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Only state official fired over Flint water wants job back

Liane Shekter Smith listens during a preliminary examination Feb. 5, 2018, file photo
Jake May/The Flint Journal
/
Associated Press

The only Michigan official fired in the Flint water disaster wants to be reinstated and get years of back pay. Liane Shekter Smith and the state's environment department are meeting privately this week with an arbitrator, more than five years after then-Gov. Rick Snyder fired Shekter Smith. Shekter Smith was head of Michigan's drinking water office when Flint, with the state's OK, used the Flint River for water in 2014 and 2015. The highly corrosive water wasn't properly treated before it flowed through aging pipes. Shekter Smith was charged with crimes, but the case ended with a misdemeanor plea deal that was eventually erased.

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