“If we are going to find out the truth about Milwaukee’s lead crisis, we need answers. The Council needs answers and more importantly, the public needs answers.
Although the Health Department report that was released Monday on the initial investigation was lengthy, it only leaves you with more questions to be answered. Representing and as a resident of the hardest hit area in the city in terms of high lead levels in children, I’m shocked that this level of complacency has taken place with the futures of my children and my neighbors’ children as well. As public officials we are charged first and foremost with protecting the safety of the public, and this just simply has not happened in this instance to say the very least.
As a result we no longer feel confident to allow a Health Department and a mayoral administration that has failed to protect the public safety so miserably to investigate themselves. To this end we are putting forth a Council resolution to call for an RFP to do a proper follow-up investigation into all areas highlighted in the MHD report. This will be completed and effective immediately.
The ball has been dropped and the public has the right to have it picked up by an outside investigator. Whether that is a special counsel or federal agency, it must be done in order to rebuild the public trust in our Health Department and those who oversee it. As the inconsistencies, the incompetence, and the lack of transparency mounts, questions that have been raised won’t be answered by those who have already let us down.”
