. We believe Snyder and his team should have done more and done it sooner to safeguard the health and safety of people consuming Flint water.

But now, with two of Snyder’s cabinet members facing criminal charges in the scandal and the governor on record supporting them by keeping them on the job, we think he’s doing the right thing.

This latest round of drama relates to manslaughter and other charges leveled against Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells, members of Snyder’s cabinet, unlike the 10 state officials who were previously charged — five environmental regulators, three health experts and two former emergency manager.

Lyon is charged with involuntary manslaughter and misconduct in office while Wells faces obstructing justice and lying to investigators counts, The Associated Press and other downstate news organizations reported.

“The charges against them are based on unproven allegations and he believes people are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law,” Snyder spokesman Ari Adler said in the AP story.

In a nutshell, that’s our view, too. The easy — and politically expedient — play here would have been for Snyder to boot them both out the door now, lessening the heat he’s been taking while demonstrating an apparent zero-tolerance for bad guys posture. While that sounds good on one level, throwing people under buses before it’s clear what they did and did not do just isn’t right.

We say let the criminal justice system do its work. There will be plenty of time later to fire them — or accept their resignations — if circumstances warrant.

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