[nfbmi-talk] Captain Rearranges Chairs on Deck of Sinking Administration Ship Taking on Heavy Lead Laden Water

[Terry D. Eagle]

Administration Life Boat Deployment is Next!

Snyder promotes senior aide to become top attorney

Chad Livengood, Detroit News Lansing Bureau

3:28 p.m. EDT April 12, 2016

Rick Snyder

 

Gov. Rick Snyder(Photo: Paul Sancya / AP)

 

Lansing - Gov. Rick Snyder has promoted a senior aide to be his top attorney
just as his administration has faces an onslaught of lawsuits over the Flint

water crisis as part of a series of top-level staff changes announced
Tuesday.

 

Snyder on Tuesday appointed Deputy Chief of Staff Beth Clement to be chief
legal counsel for the governor's executive office.

 

The Republican governor has been without a chief legal counsel since
mid-February when he tapped his top attorney, James Redford, to lead to the
Michigan

Veterans Affairs Agency

after a stinging audit that uncovered problems

at a state-run nursing home for veterans in Grand Rapids.

 

Valerie Brader has been on leave as executive director of the Michigan
Agency for Energy to serve as Snyder's special counsel for Flint legal
matters in

recent months. She previously served as Snyder's deputy legal counsel.

 

Clement also has served as Snyder's cabinet secretary. Her dual roles are
being split into two jobs as part of the staffing changes the Republican
governor

made Tuesday, Snyder spokesman Ari Adler said.

 

Mike Zimmer, director of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs,
is becoming Snyder's new cabinet director and will be asked to manage the
flow

of information and work among state department directors.

 

Zimmer's new job is a reflection of changes Snyder is making to his
administration following an admission of errors made in management of
Flint's switch

to Flint River water in 2014. As a result, toxic lead metal leached into the
city's drinking water supply.

 

"Improving the culture of state government to ensure we are continuing to
put people first is as important in my office as it is across all
departments,"

Snyder said in a statement.

 

Snyder appointed Zimmer's chief deputy, Shelly Edgerton, to be the new
director of the business licensing and regulation agency.

 

Beth Emmitt, the governor's scheduler, was promoted to deputy chief of
staff, according to Snyder's office.

 

In Snyder's communications office, Anna Heaton was promoted to press
secretary. She had been a deputy press secretary for the past year.

 

Heaton fills the job that was left vacant in February when Snyder's office
moved former press secretary Dave Murray to a communications director job in

the state's Department of Talent Economic Development.

 

Murray's departure was part of another

Flint-related shakeup

in the governor's office in which communications director Meegan Holland was
reassigned to a special projects manager position.

 

Adler, a veteran of media relations in state government, was then promoted
to Snyder's communications director job in February.

 

Communications office aide Josh Paciorek was promoted to deputy press
secretary, according to a news release.

 

Snyder's other deputy press secretary, Laura Biehl, will resume working for
Lt. Gov. Brian Calley in a role she previously had, Adler said.

 

clivengood at detroitnews.com

 

Source:

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/04/12/snyder-promotes-se
nior-aide-become-top-attorney/82945468/