User Submitted Blog Post: Some good words about Kwame Kilpatrick

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded not guilty today to civil charges that he lied under oath about an affair and spent taxpayer funds to conceal the relationship with his staff member, Christine Beatty. The counts against him all add up to an absurd 90 years in prison. I have no way of knowing whether Mr. Kilpatrick is innocent or guilty of the charges that he faces. But I'll say this about the man, a couple of years ago he stood up to AT&T.

When AT&T first proposed merging with BellSouth, a union that would create an entity controlling half the land lines in the United States, most minority advocates supported the merger.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Jesse Jackson's Operation Rainbow Push, and other regional civil rights groups all submitted statements on behalf of the $67.1 billion deal.

"Our mission is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economical equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination," the NAACP wrote to the FCC in October of 2006. "This merger has the potential to contribute to the achievement of our mission by reducing the economic and technological barriers confronting people living in underserved rural and low income communities."

But three prominent inner city mayors didn't see it that way.

Two days before the NAACP's filing, Kwame Kilpatrick, Ray Nagin of New Orleans, and Eric Perrodin of Compton, California, submitted comments, for the second time, expressing concerns about AT&T and BellSouth's performance in inner-city areas. The first time they filed, on June 5th, they charged that the proposed merger could "exacerbate the differences in access to telecommunications services based on race, income level, and geography."

Calling themselves the Concerned Mayors Alliance (CMA), Kilpatrick, Nagin, and Perrodin cited studies and newspaper reports suggesting that AT&T redlines minority neighborhoods—systematically denying or delaying service to low-income ethnic areas. Their comments described these regions as the "last wired and the last hired," and expressed concern that the merger could reduce opportunities for minority contractors.

Their filing also charged that minority neighborhood residents often receive shoddy service from AT&T. "In deciding whether to approve this proposed merger," the mayors wrote, "the Commission should consider the past practices of AT&T's cable and telephone affiliated companies and impose conditions on the merger to ensure that these illegal practices do not continue." The mayors asked for a redlining assessment from the FCC or a designated third party investigator.

The NAACP FCC submission, in contrast, took AT&T at its word. Their statement disclosed that they met with AT&T executives and received commitments that 30 percent of AT&T's upcoming high speed broadband rollout would be reserved for low income neighborhoods and that opportunities for minority contractors would receive "priority attention."

The NAACP's letter did offer one note of skepticism about the acquisition: the nearly 10,000 estimated jobs that would be eliminated because of the merger. But: "we were heartened to learn that the proposed merger company may reclaim approximately 3,000 formerly out-source jobs," their statement concluded. The civil rights group received support in this stance from the Asian Pacific Legal Center, Jesse Jackson's Operation Rainbow Push, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, and the Urban League of Greater Miami.

But Kilpatrick, Nagin, Perrodin asked the FCC to take a closer look at AT&T's promises. Their second filing asked the Commission to get more details on that 30% broadband commitment.

"The CMA proposes an agreement that specifically identifies low-income areas in Detroit, New Orleans and Compton and other municipalities for incremental deployment by AT&T/BellSouth," they wrote, "and establishes definitive goals and timelines for such deployment."

Kilpatrick and his fellow mayors didn't get everything they wanted when the FCC finally approved the AT&T/BellSouth deal, but their critical stance had to count as one of the factors that forced AT&T to commit to a faster rate of broadband rollout to low income areas. AT&T also promised not to raise prices on broadband upgrades of dial up service.

Kilpatrick didn't have to take this kind of leadership. He could have just gone along with the NAACP's sanguine endorsement of the deal. Instead, he stood up for his residents, and that showed character. Again, I have no way of knowing how this latest ordeal will dispense with the Mayor of Detroit. But I hope that he comes out all right.