Recommendations in Michigan Auditor General's Report Often Ignored

State Fire Marshal Richard Miller cannot guarantee churches, restaurants, theaters and thousands of other public gathering spots in Michigan are safe, lawmakers were warned in spring 2014.

 

The state’s Bureau of Fire Services hadn’t performed any pre-opening or annual inspections of such places since the law requiring those inspections was passed in 1978, the Michigan Auditor General — the Legislature’s main oversight arm — said in a report.

Lawmakers had seen this red flag six times before — in 1979, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2002 and 2006 — but there’d been little or no action.

In 35 years.