FLINT, MI — One of the most hotly debated questions about the Flint water crisis has been the one of who made the ill-fated decision to switch to the Flint River.

Despite steady claims from the state that the decision was made by Flint officials, newly released emails show an aide to Gov. Rick Snyder disputed that notion just days before a damning op-ed by former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley.

"It is important to note that council did not take a vote to use Flint river (sic)," Harvey Hollins, Snyder's director of urban initiatives, wrote in an Oct. 7, 2015 email to Dan Wyant, former director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

Days later, however, Earley penned an op-ed claiming Flint officials approved the switch to the Flint River as the city's drinking water source.

The issue of who approved the switch has been a contentious one, with Flint officials saying they never voted to do it and state officials claiming the emergency manager, who was appointed by Snyder, was just following the will of the people when he signed off on the switch.