From: Ralph Scott [rscott@aeclp.org] Sent: Friday, October 20, 2000 10:16 AM To: leadnet@mail-list.com; lsamerica@mail-list.com Subject: [Leadnet] VICTORY IN MILWAUKEE! City to sue lead pigment makers! Dear Friends, Yesterday, Wisconsin Citizen Action won a huge victory when, after a long and fierce battle with the lead industry, the Milwaukee City Council voted in favor of filing a city lawsuit against the lead pigment manufacturers to try to get them to pay to clean up lead paint in housing in Milwaukee. Larry Marx, Executive Director of Wisconsin Citizen Action, the organization that lead the campaign to get the lawsuit approved, writes to us: "Wisconsin Citizen Action today beat the lead paint industry in a bitter, year-long fight to get the City of Milwaukee to sue the industry to clean up the 140,000 housing units in Milwaukee at high risk for poisoning children with lead. Milwaukee has the 5th highest rate of lead poisoning of any major city, with some one out of every 5 children poisoned by lead, 85% of whom are African American. The total cost of the clean up bill has been estimated at $200 - 420 million. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that no issue in the city's history (!) has seen as much lobbying, money, and heavy hitters arrayed against the lawsuit as this issue, but WCA's Parents Against Lead Task Force prevailed. The final vote was 11-7 and Milwaukee's lawsuit is attracting national attention from other cities and states considering suing the lead paint industry and from the media. Congratulations go out particularly to our Task Force co-chairs, Lollie Lozano, Dorothy Turner and Laurie Casey as well as our staff, Juan Carlos Ruiz, Teresa Thomas Boyd, Hezzie Mitchell and Rita Cannestra. This victory comes on the heels of a landmark ordinance last year requiring landlords to clean up their homes in targeted parts of the central city. Now, onto banks and insurance companies to get them to foot their fair share of the lead prevention bill." Way to go, Wisconsin Citizen Action! Below is a story from today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinal. Ralph Scott Alliance To End CLP ----- Council OKs lead paint lawsuit Uphill battle expected to get industry to pay cleanup costs By GREG BOROWSKI of the Journal Sentinel staff The Common Council voted 11-6 Thursday to file a lead poisoning lawsuit against the paint industry, a decision that ends months of wavering on the issue and opens an uphill legal fight that will surely last years. The council vote was the third - and final - attempt to win approval of the lawsuit, which would try to force paint companies to pay for the cleanup of old lead-based paint in city homes. The cleanup price tag could easily top $100 million, with at least 40,000 homes, mainly in the central city, considered most at risk. Once Mayor John O. Norquist signs the measure, which he says he will, the lead issue will go from the council to the courts, where a group of outside attorneys could file the lawsuit on the city's behalf within weeks. It will put Milwaukee among a small but growing number of cities, states and counties that have sued the industry, even though no such lawsuit has been successful in the past. The lead lawsuits come on the heels of successful government lawsuits against the tobacco industry. Opponents have argued the lawsuit could boomerang on the city, exposing its own liability in lead-poisoning cases. Supporters maintain the lawsuit may be the only way to generate the money needed to clean up homes - a bill, they argue, that shouldn't be pushed entirely onto taxpayers. Under an agreement, the attorneys representing the city will be paid only if they win the case or force a settlement. However, a clause requires the city to pick up the attorney costs if it backs out of the case after it is filed. The city also must pay the salaries and overtime of employees called on to testify in pretrial depositions and in court hearings. "The supporters of this legislation may be putting at risk future taxpayers of the City of Milwaukee," said Ald. Tom Nardelli, a vocal lawsuit opponent. "If we don't have the lawsuit and win, we're going to have to decide either not to clean up those homes or pay the whole bill," countered Ald. Don Richards, who backed the lawsuit. In the end, the 11-6 vote matched the breakdown in August, when the council initially approved the lawsuit. That vote was then delayed until Sept. 6 on a procedural move by opponents, then delayed again when Common Council President Marvin Pratt sought an extra 45 days in the hope the extra time would be used to get extra money - from the industry or the federal government - for local cleanup efforts. Voting yes were Pratt, Richards and Aldermen Terrance Herron, Mike D'Amato, Paul Henningsen, Marlene Johnson-Odom, Fred Gordon, Rosa Cameron-Rollins, Angel Sanchez, Michael Murphy and Willie Hines. Opposed were Nardelli and Aldermen Jim Bohl, Bob Donovan, Annette Scherbert, Jeff Pawlinski and Sue Breier. Along with Pratt's vote, those of Gordon, Cameron-Rollins and Herron were key. The three had joined Pratt in seeking the extra time for hoped-for federal cash. Milwaukee did get a $3 million federal grant this month, enough to clean up about 1,100 homes, but that grant was already expected. Lawsuit advocates predicted a victory, while representatives of the paint industry predicted a loss. "Unfortunately, nothing was done in the council chambers today that will improve the situation for children potentially exposed to lead in Milwaukee," said Alan Wheat, a spokesman for the paint industry. He and other industry attorneys and lobbyists watched from one side of the council chambers while about two dozen lawsuit advocates - including parents of lead-poisoned children - broke into applause from the other side when the vote was announced. "We're calling for the industry to come to the table and negotiate with us (now)," Lollie Lozano, co-chair of Wisconsin Citizen Action's Parents Against Lead task force, said in a post-vote news conference. "Be brave. Admit you did wrong." Such a negotiation in the time before the lawsuit is actually filed is highly unlikely. The industry argues that it removed lead from its products in the 1950s, decades before the federal government banned lead in paint in 1978. Lawsuit advocates say the industry knew of the potential harm decades earlier but did not act. "It was our intention to get this to a point where we could have a jury decide as to the responsibility of the paint industry," D'Amato said. "Now this is out of the political arena." Nevertheless, the attorneys who will represent the city say the case has only a 50-50 chance of success. Critics say even that outlook is way too optimistic, noting that the lawsuit could spend years in court and, even then, the city could wind up losing the case. City health officials say at least $110 million is needed to clean up the homes most at risk. Wisconsin Citizen Action, which wants all homes with at least some lead-based paint on the walls to be cleaned up, pegs the costs at closer to $400 million. In Milwaukee, about 5,750 children have elevated lead levels in their blood. Although the percentage of children who test too high has dropped from 73% in 1992 to 16% last year, it remains much higher than the national average of 4.4%. It was not clear Thursday just how much money the lawsuit will seek, or the specific legal arguments it will make. Advocates say Wisconsin law is more favorable than most other states when it comes to a provision that allows companies to be sued as a group, without having to determine which company is responsible for the hazards in individual homes. The lawsuit also will likely seek to have old lead-based paint declared a nuisance or health hazard. This would, in theory, avoid having to rule out other causes of lead poisoning, such as lead in the soil or old water pipes. Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Oct. 20, 2000. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A blank message to these addresses performs the following - Leadnet-on@mail-list.com gets you on the list. Leadnet-off@mail-list.com gets you off the list. Leadnet-switch@mail-list.com toggles you to/from the fancy digest version. Leadnet-vacation@mail-list.com toggles you to/from the vacation list. Post your message to the list by sending it to Leadnet@mail-list.com. To contact the list owner, send your message to Leadnet-list-owner@mail-list.com.