The District’s winter weather program remains an imperfect operation, and the agency chief charged with clearing ice and snow will be expected to quickly improve performance, he was told Wednesday.
Emeka Moneme, the new director of the Department of Transportation, was in the spotlight Wednesday asMayor Adrian Fenty unveiled his CapStat program, a performance-based accountability system. Directors face “tough and important questioning” during daily CapStat meetings, Fenty said, and are expected to deliver.
“It always helps to have your boss tell you what the priorities are to help energize your work,” said Fenty, who borrowed the idea for CapStat from Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, the incoming Maryland governor.
The city’s snow program is fully equipped and staffed, Moneme said, and DDOT claims to meet snow removal targets — 85 percent of major thoroughfares and residential streets passable within certain time frames.
“Despite the abnormally warm weather, it’s going to get cold, and we’re prepared for snow,” said Moneme, with Fenty, City Administrator Dan Tangherlini and other department heads looking on.
But DDOT still has no salt dome east of the Anacostia River. It has only two working chemical sprayers for use in an ice storm. Orders for new snow plows are placed in time to receive the new equipment in the spring. And the process for acquiring salt doesn’t start until late in the year, forcing procurement officers into a corner.
Moneme will be expected to solve those problems, or at least develop plans, and then report back to the group.
Turning to road improvement, DDOT successfully closes pothole and street repair requests citywide within the target period 99 percent of the time, Moneme said. But Fenty questioned why DDOT is only slated to pave 280 blocks of streets in fiscal 2007, 350 blocks fewer than in fiscal 2006.
“That’s a big drop-off,” Fenty said, directing Moneme to ramp up the paving operation.
Moneme said he welcomed the discussion.
Joining Moneme on the CapStat agenda was William Howland, director of the Department of Public Works, who was directed to reduce the time between a request for bulk trash collectionand actual pickup. The current target is 10 days.
