Oakland Exec Says He Didn't Downplay Flint Water Crisis

WATERFORD, MI – Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson distanced himself Tuesday from political insider who suggested — and was later fired from from his job at Inside Michigan Politics — the Flint water crisis is a hoax.

Patterson, an outspoken and often controversial figure, repeated comments made by Bill Ballenger on a radio show when he and other members of southeast Michigan’s Big Four political leaders spoke Tuesday during a Detroit Economic Club luncheon at the North American International Auto Show.

Ballenger, of Flint, said in the interview with WJR-AM radio host Frank Beckmann that he drinks and bathes in the water with no negative consequences.

Ballenger’s comments are in stark contrast to the findings in a study released in September by West Bloomfield pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, pediatric residency director at Flint’s Hurley Children’s Hospital. It showed the proportion of children with above-average levels of lead in their blood had nearly doubled since the city began getting its water from the Flint River.

In an opinion piece written for Newsweek by environmental epidemiologist Robert D. Morris, he notes that the city chose to test for lead in the summer rather than in the winter. The piece notes this is significant because in the winter, salt spread on Michigan roads finds it way into the Flint River entering water pipes and leading to the breakdown of lead present in the pipes.

Despite that, Ballenger said on Beckmann’s radio program the Flint water crisis “has been a vastly overblown crisis perpetuated by a lot of politicians with an ax to grind and, for that matter, the news media and national figures — some political, some entertainers — who don’t know what they’re talking about.”

He later said the story is “doing a lot of damage to Flint as a community” and has caused some businesses that had considered moving to Flint to retreat.

The community “is struggling to try to recover after four decades of harm economically, is angry right now these stories are really hurting the effort of the community to turn itself around.”

A statement released by Patterson’s office late Tuesday said that media reports that he was downplaying the crisis are “a misrepresentation.”

“Patterson never said he agreed with Ballenger’s comments,” the statement read. “He simply noted there are other viewpoints on the subject.”

Inside Michigan Politics, a newsletter that covers politics across the state, fired Ballenger Wednesday after he repeated the comments when he appeared on “Off the Record” with WWJ Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick after Gov. Rick Snyder’s State of the State address Tuesday night.

Inside Michigan Politics editor and publisher Susan Demas called the remarks “indefensible,” WWJ reports.

“[Bill] is entitled to his opinion, but not his own facts,” Demas said in a statement. “Flint is a public health catastrophe, as the meticulous research of Virginia Tech and Hurley Medical Center Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha clearly shows. I cannot have anyone associated with Inside Michigan Politics who minimizes the impact of this terrible public health disaster that will impact people’s lives for decades to come. I am truly sorry to everyone hurt by Bill’s comments at a time of already considerable anxiety and pain.”

Ballenger, a former state legislator who founded Inside Michigan Politics in 1987, sold the company to Demas in 2013.

Ballenger told WWJ that he’s “surprised and puzzled” by Demas’ response, and that he received “a lot of commentary from people all over the state saying ‘At last a voice of sanity, somebody who’s telling it like it is.’ ”

“There are a lot of politicians in the Flint area who either supported the switch to the Flint River or acquiesced in what happened,” he said. “I mean, they were all on board with the decision and now that all hell has broken loose, they’re running for cover and they’re pointing fingers at anybody and everybody else that they can get the public to blame for it. I think that’s what’s shameful.”

Flint switched from water from Lake Huron to more corrosive water from Flint River in 2014 in a cost-cutting move, action that resulted in a spike in lead levels after lead leached from the old pipes. The city was under emergency management at the time.

Flint switched back to the Detroit water system, which draws water from Lake Huron, in October after the elevated lead levels were discovered.

Ballenger told WWJ only 2 percent to 3 percent of the population is affected, and claimed it’s unclear if the lead poisoning came from the water or from other sources.

House Committee Approves $28M Appropriation

On Wednesday, the Michigan House Appropriations Committee approved Snyder’s call in his State of the State address for $28 million in emergency funding to deal with the water contamination and public health crisis. The Detroit News said the bills approved by the Appropriations Committee could come up for debate later Wednesday in the House, but wouldn’t go before the Senate until next week.

During his speech Tuesday, Snyder again apologized for the state’s role in the crisis.

“I’m sorry, and I will fix it,” he said. “No citizens of this great state should endure this kind of catastrophe. Government failed you — federal, state and local leaders — by breaking the trust you placed in us. I’m sorry most of all that I let you down.”

The governor previously conceded that the crisis is his administration’s Hurricane Katrina, a reference to President George W. Bush’s handling of the 2005 disaster in New Orleans.

““It’s a dis­aster,” he told Ron Fournier, a columnist for The National Journal. “It’s clearly a neg­at­ive on what we’ve ac­com­plished since I’ve been gov­ernor.”

The governor earlier accepted the resignation of Department of Enviornmental Quality Director Dan Wyant after the Snyder-appointed Flint Water Advisory Task Force found the DEQ was “primarily responsible” for failing to ensure the drinking water was safe.

More plans to deal with the crisis are expected when Snyder announces his budget in February.

President Barack Obama has declared a federal emergency in Flint, action that authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), “to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population.”

The Justice Department is also investigating the crisis.