The mayor position of Flint, Michigan is a strong mayor-type. In Flint's previous 1929 charter, the mayor was one of the City Commissioners, as the council in a council-manager type government.
The mayor position of Flint, Michigan is a strong mayor-type. In Flint's previous 1929 charter, the mayor was one of the City Commissioners, as the council in a council-manager type government.
| Elections in Michigan |
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The mayor was one of many citywide elected officers including the Recorder, Supervisor, Treasurer, Marshal, Directors of the Poor, School Inspector and Justices of the Peace. Additionally, other administrative officers were selected by wards. [1]
| Mayor | Start of Term | End of Term | Notes |
| Grant Decker | 1855 | 1856 | |
| Robert J. S. Page | 1856 | 1857 | |
| Henry M. Henderson | 1857 | 1858 | |
| William M. Fenton | 1858 | 1860 [2] [3] | Some records show Porter Hazelton as mayor from 1859 to 1860 [4] |
| Henry H. Crapo | 1860 | 1861 | |
| Ephraim S. Williams | 1861 | 1862 | |
| William Paterson | 1862 | 1863 | |
| William Hamilton | 1863 | 1865 | |
| William B. McCreery | 1865 | 1867 | |
| Austin B. Witherbee | 1867 | 1868 [2] [4] | |
| Samuel M. Axford | 1868 | 1869 [2] [3] | |
| William S. Patrick | 1869 | 1870 | |
| James B. Walker | 1870 | 1871 | |
| David Spencer Fox | 1871 | 1873 | |
| George H. Durand | 1873 | 1875 | |
| Alexander McFarland | 1875 | 1876 | |
| William Hamilton | 1876 | 1877 | |
| Edward Hughes Thomson | 1877 | 1878 | |
| Jerome Eddy | 1878 | 1879 | |
| James C. Willson | 1879 | 1880 [3] | |
| Zacheus Chase | 1880 | 1881 | |
| Charles A. Mason | 1881 | 1882 | |
| William A. Atwood | 1882 | 1883 | |
| George E. Newall | 1883 | 1884 | |
| William W. Joyner | 1884 | 1885 | |
| Mathew Davison | 1885 | 1886 | |
| George T. Warren | 1886 | 1887 | |
| John C. Dayton | 1887 | 1888 |
| Mayor | Start of Term | End of Term | Notes |
| Oren Stone | 1888 | 1889 | |
| Frank D. Baker | 1889 | 1890 | |
| William A. Paterson | 1890 | 1891 | |
| Francis H. Rankin Jr. | 1891 | 1892 | |
| George E. Taylor | 1892 | 1893 | |
| Andrew J. Ward | 1893 | 1894 | |
| Arthur C. McCall | 1894 | 1894 | |
| John C. Zimmerman Sr. | 1895 | 1896 | |
| Samuel C. Randall | 1896 | 1897 | |
| Milton C. Pettibone | 1897 | 1898 | |
| George R. Gold | 1898 | 1899 | |
| Hugh Alexander Crawford | 1899 | 1900 | |
| Charles A. Cummings | 1900 | 1901 | |
| Clark B. Dibble | 1901 | 1902 | |
| Austin D. Alvord | 1902 | 1904 | |
| Bruce J. McDonald | 1904 | 1905 | |
| David D. Aitken | 1905 | 1906 | |
| George E. McKinley | 1906 | 1908 | |
| Horace C. Spencer | 1908 | 1909 | |
| Guy W. Selby | 1909 | 1911 | |
| John A. C. Menton | 1911 | 1912 | |
| Charles Stewart Mott | 1912 | 1914 | |
| John R. MacDonald | 1914 | 1915 | |
| William H. McKeighan | 1915 | 1916 | |
| Earl F. Johnson | 1916 | 1917 [2] [4] | |
| George C. Kellar | 1917 | 1918 | |
| Charles Stewart Mott | 1918 | 1919 | |
| George C. Kellar | 1919 | 1920 | |
| Edwin W. Atwood | 1920 | 1922 | |
| William H. McKeighan | 1922 | 1923 | |
| David R. Cuthbertson | 1923 | 1924 | |
| Judson L. Transue | 1924 | 1927 | |
| William H. McKeighan | 1927 | 1928 | |
| Ray A. Brownell | 1929 | 1930 |
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Under the 1929 charter, Flint move to a council–manager form of government with the council called the “City Commission.”
| Mayor | Start of Term | End of Term | Notes |
| Harvey J. Mallery | 1930 | 1931 | |
| William H. McKeighan | 1931 | 1933 | |
| Ray A. Brownell | 1933 | 1934 | |
| Howard J. Clifford | 1934 | 1935 | |
| George E. Boysen | 1935 | 1936 | |
| Harold E. Bradshaw | 1936 | 1938 | |
| Harry M. Comins | 1938 | 1940 | |
| Oliver Tappin | 1940 | 1940 | |
| William Osmund Kelly | 1940 | 1944 | |
| Edwin C. McLogan | 1944 | 1946 | |
| Edward J. Viall | 1946 | 1948 | |
| George G. Wills | 1948 | 1950 | |
| Paul Lovegrove | 1950 | 1952 | |
| Donald W. Riegle Sr. | 1952 | 1954 | |
| George M. Algoe | 1954 | 1958 | |
| Robert J. Egan | 1958 | 1960 | |
| Charles A. Mobley | 1960 | 1962 | |
| George R. Poulos | 1962 | 1964 | |
| Harry K. Cull | 1964 | 1966 | |
| Floyd J. McCree | 1966 | 1968 | First African-American mayor |
| Donald R. Cronin | 1968 | 1970 | |
| Francis E. Limmer(C. Stanley Mills) | 1970 | 1973 | |
| Paul Calvin Visser | 1973 | 1975 |
Under the 1974 Charter, the office of mayor is a non-partisan elected position.
| Mayor | Start of Term | End of Term | Administrator | Notes | Elections [5] | ||||||||||||||||
| James W. Rutherford | 1975 | 1983 |
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| James A. Sharp Jr. | 1983 | 1987 | First elected African-American mayor 2nd African-American mayor |
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| Matthew S. Collier | 1987 | 1991 [4] |
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| Woodrow Stanley | 1991 | March 5, 2002 | ? (1991–2001) Darnell Earley (2001–2002) | 3rd African-American mayor Recalled from office in third term [6] |
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| Darnell Earley | March 5, 2002 | August 6, 2002 | himself | Temporary Mayor per City Charter Effectively City Administrator as of July 9, 2002, due to State appointment of Emergency Financial Manager, Ed Kurtz | |||||||||||||||||
| James W. Rutherford | August 6, 2002 | 2003 | Darnell Earley | elected to fill remainder of Stanley term; City still under State Financial Manager |
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| Don Williamson | 2003 | February 15, 2009 | Peggy R. Cook (2003–2007) Darryl Buchanan (2007–2009) Michael Brown (2009) | Initially under Emergency Financial Manager lifted in 2004. facing recall; resigns [8] |
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| Michael Brown | February 16, 2009 [8] | August 5, 2009 | himself | Temporary Mayor per City Charter [8] | |||||||||||||||||
| Dayne Walling | August 5, 2009 [9] | November 9, 2015 |
| Powers remove effective 12/1/2011 under city's financial emergency & transfer to an Emergency Manager [13] of which several individuals served until April 30, 2015, when a Receivership Board assume some oversight. [12] |
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| Karen Weaver | November 9, 2015 | November 11, 2019 | under RTA Board oversight [12] First female mayor of Flint. |
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| Sheldon Neeley | November 11, 2019 | present | Clyde Edwards [17] |
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Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, 66 miles (106 km) northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 81,252, making it the twelfth-most populous city in Michigan. The Flint metropolitan area is located entirely within Genesee County. It is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Michigan with a population of 406,892 in 2020. The city was incorporated in 1855.
Genesee County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 406,211, making it the fifth-most populous county in Michigan. The county seat and population center is Flint. Genesee County consists of 33 cities, townships, and villages. It is considered to be a part of the greater Mid Michigan area.
Donald J. Williamson was an American businessman and politician who served as the mayor of Flint, Michigan from 2003 to 2009. He was married to Patsy Lou Williamson, who owned several car dealerships in the Flint area. He was chairman of The Colonel's International, Inc., which manages two raceways.
Lee Gonzales is an American politician from the Michigan. Gonzales is a former Democratic Party member of Michigan State House of Representatives. He represented the 49th District, which is located in Genesee County and includes part of the city of Flint.
Woodrow Stanley was an American Democratic Party politician. He was mayor of Flint, Michigan from 1991 until his recall in 2002, and was a member of the Michigan House of Representatives from District 34 from 2009 to 2014.
Darnell Earley is an American public administrator and municipal manager. Formerly the city manager of Saginaw, Michigan and emergency manager of Flint, Michigan, Earley served as temporary mayor of Flint after the recall of Woodrow Stanley. Earley was appointed emergency manager of the Detroit Public Schools system in January 2015. He resigned that position in February 2016. In January 2021 he was indicted on felony charges regarding the Flint water crisis.
James W. Rutherford was a mayor of the City of Flint, Michigan serving as the first "strong" mayor elected under Flint's 1974 charter. Rutherford served for two terms. Rutherford was elected as a caretaker mayor after the recall of Mayor Stanley was recalled and an Emergency Financial Manager, Ed Kurtz, was appointed by the state.
The City of Flint has operated under at least four charters. The City is currently run under its 2017 charter that gives the city a Strong Mayor form of government. It is also instituted the appointed independent office of Ombudsman, while the city clerk is solely appointed by the City Council. The City Council is composed of members elected from the city's nine wards.
Hurley Medical Center is a teaching hospital serving Genesee, Lapeer, and Shiawassee counties in eastern Michigan since December 19, 1908. Situated in Flint, Michigan, it is a 457-bed public non-profit hospital.
Michael Brown is the former city administrator and former emergency manager of Flint, Michigan, US. He also served as temporary mayor and city administrator of Flint after the resignation of Don Williamson.
Floyd J. McCree, was a Michigan politician. He was the first African American mayor of Flint, Michigan.
Dayne Walling is an American politician who was the mayor of Flint, Michigan from 2009 to 2015. Although the Flint mayor's office is a nonpartisan position, Walling is a member of the Democratic Party.
Patricia A. Lockwood is an American politician.
James Ananich is an American politician from the State of Michigan. He was a Democratic Party member of the Michigan State Senate from 2013 to 2023, representing the 27th district, which is located in Genesee County and includes the cities Burton, Clio, Flint, Mount Morris and Swartz Creek and the townships of Flint Township, Forest, Genesee, Mount Morris, Richfield, Thetford and Vienna. He was the minority leader from 2015 to 2023.
Financial emergency is a state of receivership for the State of Michigan's local governments.
Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) is a municipal corporation responsible for distributing water services in the Mid-Michigan and Thumb areas of the U.S. state of Michigan. Members of the authority are the cities of Flint and Lapeer, and the counties of Genesee, Lapeer and Sanilac. Karegnondi is a word from the Petan Indian language meaning "lake" and another early name for Lake Huron.
Daniel Timothy Kildee is an American politician serving as a U.S. representative from Michigan since 2013, representing the state's 8th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the Genesee County Treasurer from 1996 to 2013, before succeeding his uncle, Dale Kildee, in Congress.
The Flint water crisis is a public health crisis that started in 2014 after the drinking water for the city of Flint, Michigan, was contaminated with lead and possibly Legionella bacteria. In April 2014, during a financial crisis, state-appointed emergency manager Darnell Earley changed Flint's water source from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to the Flint River. Residents complained about the taste, smell, and appearance of the water. Officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water, which resulted in lead from aging pipes leaching into the water supply, exposing around 100,000 residents to elevated lead levels. A pair of scientific studies confirmed that lead contamination was present in the water supply. The city switched back to the Detroit water system on October 16, 2015. It later signed a 30-year contract with the new Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) on November 22, 2017.
Karen Weaver is an American psychologist and politician who was the mayor of Flint, Michigan, from 2015 to 2019. She was the first female mayor of the city and the fifth African-American to hold the office.
Sheldon Andre Neeley is an American politician, currently serving as the Mayor of Flint, Michigan. He was elected as Flint's mayor in 2019 and served an abbreviated three-year term before being re-elected in 2022. Neeley is a registered Democrat and a former state representative in Michigan's 34th House district. He served two complete terms and one partial term in the Michigan House of Representatives between 2015 and 2019. He resigned from his position in the House when he was elected as the Mayor of Flint in 2019. Neeley's wife, Cynthia, was elected to his former seat on March 10, 2020. Neeley served two complete terms and one partial term on the Flint City Council between 2005 and 2014, prior to his tenure as Michigan Representative and was the Council's first African-American member to have come from Flint's Sixth Ward.