(This story has been updated with comments from Flint Mayor Karen Weaver.)

FLINT, MI -- Two state legislators from Flint are proposing an extension of the statute of limitations in criminal misconduct cases brought against public officials like those who were initially charged with crimes related to the city’s water crisis.

Senate Majority Leader Jim Ananich and Rep. John Cherry announced the proposed legislation Wednesday, Aug. 28, potentially further opening the window in which prosecutors can seek legal action against emergency managers, department leaders or any other public official “who had a role in poisoning the residents of Flint.”

The move comes two months after Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said they could run into problems filing charges of misconduct in Flint because of the time required to review newly discovered evidence related to the water crisis.

The bills would change the statute of limitations for misconduct from six to 10 years.

“I don’t want time to be the reason people are not brought to justice,” Ananich said. “It’s a pretty important issue. It’s not a complicated bill. I just thought, let’s give them the time they need.”

Hammound in June dismissed all pending criminal cases against eight individuals facing criminal charges related to the water crisis in various Genesee County courts, including three cases that had been bound over for circuit court jury trials.

Worthy told Flint residents after the dismissals that the moves were necessary because millions of documents, some of them heavily redacted, were never turned over to prosecutors for review after having been obtained through investigative subpoenas issued by former Attorney General Bill Schuette and former special prosecutor Todd Flood.

Current Attorney General Dana Nessel appointed Hammoud to lead the criminal investigation related to Flint and Hammoud fired Flood in one of her first actions.

Worthy agreed to assist Hammoud in her work and has said the new prosecution team has only until early spring to to bring some additional charges because of the current statute of limitations.

While Flint was being run by state-appointed emergency managers in April 2014, the city’s water source was changed to the Flint River, triggering a water crisis as city workers tried for the first time in decades to treat that water that would be used by residents on a day-to-day basis.

Since 1967, Flint had purchased pre-treated Lake Huron water from the city of Detroit.

State officials did not require the city to treat the river water to make it less corrosive to lead pipes and plumbing, each of which were common in the Flint distribution system.

The water caused lead to leech into the city’s water supply and caused new problems with bacteria and chlorine byproducts in the water supply.

A total of 15 current and former city and state officials were charged with crimes by Flood and Schuette.

Seven of those cases were resolved with plea agreements but the eight other cases languished in Genesee District Court with preliminary exams never having been completed in most.

Cherry said the Department of Attorney General was “in the loop” as the legislation was developed but said he himself decided to attempt to change the statute of limitations after hearing Worthy say prosecutors were running out of time to do their work.

Dan Olsen, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said in an email to MLive-The Flint Journal that neither Nessel nor Hammoud have “had an opportunity to review the legislation and would want to study it closely before weighing in.”

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said she is in full support of changing the law.

“There is no time limit that can be put on the amount of suffering that we have faced, nor the amount of pain as a result of the loss of life,” Weaver said in part in a written statement to The Journal. "I urge (Cherry and Ananich’s) colleagues in both the House and the Senate to consider how they would feel if this happened to them, their families or in their districts.

“I would imagine that they would take every step possible to ensure that the people they represent were made whole after an avoidable crisis such as the one we are facing in Flint.”

Ananich and Cherry said they are hopeful the bills will pass with support from Republicans and Democrats.

The bills are House Bill 4834 and Senate Bill 462.

“This legislation is necessary to ensure that the people of Flint have the opportunity for justice to be served and not cut short because the previous investigation was conducted irregularly and ineffectively,” Cherry said in a statement. “We need to ensure that investigators have the time needed to properly review the 99 percent of documents that were not turned over to prosecutors until this summer.”