Drake,
WHAT’S INSIDE 2015
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character- that is the goal of true education”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Inside:
Tips on Enrollment, Money and College Life!
the unlikely rap superstar See page D-1
Tips on Enrollment, Money and College Life!
POWERED BY REAL TIMES MEDIA
michiganchronicle.com
Volume 79 – Number 4
Duggan nominates Gary Brown and Palencia Mobley to lead DWSD CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
Mayor Mike Duggan has nominated Gary Brown as director of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and Palencia Mobley, P.E., as its deputy director and chief engineer. The City Charter requires the mayor to make nominations for both positions. The Board of Water Commissioners is expected to vote on the mayor’s nominees Wednesday.
Brown
Mobley
Brown, who currently serves as group executive of operations for the City of Detroit, would run the administrative side of the operation; Mobley, who is an expert on water infrastructure and environmental engineering, would take care of water matters. “This team will bring balanced leadership and expertise to the city’s water operations,” said Duggan. “Gary is an outstanding administrator who has helped modernize many city services and generate significant cost savings. Palencia is a brilliant engineer and the type of young talent that will rebuild our water department’s infrastructure for future generations.” The deal to regionalize the water system, splitting it into the Great Lakes Water Authority and Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, will provide the City of Detroit with a $50 million annual lease payment for the next 40 years, which will be invested in upgrading Detroit’s water distribution and sewer collection system. Brown and Mobley would be in charge of overseeing that investment. “I have four primary goals for the water department,” Brown said. “We are going to improve customer service, support economic development in the city, create jobs through rebuilding infrastructure, and focus that infrastructure in areas to make them better places to live.” Mobley, currently serving the mayor as the transition manager for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, has more than 12 years of experience as a project engineer, providing planning, design, and construction administration and man-
See DWSD page A-4
October 7-13, 2015
Flint water crisis a bitter indictment
What if it was your mother?
of dysfunctional emergency manager By Curt Guyette SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Stark evidence of how terribly bad things can go when democracy is dismantled can be found in the elevated levels of lead in the children of Flint.
Enough SAID shines harsh light on rape of black women By Kim Trent SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
A
fter already enduring the horror of rape, sexual assault victims who report their rape to law enforcement officials face a battery of grueling examinations of their bodies. First, they experience an invasive collection of evidence — from the scraping of their fingernails to the swabbing of their mouths. Using a fluorescent lamp, a technician further searches a victim’s body for evidence not visible to the naked eye. Finally, a highly-trained nurse or doctor will check for injuries to a victim’s genital area. In the aftermath of an emotionally draining and debilitating assault, it is hard to imagine that such an exam would be anything less than excruciating. But victims tolerate the indignity of evidence collection because the DNA collected in rape kits can often be the most important link between them and justice. Sadly in Detroit, that critical link — and law enforcement’s covenant to protect rape victims — has too often been broken. In 2009, a member of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s staff discovered that 11,341 rape kits sat unprocessed on shelves at a De-
Thankfully, due to the tenacity of Worthy and other victims’ rights advocates, future rape victims in Michigan will be guaranteed timely processing of their rape kits. But the victims whose rape kits sat on shelves can’t — and won’t — be forgotten. To that end, a broad coalition of black women leaders — representing the grass-
roots, the halls of power, and everything in between — has come together to speak with one loud voice in defense of rape victims. We have partnered with Enough SAID (Sexual Assaults in Detroit), a campaign organized by the Detroit Crime Commission, the Wayne County Prosecutor and Michigan Women’s Foundation, to raise millions of dollars to pay for the processing of backlogged rape kits, investigation of resulting leads, and prosecution of alleged rapists
See Enough
This is what can happen when people are denied full access to representative government. They get poisoned by appointees with no connection to the community. Under Michigan’s emergency manager law — PA 436 — gubernatorial appointees can leave town claiming to have successfully solved a fiscal crisis when in fact what they leave in their wake is a catastrophe of monumental proportions. In recent days, as the lead problems in Flint have made international news, former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley — the man in charge when the switch to the Flint River was made, and who is now overseeing the education of the children in Detroit Public Schools — has tried to deny any responsibility for the catastrophe.
Wayne County Presecutor Kym Worthy troit Police Department building for years. Worthy, herself a rape victim, was horrified by the discovery and set about immediately to get justice for the victims of these crimes.
Because of decisions made by an appointed emergency manager, the tragically high costs of trying to balance a budget by switching to an unsafe water source will be borne by kids now forced to struggle with lower IQs, behavioral problems, learning disabilities, and a host of other ill effects.
SAID page A-4
According to the Detroit Free Press, Earley claimed in an e-mailed statement “that he was not involved in the decision to use river water.” The governor’s office and Earley can rightfully claim that the Flint mayor and City Council initially gave their blessing to the switch made 18 months ago. But that fig leaf provides little real cover for the state officials now trying to run away from their disastrous decision. For starters, it doesn’t matter what the mayor and
See FLINT
WATER page A-4
The case for a Detroit Black Homecoming By Keith A. Owens SENIOR EDITOR
Black folks need their own Detroit Homecoming. It’s something my sister-in-law suggested to me in a mini-brainstorm moment as we were standing outside in the lobby during the first full day of Detroit HomeCOMMENTARY coming 2015, which took place last week at the Detroit Institute of Arts. As soon as she said it, I found myself nodding along with her, both of us understanding that this was something that maybe really ought to happen. And just to cut off anyone who is about to suggest that this is so unfortunate how black folks always want to go off on their own and have a black this or a black that, this isn’t about this nor is it about that. What this is about is insurance. Let me explain. It was encouraging to see the level of enthu-
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See DETROIT
BLACK HOMECOMING page A-4 Shane Battier addresses the audience at Detroit Homecoming 2015. – Monica Morgan photos