Whether institutional or overt racism contributed to the Flint water crisis is at the center of an investigation and forthcoming report being completed by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission.

The first draft of the six-to-eight-chapter, 70- to 80-page report is expected to be complete and submitted to the Commission by late December or early January.

It "delves into issues with ... housing ... environment of justice or injustice, the emergency manager, as well as delving into issues surrounding ... structural racism or racialization," said Commission Director Dr. Agustin V. Arbulu.

"I am very pleased with the progress we are making on this. We have further thoughts of having some of our experts who testified to take a look at some of our chapters and provide us with some feedback."

The eight-member, governor-appointed board will have an opportunity to review and offer comment before a final version is voted upon for public release Jan. 23.

It's currently about 60-percent complete, Arbulu said during the body's meeting at the University of Michigan Detroit Center Monday.

The commission held three public hearings this year on the cause and impact of the crisis that resulted in the lead contamination of the Flint water supply.

Flint leaders in 2013 opted to stop purchasing water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department in favor of tapping into the under-construction, $285-million pipeline of the Karegnondi Water Authority, which will draw from Lake Huron.

While waiting for completion of the new pipeline, Flint, while under state appointed emergency management, began drawing water in 2014 from the Flint River, which corroded lead pipes and caused a health hazard that went ignored for months, despite immediate complaints from residents on the color and taste of the water.

"We'll submit it to the governor, we'll submit it to the Legislature, we'll disseminate it to the community to hear their feedback," Arbulu said. " ... This could serve as a learning lesson more than anything ... The issue of racism or racialization or marginalization is something that I see somewhat built in our structures and it's not that people are intentional but the structures do create disparate outcomes and those are our concerns.

"I very much doubt that any civil rights charges will come from this; it may help some people frame their claims."

Flint-based attorney Joseph F. Galvin, representing Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright, was the only person to specifically address water crisis report during the public comment portion of Monday's meeting.

Wright is also the CEO of the Karegnondi Water Authority, the entity constructing the new water pipeline Flint plans to move to.

"I am here today to ask you not to rely on the testimony given to you by Professor Peter Hammer until you have read and considered Mr. Wright's testimony, which was provided to you," Galvin said. "I ask this in the interest of fairness."

Economist and Wayne State University Law School professor Peter J. Hammer co-authored a 67-page testimony document submitted to the commission in June in which he asserts "strategic racism" played a role in efforts to "disregard the lives" of Flint residents and make the Flint River the city's interim water source after ending the water agreement with Detroit.

While some members of the Commission hadn't read it, Galvin said a testimonial response written by Wright "rebuts chapter and verse" each of the claims of racism made by Hammer.

"In 2016, in the United States, to be accused of being a racist or of racism -- be that intentional racism, or structural racism -- or that which Mr. Wright has been accused of together with a large number of other people associated with KWA, strategic racism, is a terrible and hurtful thing," Galvin said. "It is most hurtful when it is not true, when there is no factual basis for the claim, when there are no statements you have made, there are no actions which you have taken which could lead any neutral observer to say you're a racist.

"I'm sure each of you in your own lives can understand how hurtful that charge is."