How many of you remember the Flint, Michigan water crisis? As of last month, 15 people have been criminally charged. I’m sure many of you are assuming they’re all Republicans. After all, the media, Michael Moore, and Democrats have been telling us that the horrors of Flint were because of Republicans and their policies.
There is plenty of blame to go around. The question is, what can we learn from the Flint Water Crisis? I will share three lessons we can apply in our own communities to avoid crises and make better decisions. Here we go.
What Happened in Flint?
Here’s some history on the Flint Water Crisis. In 2012, the city of Flint decided to explore switching its water supply and examine the costs of building a shared pipeline with Gennessee County. CNN reports this was because of an audit that projected the city was running a $25 million budget deficit causing Republican Governor Rick Snyder to appoint an emergency manager to take over Flint’s finances. Flint informed the city’s water supplier, the Detroit Water and Sewarage Department (DWS), in 2013 that they would be switching their water supply.
DWS exercised its right to shut off Flint’s water in April 2014. As a result, Flint chose to supply water directly from the Flint River until the new water supply pipeline was completed. After the switch, residents began complaining to Flint officials and the Michigan Health Department that the water did not look, smell or taste right. Complaints were ignored.
By October of that year, bacteria was discovered in the water and General Motors stopped using it. In early 2015, lead contamination was first discovered. It wasn’t until October of 2015 that Flint switched back to using its original supplier, DWS.
How Far has Flint Come?
Flint has begun the process of completely replacing approximately 18,000 lead and steel water lines that could have contributed to the lead contamination of residents’ water by the end of 2019.
Flint is paying for the replacement with $97 million in funds from a lawsuit settlement against the state and federal governments. Residents refuse to trust any water unless the entire system is replaced.
The City of Flint approved a 30 year contract with their former water supplier, DWS, in November 2017. Meanwhile, the new pipeline Flint originally planned on using is complete and Gennesee County is building their own supply line to it because Flint’s supply line has reconnected to Detroit.
First Lesson to Learn from Flint
What can we learn? My Contract with the Community offers us insight. At the most basic level, the decision to use the Flint River as a water source was a health decision. Point number nine in the Contract with the Community is “Improve Community Health.”
The Flint River was used as a water source for two reasons. First, Flint’s existing supplier, DWS, chose to terminate Flint’s contract instead of supply water until the new pipeline was completed and the city could finally start saving money on water. In other words, the Flint River was always a short term, backup option.
Second, why was it an option at all? The City had been using the Flint River to supply its water until the 1960’s. Apparently back then, switching from it to DWS wasn’t because of health and safety concerns . If it were, we would hope the City Council would have considered those concerns and ordered testing. Instead they relied on tests performed over the years by outside organizations INSTEAD of testing the water themselves, adopting a “wait and see” approach.
They did not consider all the ramifications. Flint’s water delivery system include dated galvanized steel and lead pipes. Someone should have questioned the quality of the outside tests before moving forward.
Given the absence of evidence, they should not have voted to use the Flint River until their own tests had been performed. Had they done extensive testing, they would have discovered bacterial contamination in the water. They could then have conducted tests to determine how adding chlorine to kill bacteria would impact the older water pipes.
Yes, it would have been expensive, but it would have prevented illness, infection, and the waste of millions of tax dollars only to end up using the same water they were supplier who had been charging them too much money in the first place – DWS.
Lesson 1: Don’t take shortcuts when it comes to public health. More simply, don’t take shortcuts.
Second Lesson to Learn From Flint
The next lesson can be drawn from point number seven in the Contract with the Community, “Ending the Culture of Corruption.”
Residents began complaining within a month of Flint switching its water supply to the Flint River. Not only did officials choose not to test the water, they also failed to respect the complaints from residents.
At the state level, officials in the Michigan Department of Environmental Control learned of the possibility of lead contamination in April 2015. By July, they were reassuring the public that the water was safe. In August, they left out two lead level samples in order to avoid federal intervention in Flint.
Is this corruption? Sure, it wasn’t graft. It wasn’t undue influence. But it does indicate a hollow morality. When push came to shove, officials chose not to act in the interest of the public. They chose not to act in the interest of the people depending on them to provide clean, safe water. Then, they chose to lie about the safety of the water.
Lesson 2: Choose officials who will tell you the truth. We deserve officials who accept responsibility from the start. Choose officials who listen, who can accept constructive criticism, and who are willing to adjust and achieve their goals in the right way. The ends do not justify the means.
Third Lesson to Learn from Flint
Our last lesson can also be found in the Contract with the Community. The first point, Transform Government Processes, tells us how.
In all of the articles and pages I’ve read about the Flint water crisis, I haven’t heard an explanation for why the city was running a $25 million budget deficit. It was the budget deficit that triggered the appointment of a series of emergency managers whose mission it was to find cost savings. How did Flint get in this mess?
We gain some insight when we consider the city’s demographics. Flint was once an economic powerhouse, home to General Motors which at one time employed over 80,000 Flint residents.
The situation is very different today. The city’s estimated population is 96,448. Median household income is $26,330 a year, or just 45% of median household income in the country. 41.2% of Flint’s residents live in poverty. Part of paying for government services means generating revenue. Given these numbers it is easy to understand how hard it would be for the city to collect enough taxes.
Spending is the other part of paying for government. Flint wanted to manage its own water supply because the DWS rates were skyrocketing. They needed to cut costs.
But why were DWS rates skyrocketing? Forbes magazine contributor, Louis Woodhill explains by taking a look at the home of DWS, Detroit. Detroit filed for bankruptcy in 2013, with debts over $18 billion. More than half of those debts were the $9.2 billion in unfunded City retirement plans.
Woodhill argues that the reason Detroit was forced into bankruptcy is because its municipal unions increased the city’s costs to a point where the city had three choices, “… charging above market prices, (or) by offering substandard products, or by doing both.”
According to Woodhill, Detroit did both. He writes, “It now has the highest tax rates in the state of Michigan, along with the worst schools, the highest crime rates, and the most non-working streetlights. As a result, Detroit’s residents (i.e., its customers) have been leaving in droves.” With falling tax revenue, and fewer customers in Detroit, it is easy to understand why DWS needed to keep increasing their rates for customers outside the Detroit like the city of Flint.
How can we transform government to avoid the problems that led to the Flint water crisis? Woodhill thinks it’s simple. He argues it was liberal policies that laid the groundwork for Detroit’s challenges.
“The main reason that, in Detroit, per capita income is so low and crime rates are so high is that more and more of Detroit’s remaining population consists of members of America’s urban underclass. Most of the people fleeing Detroit have been productive, taxpaying citizens.
Liberal programs created America’s urban underclass, and they perpetuate it by encouraging and sustaining a breathtaking progressive social innovation called the “zero parent family.”
In a zero parent family, there is no one that has demonstrated, by fully meeting adult responsibilities (including paying his or her own way in the world), that he or she is a functioning adult.
Progressives favor using taxpayer money to incentivize children to have children, and then using more taxpayer money to sustain the zero parent family units that get created. In this way, old-fashioned, married, functioning adult fathers and mothers get replaced by welfare programs and occasional visits from government social workers.”
I understand this is difficult for some to process. Remember, Woodhill isn’t endorsing libertarianism, only condemning liberalism. In my view, it is distorted to suggest that liberalism is at fault, rather, we can say that extreme liberalism, at least as it was applied in Detroit, was a culprit. Extremes often have consequences. Eating too much causes problems. Drinking too much causes problems. Even exercising too much causes problems.
Detroit could be an example of excessive, even toxic liberalism. I’m sure, given the demographic and population shift in Flint, that a case could be made for toxic liberalism there too. For those who are reading or hearing this and starting to boil over, I am also confident that a case could be made for toxic libertarianism in some parts of the country.
There is a difference between liberalism that views all money as government funds where our net income is a government expense; and libertarianism, which views all government as oppressive and all taxation as theft.
I believe the solution is conservatism. True conservatives understand that taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. The goal is to take the right steps to make sure it’s civilization that we’re buying.
True conservatives aren’t going to suggest abolishing unions, even Woodhill doesn’t go that far. Conservatives will challenge any extremist union bosses who suggest that union or “prevailing” wages will benefit everyone. Do the math. Do the math and calculate how much it would cost every employer in America to pay the prevailing wage for every one of their jobs.
I am willing to bet that the result would mean no profits or so little profit businesses wouldn’t be paying enough taxes to pay for a civilized society. The 1% likely wouldn’t exist so taxing them 70% wouldn’t pay for a civilized society either, much less the Green New Deal.
So where would we get the money? You guessed it. We’d get it from individual wage earners. So much for the prevailing wage pay raise…
My point is our third Lesson, we need to transform government away from extremes. Pursue “Blue Collar Conservatism” to reform government from toxic liberalism and toxic libertarianism.
The Close
So what did we learn? Don’t take shortcuts. Choose officials who commit to doing the job well.
Tell the truth. Demand candor from public officials and elevate people who are honest and clear in their dealings both public and private. Make sure that your local and state governments understand that the ends don’t justify the means.
Lastly, try Blue Collar conservatism. Remember that conservatism isn’t a vice when properly applied. Let’s use it to move forward and avoid situations like the Flint water crisis in the future. “Flint has received $450 million in relief funds — $350 million from the state and $100 million from the federal government — to recover from the water crisis.
That funding is earmarked for water quality improvements, pipe replacement, healthcare, nutritional food distribution, educational resources, job training and creation and more.”
Sadly, without a change in governing philosophy, honesty, or an embrace of Blue Collar conservatism, Flint and cities like it could repeat its mistakes.
I’m John Guevara, and this is what I know.
