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Gov. Rick Snyder answers questions from members of Congress during a hearing about the Flint water crisis on March 17, 2016, in this Flint Journal file photo.

(Flint Journal file photo)

FLINT, MI -- Gov. Rick Snyder has approved adding $1.5 million to a contract for legal services with a law firm that's defending him against possible criminal charges tied to the Flint water crisis.

The State Administrative Board received notice of the action at its meeting Tuesday, Dec. 20, the same day Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed new criminal charges against two former Flint emergency managers appointed by Snyder and two former city officials.

The governor's emergency managers were running Flint before and during a water emergency that unfolded after a change in the city's source water.

Lead leached into the city's drinking water after the state Department of Environmental Quality allowed the use of the river without requiring treatment to make it less corrosive to lead and lead solder in home plumbing and transmission lines.

The $1.5-million cap increase for Grand Rapids-based Warner Norcross & Judd raises the contract's value from $2 million to $3.5 million, according to the agenda from the Administrative Board.

"Ongoing legal work is required as we continue to fully comply with the Attorney General's investigation," Anna Heaton, Snyder's press secretary, said in an email to MLive-The Flint Journal.

In addition to the governor's criminal defense, the contract also allows for "extensive document review and production," Heaton said.

Snyder has been criticized for his use of taxpayer funds to provide for his criminal defense since the water crisis unfolded in Flint, and the contract with Warner Norcross & Judd is not the only cost related to that.

The governor told the Administrative Board in August that he was also raising the spending cap on the contract with another law firm -- Detroit-based Barris, Scott, Denn & Driker -- from $400,000 to $1.4 million.

Sam Inglot, a spokesman for Progress Michigan, a liberal advocacy group, said any increase in contracts to pay for governor's attorneys is too much.

"Rick Snyder unilaterally approved a large increase of taxpayer dollars ... while fighting it out in court not to provide door-to-door water deliveries" in Flint, Inglot said. That's "a slap in the face to the city of Flint."

The State Administrative Board has general supervisory control over the administrative activities of all state departments and agencies, including the approval of contracts.

Its approval of Snyder's contract amendment is not required and aides to the governor have said the communication of the changes to the board is simply informational.

The state has been paying rising legal costs related to the Flint water crisis, including the cost of the attorney general's investigation (budgeted for $4.9 million) and the cost of providing attorneys for employees at the state Department of Environmental Quality ($2.8 million) and Department of Human Services ($650,000).