EDITORIAL: E.C. lead crisis shows cost of corruption
NWI Times
The Times Editorial Board
Updated - December 19, 2016 - 12:00PM
A history of public corruption paved the way to East Chicago's lead contamination crisis, and now real lives are on the line.
Northwest Indiana is no stranger to kickbacks, bribes and political corruption convictions.
More than 60 public officials or their allies and preferred contractors have been convicted of various corruption charges in U.S. District Court in Hammond since the 1980s.
Right now, Lake County Sheriff John Buncich and Portage Mayor James Snyder face federal charges for bribery in separate towing schemes. Many more have been convicted of other public corruption crimes over the years.
In most of these cases, the crimes impacted taxpayers' wallets, often including the misuse of public funds or property for the personal gain of others.
Those elements were present in spades during the creation of East Chicago's West Calumet Housing Complex during the 1970s, as shown by the reporting of Times reporters Sarah Reese and Lauren Cross last week.
Resulting court testimony revealed the authority's director took more than $100,000 in kickbacks for helping steer various contracts related to the low-income housing project to friends and associates.
One of the alleged bribes was for demolishing a shuttered lead factory at the site.
It's unclear whether the bad actors associated with the complex's creation knew of the potential health risks.
But the stark reality in 2016, more than 40 years later, is a low-income housing complex that has exposed hundreds of residents, many of them children, to unsafe lead levels for decades.
The crisis has been well documented in The Times dating back to summer months.
The area is now seen as an imminent health emergency. More than 1,000 residents are being relocated, and untold health damage already has been done.
The history of the West Calumet neighborhood's creation through the fire and anvil of corruption reminds us all of an unacceptable price tag connected to unscrupulous, political greed.
The U.S. attorney's office in Hammond must continue to hunt down and weed out such elements that persist in today's political landscape.
Voters must demand, with a new and unified voice, the resignation of all who are implicated in such schemes.
Tax dollars and public resources aren't the only things at risk. Human well-being can hang in the balance.
The Times Editorial Board
Members of The Times Editorial Board are Publisher Christopher T. White, Editorial Page Editor Marc Chase, Editor Bob Heisse, Politics/History Editor Doug Ross and Managing Editor Erin Orr.
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