Getting Better After Winter Storm Jonas

I received hundreds of emails from residents during the recent historic storm and its aftermath.  Most of those communications conveyed tremendous frustration and many questions about the manner in which our county performed the important responsibility of clearing our roads.  Our residents asked for accountability. 

Our Council will ensure accountability.  On Tuesday, February 9, at 2 pm, the Council will hold a special session devoted to examining how the county performed before, during, and after the event.  The Executive Branch of our county government has responsibility for all snow operations, including the online snow map and 311, and will be in attendance and offer their own thoughts and reflections.  The session will be held in the Council Hearing Room (Council Office Building, Third Floor, 100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, MD 20850). While there will not be an opportunity for the public to testify, the meeting will be open to the public, televised live, and streamed on our website. 

I invite you to be part of the solution and share with me your own reflections and suggestions as to how our county can improve for future weather events.  I will compile the suggestions and provide them to the Executive Branch for their consideration.  Simply write Councilmember.Berliner@montgomerycountymd.gov in advance of the February 9th hearing with how you think our county could have done this big job better.  Please put "Snow Suggestion" in the subject line.

For myself, I fully appreciate how hard and long our front line county staff worked.  Nonetheless, I am convinced our county could have performed better.  I have preliminarily identified several areas of concern that I would like to see addressed by our Department of Transportation and other members of the Executive Branch:

• In preparing for the storm, did DOT acquire as many pieces of equipment and contractors as we could have or was there a decision made that the amount we acquired was sufficient.  If so, what assumptions were made at the time as to how long it would take to dig out?
   
• Communications are critical at times like this, particularly when it comes to setting realistic expectations.  How could communication with residents be improved using all the tools available to us?  In the future, would it be possible for residents to be given realistic estimates at the front end when we are confident of the magnitude of the storm rather than the standard “this will be a “multi-day effort” response?
   
• When Pepco experiences outages, we insist upon their best estimate of when specific outages will be fixed.  DOT refused to provide such estimates for neighborhoods.  Why?
   
• In an era when you can track the movement of every vehicle, why was the snow map so unhelpful and the cause of even greater stress?  What improvements are being made?  What would it take to be able to track each and every plow with GPS in order to improve communications and efficiency?
   
• How is the order in which neighborhoods are plowed determined?  Should that order be changed from storm to storm so that some neighborhoods aren’t always last?
   
• The Executive Branch initially requested that people call 311 to report missed routes and snow related concerns.  However, the system was simply incapable of responding to the volume of calls, causing greater frustration.  What could the county have done better given that there was plenty of notice that this was going to be an unprecedented storm?  How was the level of staffing determined and can that level be increased for future events like this one?
   
• What was the plan for sidewalk and bus shelter clearing?  Were contractors brought in for this specific purpose and if not, why?  What more, if anything, can be done to ensure pedestrians aren’t forced into the streets in the aftermath of such storms?
   
• While it is a sensible policy to make an initial run in the neighborhoods to make roads passable, what is the standard for “passable” and is it sufficient for residents to safely travel in their neighborhoods? When second and third passes are made, what can be done to minimize the dumping of snow onto sidewalks and driveways?
   
• Should there be an official “humanitarian” list of residents who, for reasons as varied as having to attend a funeral or get out of town to be with a stricken relative, require priority? And if not, why?

I look forward to receiving your own suggestions, and the many improvements that my colleagues will be proposing.  Our goal, as always, should be to learn from this experience so that our county serves you better in the future.  That is certainly my goal.