City of Flint, MichiganThe health crisis unfolding in Flint, Michigan, after toxic levels of lead were found in that city’s drinking water, is a tale of inept leadership, unfathomable government neglect, and a gross failure on behalf of state and local officials to inform and ultimately protect the public.

Now that professional PR support has been called in to aid leaders’ mishandling of the incident, let’s hope those involved will do the right thing, and this crisis will be managed with a primary focus on public health and education, coupled with a needed thematic component of accountability and admissions of wrongdoing.

The incident has a complicated back-story. Emergency management hired by the state to aid poverty-ravished Flint in 2013 approved a decision to save money by redirecting Flint’s water supply from the Detroit system to a cheaper interim source in the Flint River, while a new pipeline would be constructed to connect Flint to Lake Huron. The river’s corrosive waters apparently caused lead to be leached from aging pipes in Flint’s delivery system, resulting in murky, foul-smelling water. When residents complained, city officials responded with what can be characterized as polite indifference. State officials similarly dragged their heels before agreeing to test Flint’s water supply, though regional EPA officials warned that the methods employed by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality could render inaccurate findings. Meanwhile, one EPA official in early 2015 alerted the agency to troubling findings in Flint’s water, but his report went virtually ignored, and wasn’t made public until the end of the year.

In September, a study conducted by Flint’s Hurley Medical Center reported that average lead levels found in blood tests of Flint children had nearly doubled. The MDEQ, which in June had completed its Flint water study and concluded to EPA officials that the water was safe, dismissed those findings. Then, a September investigation conducted by the ACLU in concert with Virginia Tech researchers found Flint’s water to be “very corrosive,” with lead levels in some areas surpassing more than 10,000 parts per billion. (EPA standards mandate safe lead levels at or below only 15 parts per billion.) Investigators also echoed the EPA’s earlier warnings that the MDEQ may have utilized flawed testing that could make it appear as though Flint’s water was in compliance with federal EPA standards. Virginia Tech water quality expert Marc Edwards later said authorities’ actions reveal “a new level of arrogance and uncaring that I have never encountered.”

The inevitable bureaucratic fallout ensued. Resignations were posted across the board: a Flint public works director, a regional EPA administrator, and two MDEQ officials stepped down from their positions. A class action lawsuit was filed against the state, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office is now investigating the incident. Meanwhile, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder in October gathered $12 million to return Flint’s water supply to the Detroit system, and Flint Mayor Karen Weaver in December categorized the city a state of emergency, a designation backed by Snyder and President Obama, the latter of whom slated $5 million in federal funds to aid authorities. More than $1 million has also been allotted for lead filters to be distributed to Flint residents, and the National Guard has been brought in to disburse bottled water.

Governor Snyder on January 19 publicly apologized to the residents of Flint, and the following day released 274 pages of governor’s office emails regarding the incident as a gesture of transparency. That act may have done more harm than good, as the New York Times on January 20 reported that those emails offered a damning indictment of the state’s baffling indifference on the issue, with government officials discounting Flint residents’ concerns, even comparing the city’s complaints to games of “political football.”

The governor’s office has now brought in top-shelf PR counsel to aid with the fallout, in the form of public affairs firm Mercury and Finn Partners executive Bill Nowling, who fielded communications for Detroit during that city’s 2014 bankruptcy.

Snyder’s recent apology and transparency are steps in the right direction, but the damage has been done, both to Flint’s pipes and its citizens’ health. And while Flint’s water remains undrinkable, state and local leaders have sent equally corrosive messages to the citizens of Flint in their abject neglect: we will slash public services and leave residents to deal with the fallout; our agencies will suppress findings and pass the buck across municipalities when they’re discovered; the wellbeing and safety of poor, majority-minority cities are insignificant when compared to residents in our wealthy suburbs.

Now that a PR salvo is underway, let’s hope communications strategies ignore officials’ professional reputations or messages redirecting blame and instead stress accountability and promises to fix the situation. Own up to the negligence, concede that what the state and the region’s health agencies did was wrong, and list the steps being taken to repair this disaster. Answer why officials were slow to respond, admit that they left the city of Flint in incompetent hands and exhibited cavalier disregard for the health and wellbeing of its citizens, and promise to serve, promise to help, promise to do something about it. At this point, the best public relations program will address Michigan’s myriad public failures.