Simon Bazelon Photo
Elicker with campaign supporter Nichole Jefferson at Monday’s press conferenec.
Mayoral candidate Justin Elicker Monday compared New Haven to Flint, Michigan — and he didn’t mean it as a compliment.
Elicker held a press conference outside the health department on Meadow Street to criticize the Harp administration for changing city policy to dramatically limit how often it cracks down on landlords when children test positive for lead paint poisoning.
“This is wrong. It is unethical. It is a moral failure. This is New Haven’s Flint, Michigan,” Elicker said, referring to the lead poisoning that plagued the latter city because of government action on polluted drinking water.
Elicker’s press conference took place three days after Harp administration officials admitted in court that they changed city lead paint inspection policy last November in order to save money. Before November, test results showing children under 6 years old with elevated blood lead levels (EBL) above 5 micrograms per deciliter (μg/dL) automatically triggered city health inspections, based on a national Centers for Disease Control (CDC) standard. Now the city doesn’t inspect unless unless children have blood lead levels above 20 μg/dL, which is the state threshold for poisoning. The administration said it can’t afford more than two inspectors. (Click here to read about the the debate over this subject Friday in state Superior Court, where legal aid lawyers are pursuing a class action lawsuit on behalf of 300 poisoned children; they are asking a judge to order the city to resume inspections at 5 μg/dL.)
Elicker Monday criticized the Harp administration for making “short-sighted decisions that disregard science, health, and ethical standards to save money.”
Elicker is running against Harp this year for the Democratic mayoral nomination.
If elected, Elicker said, he would immediately hire new inspectors, digitize lead-level record keeping (the city revealed in court recently that it relies on handwritten files to monitor lead abatement), share with the public any information the government is legally able to, and work collaboratively with nonprofits like New Haven Legal Assistance (NHLAA) instead of fighting them in court.
Questioned on where funding would come from for increased inspections, Elicker gave a few answers. First, he said that any funds the city is using to defend against the class-action suit brought on behalf of affected children should be immediately diverted toward paying for new inspectors. The city has spent over $50,000 so far on outside counsel to fight the legal aid case, according to this story by the New Haven Register’s Mary O’Leary.
Second, Elicker cited research from the National Center for Biotechnology Information suggesting that lead abatement saves government money in the longer term. Given the established links between lead poisoning and other health problems – lower IQ, higher propensity for criminal behavior, greater rates of ADHD – Elicker argued that spending money to protect children from lead now would reduce financial strain in the future, especially in the educational system.
“We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in our schools on extra help and support for children who are struggling with ADHD, mental health, and other learning differentials. Many of these behaviors are linked to lead poisoning. Why not spend a fraction of that money now on our kids so we can keep them safe and healthy?” Elicker asked.
Elicker addresses the press.
Additionally, Elicker said that the city’s lead inspection ordinances allow it “to collect fees and reimbursements for lead abatements from property owners who don’t implement repairs or comply with [lead related] ordinances,” adding that “this will help us cover more inspectors.”
While “we need to make difficult budget decisions,” the city cannot make them “off the backs of our children,” he argued.
Harp campaign manager Ed Corey responded that there are “a number of falsehoods being peddled” about lead abatement in New Haven, including that the city’s ordinance requires inspections and abatement enforcement at lead levels of 5 micrograms per deciliter. The ordinance’s language sets the number at either 20 micrograms or or “any other abnormal body burden of lead”; legal aid put an expert on the stand who argued that the 5 μg/dL constitutes the CDC standard for “abnormal body burden.” Elicker agreed with legal aid’s position.
Corey stated that what “actually happened was for years, the city was receiving grants and special funds from the federal government to pay for five inspectors, but that recently that money dried up, forcing the city to cut back to three inspector positions.” of which one is currently vacant.
“While the mayor has been fighting to get those grants back, without those funds, the city has had to revert to the legal standard” that triggers enforcement, which the city believes to be 20 micrograms per deciliter.
Corey also rejected the idea that the lead issue should be a focus of the mayoral primary campaign, arguing that the defining issues should be the mayor’s record on the economy and housing.
Elicker speaks with Lynette Hines, who said her son had high lead levels.
Previous lead coverage:
• Harp Administration Admits Relaxing Lead Standard To Save $$
• Class-Action Suit Slams City On Lead
• City, Legal Aid Clash On Lead Paint
• Legal Aid To City: Get Moving On Lead Paint Law
• 100+ Tenants Caught In Lead Limbo
• 2 Agencies, 2 Tacks On Lead Paint
• Chapel Apartments Get 3rd Lead Order
• Lead Sends Family Packing
• Health Officials Grilled On Lead Plans
• Judge Threatens To Find City In Contempt
• Same Mandy House Cited Twice For Lead Paint
• Lead $ Search Advances
• 3 Landlords Hit With New Lead Orders
• Another Judge Rips City On Lead
• Judge To City: Get Moving On Lead
• Health Department Seeks Another $4.1M For Lead Abatement
• City-OK’d Lead Fixes Fail Independent Inspection
• Judge: City Dragged Feet On Lead
• 2nd Kid Poisoned After City Ordered Repairs
• Judge: City Must Pay
• City Sued Over Handling Of Lead Poisonings
• City’s Lead Inspection Goes On Trial
• Eviction Withdrawn On Technicality
• 2nd Child Poisoned; Where’s The City?
• Carpenter With Poisoned Kid Tries A Fix
• High Lead Levels Stall Eviction
• 460 Kids Poisoned By Lead In 2 Years
• Bid-Rigging Claimed In Lead Cleanup
• Judge Orders Total Lead Paint Clean-Up
• Legal Aid Takes City To Task On Lead