Another Voice / Lead poisoning
Preservation of county records is the right course
Two months ago, The News ran an editorial urging Erie County Executive Chris Collins to overrule a plan by the county attorney to destroy environmental lead inspection records. As the county adopts a new budget, it is worth revisiting this issue.
My law firm represents dozens of children in Erie County poisoned from ingesting lead paint chips while residing as toddlers in rental apartments. Deteriorated paint surfaces are a recognized hazard for which property owners are responsible.
As legal advocates for injured children, we need the lead inspection records because they document findings made by county inspectors after the Health Department receives a pediatrician’s report about a lead poisoning. It is that simple. We need the records; without them, most cases could never be proven.
The first thing that lawsuits accomplish is to obtain monetary compensation for injured children to help them cope with the problems caused by lead poisoning, including learning disabilities, hyperactivity, aggressive behavior and lowered IQ. The second thing is to recover for the county treasury money expended through our Medicaid program to treat lead poisoning after it is detected. As The News recognized in its editorial on the subject, my law firm has already recouped for the county nearly $400,000 in Medicaid expenses.
Preserving environmental lead inspection records is sound fiscal policy, as well. Four hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. According to an article in The News on Thanksgiving Day, the annual appropriation needed in order to allow Cornell Cooperative Extension to continue its operations next year in the county is $280,000.
Last spring, when my office first learned that the Erie County Health Department planned to begin destruction of these records, we tried to persuade the county attorney to preserve them, not only because the children we represented needed the records to prove their claims, but also because destruction could affect the county’s ability to secure the repayment of liens from Medicaid recipients.
Ultimately, we turned to the County Legislature for help. In early October, Legislative Majority Leader Maria R. Whyte drafted a resolution providing for the permanent retention of the inspection records. The resolution was introduced by Whyte and 10 of her Democratic colleagues and approved by a vote of 12 to 3. Although this action was taken over the objections of the three Republicans in the Legislature, I now understand that the county attorney has assured the Legislature that the records will be preserved.
The lesson that I draw from this story is that the County Legislature is quite capable of exercising sound fiscal judgment and the county executive is quite capable of recognizing it when it happens. Best of all, these two branches of local government did the right thing when it really mattered.
John Ned Lipsitz is a lawyer with Lipsitz & Ponterio, LLC in Buffalo.
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