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Fallout from the Flint water crisis continues.
After a disciplinary hearing Friday, Gov. Rick Snyder announced that Liane Shekter Smith, head of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance unit, was officially fired. She had been suspended without pay on Jan. 22.
Smith, an environmental engineer, joined the agency in May 1989 and was an assistant division chief since June 2004.
She has two University of Michigan degrees -- a bachelor of science in civil engineering (1984) and a master of science in environmental health (1988), her LinkedIn biography says.
“Putting the well-being of Michiganders first needs to be the top priority for all state employees,” Snyder says in a statement. “Anything less than that is unacceptable. The DEQ is working to change this culture and ensure mistakes that endanger our residents don’t occur again.”
A departmental review of the actions of a second employee who was suspended without pay last month is continuing, the governor's office adds.
