Great Lakes Wire

A new report reveals a consultant to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used coded messages in emails to conceal sensitive communications about the response to the Benton Harbor water crisis in Michigan. This adds to a pattern of alleged lack of government transparency in the Whitmer administration, despite earlier commitments to transparency, as highlighted in a Michigan Freedom Fund Aug. 31 release.

"Governor Whitmer and her team are playing games in Lansing, but instead of finding a prize, Michiganders find corruption. No one should need a decoder ring to understand what our government is up to,” Mary Drabik, communications director for the Michigan Freedom Fund," said in the release. "This scandal is just the most recent example of Governor Whitmer’s desire to deceive and withhold information from the very people she should be transparent with: the citizens of this state. I’m sure the governor’s Democrat allies who have decried the lack of transparency in our state will be the first in line to call out this shady behavior.”

In September 2021, Andy Leavitt, a consultant for Michigan's energy department, sent an email to one of Whitmer's top advisers expressing significant concerns about the administration's response to a lead water crisis in Benton Harbor, likening it to the Flint water crisis. However, Leavitt's initial message employed the Greek alphabet instead of English letters, a move that seems deliberate and designed to hide the content, according to a court filing in a class action lawsuit against Whitmer's administration, Washington Free Beacon reported.

This use of Greek letters would have excluded his email from any public records request searching for government communications containing the word "Flint," according to Washington Free Beacon.

Years after promising transparency as governor of Michigan, Whitmer's office remains exempt from public records requests, despite her earlier pledge to reverse this policy, Washington Free Beacon reported.

A significant commitment in Whitmer's plan was the expansion of Michigan's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to include the governor's office, independently of the legislature's decisions. Presently, neither the governor's office nor the state legislature is subject to FOIA requests from citizens or journalists, according to a March 2022 WWMT report.

"If the legislature won’t act, I will use the governor’s authority under the Michigan State Constitution to extend FOIA to the lieutenant governor and governor’s offices," Whitmer said in the 2022 WWMT report. "Michiganders should know when and what their governor is working on."

During the current term, there have been no legislative bills introduced by the Democrats to fulfill these transparency goals. Sen. Jim Runestad, a Republican, expressed impatience during a Senate session, saying it is long overdue for action, according to an April 2023 Bridge Michigan report. 

He noted that, despite the Democrats being in control for four months, there has been no action on the promised transparency legislation, accusing them of delaying and contemplating rather than taking concrete steps to implement it, according to Bridge Michigan.

Michigan's FOIA applies to state and local governments, including schools, universities and police departments, but it contains numerous exemptions and loopholes. The process for submitting public records requests varies widely, with some requests being fulfilled promptly and others taking months, often with hefty fees for redacted documents, Bridge Michigan reported. 

The law allows extensions and records culling, leading to delays. Advocates argue these hurdles make accessing government information confusing and prohibitive for residents. Efforts to revise FOIA and eliminate public records fees have faced challenges in the legislature, Bridge Michigan said. 

Some Democrats are also pushing to extend public records rights to incarcerated individuals. Additionally, Michigan passed Proposal 1, requiring future lawmakers and statewide elected officials to disclose certain financial information, although the rules were watered down from the original proposal. Campaign finance laws and concerns about "dark money" contributions have also come under scrutiny, prompting calls for enhanced transparency and enforcement, according to Bridge Michigan.