Matt Helms

Detroit Free Press

Two of the top issues in the state — Flint’s lead-tainted water and Detroit's troubled schools — were at the top of the discussion today as southeast Michigan’s Big Four political leaders appeared before the Detroit Economic Club luncheon.

The often-controversial Oakland County executive, L. Brooks Patterson, suggested the Flint water crisis may have been blown out of proportion, citing a radio interview on Paul W. Smith’s and Frank Beckmann’s show on WJR-AM (760) with Bill Ballenger, a longtime political observer and former state lawmaker who lives in Flint.

Patterson said Ballenger told Beckmann that the water crisis is overblown, and that tests on Ballenger’s blood found no elevated lead levels. Patterson said Ballenger’s remarks offer “the other side” to the story of what’s happening in Flint, where testing has found dangerously elevated lead levels in children after the city switched from getting water from Lake Huron through Detroit's water department to water from the Flint River.

Patterson said Ballenger “was adamant that he lives in Flint, he drinks the water, he showers in that water,” and that blood tests found no evidence of lead in his system. He said Ballenger called the water crisis a hoax and “one of the most overblown scandals in the history of the state."

In an interview with the Free Press after today's luncheon, Ballenger stood by his remarks, saying tests have shown that only a small portion of Flint residents have seen elevated blood-lead levels, and it’s not clear that the Flint River — and not outdated pipes in schools, for example — is the source of the problem. He also said news reports have been saying that Flint’s children have been poisoned by Flint River water without substantiation.

“That's just wrong, false,” he said, “but we won't know the long-term results” until a three- to five-year study is completed.

Asked what he thought of Ballenger’s remarks, Patterson said after the luncheon that he was surprised by them.

“I think, well, that's the other side,” Patterson said. “Let’s wait and see what the facts show.”

Later Tuesday, Patterson's office said it was a misrepresentation to say he downplayed the Flint water crisis.

"Patterson never said he agreed with Ballenger’s comments," his office said in a statement. "He simply noted there are other viewpoints on the subject."

Even so, the remarks were in stark contrast to the tone Gov. Rick Snyder has taken in recent days, apologizing for his administration’s failure to respond quickly to concerns about the taste, smell and appearance of Flint’s water and the dismissive tone taken by state agency leaders to early tests that found high lead levels in children. The issue has drawn international news coverage about a man-made disaster in which thousands of Flint children may face long-term developmental problems from exposure to lead.

Patterson, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans and Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel all agreed that Snyder should accept responsibility for the issue, saying the buck stops with the person in charge of state government. Snyder was expected to devote a large part of his State of the State address tonight to the Flint crisis. Free Press columnist Carol Cain moderated the question-and-answer portion of the event.

Duggan and Evans left the luncheon without taking additional questions from the news media, but Hackel said afterward that it’s up to Snyder to spend time in Flint and show heartfelt concern for the welfare of Flint residents.

There was also disagreement about what to do about Detroit Public Schools, which run up a $700-million deficit in the seven years since Gov. Jennifer Granholm first put the district under state control.

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Duggan said the state has to pony up that money because it was run up under state oversight and is crippling the district’s ability to educate Detroit’s children. He mentioned Snyder’s proposal to pull money from other school districts around the state to pay off DPS’s debts, but Patterson said that idea is dead on arrival. Patterson said the state may need to float bonds to pay off DPS’s deficit.

Duggan renewed his call for the state to approve letting Detroit have one agency that oversees all public schools — traditional and charter — and sets standards for them under local control.

At one point, Duggan and Patterson had a testy exchange about the role of emergency management of DPS, with Duggan blaming the state for running up the district’s deficit and Patterson saying the district would have run up similar deficits if the state hadn’t intervened.

“We need to get out of emergency management altogether,” Duggan said, while Patterson said the state would have been negligent if it hadn’t tried to stop the district’s implosion.

Contact Matt Helms: 313-222-1450, mhelms@freepress.com or on Twitter: @matthelms