Whitmer’s Fire Drill

Photo credit: Dale Young

On the campaign trail in 2018, Gretchen Whitmer ran on a more transparent government, promising to open her administration up to FOIA, even going as far to promise reporters they wouldn’t need to file a FOIA request.

In office however, Michigan still lags the nation in transparency with countless denied FOIA requests, secret trips, and multiple hush money contracts. Now it’s been revealed that, under Whitmer’s watch, MIOSHA employees have been burning documents and deleting emails after a Michigan city threatened to depose the director.

“Gretchen Whitmer promised transparency, but, since coming to office, has run one of the most opaque administrations in the nation,” said RGA Spokesperson Chris Gustafson. “Secret Florida vacations, burning documents, and paying former employees to stay quiet is the culmination of Whitmer’s shady governance.”

MIOSHA dismisses year-old COVID fine after city threatens to depose director
The Detroit News
Beth LeBlanc

Michigan’s workplace safety agency filed to dismiss a COVID-19-related citation against the city of Port Huron on Oct. 21, about a week after the entity cited by the agency threatened to depose a key director about the fine and the agency’s use of now unconstitutional executive orders. 

The dismissal by the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration came more than a year after it was issued and over a week after an hours-long deposition in which an inspector admitted to destroying emails and notes related to a citation against the city. During the Oct. 12 deposition, according to a transcript, the inspector waffled when answering questions about the influence of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s overturned executive orders on MIOSHA’s COVID-related citations.

Read more here.