DETROIT REACTION: Council
calls for action on lead concerns
by Emilia Askari, Detroit
Free Press, January 23, 2003
Detroit City Councilwoman Sharon McPhail said Wednesday she wants to
create an independent city lead commission to better coordinate all
lead-abatement funds.
Other council members asked for a full accounting of how the city's
lead-abatement money has been spent. They also want city employees to give
them a report about lead contamination around the old Master Metals
smelter featured in Wednesday's Free Press.
Grants to make homes lead safe are administered by both the city's
planning and housing officials. About $3 million in grant money has gone
unspent forat least two years, the newspaper reported Tuesday.
McPhail wants to consolidate the grant programs, which have different
eligibility requirements, under one commission appointed by the council
and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
"You've got lead problems that need attention in your house, you won't
have to go through a big, winding, never-ending process with the city
administration to get it," McPhail said.
Kilpatrick was out of town and unavailable for comment. Mayoral spokesman
Jamaine Dickens dismissed McPhail's plan. "I think it's a little premature
to jump out there and try to come up with a solution overnight to a
problem that's plagued us for years," he said.
At Wednesday's meeting, council members directed city officials to meet
for at least an hour with lead activists including Wayne State University
professor Lyke Thompson, an expert on lead poisoning issues. Council
members want Thompson and employees of the city's Planning Department to
come up with a plan for how the city's lead-abatement money can be used
more efficiently.
Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel praised the Free Press for its series on lead
poisoning.
"It's a really powerful piece of journalism, speaking for people whose
voices normally are not heard," Cockrel said. "We've got to get dollars in
those houses and helping those children."
City planning officials had said they would ask the council for approval
Wednesday of a $1.5-million pilot program offering lead-abatement help to
renters. They now plan to show the council their proposal today.
Councilman Alonzo Batessaid the public needs to be more aware of the
dangers of lead.
"It just shows you the kind of handicaps our young people face before they
even get to the starting gate," he said. "Lead poisoning is a real issue,
and it's infesting this town. . . . And we've ignored it because it's just
such a big problem."
