SEARCHING FOR

A CLUE

Montgomery County's Failed Leadership

Pointing Fingers in All the Wrong Directions to

Protect Itself and Monopoly WSSC from

Criticism on 2nd Water Disaster this Year;

County's Reverse 911,

WSSC Alert Systems

Fail Again

If you believe The Washington Post, County Executive Ike Leggett, Governor Martin O'Malley, and the all-Democrat County Council, the River Road water main catastrophe was not the fault of the WSSC. Instead, they are blaming a defunct pipe supplier and you, the taxpayer(!!).

It's outrageous.

Leggett and other officials say that you weren't willing to pay the massive yearly fee proposed by the WSSC in concert with their Democrat buddies in Rockville. And that prevented the monopoly utility from maintaining its system.

Not true. As readers of this blog know, the WSSC was given sufficient funds over the years to maintain and repair our water system, but chose to spend those funds on other things.

Let's get this straight. There is no accountability to the taxpayer, yet the taxpayer is being asked to give gigantic new sums to our monopoly water company.

It's outrageous.

What's worse is that Mr. Leggett and the all-Democrat county council have not held the WSSC accountable either. In fact, they voted for the massive fees until they were stopped by their counterparts in Prince George's County. There, County Executive Jack Johnson went on the record as agreeing that WSSC was given sufficient funds, but spent them on other things.

Mr. Leggett failed to show the same leadership as Mr. Johnson. The WSSC should not be rewarded with new money from either Montgomery residents nor the American taxpayer through new Federal awards for "infrastructure." Incompetence and mismanagement are not to be rewarded. Instead, the public needs to know where all the money went. Why has the WSSC failed to maintain its system. Where is the accountability? The people who were in charge need to be held accountable for their mismanagement. Not the customer.

Most importantly, where is the competition in utilities that will raise quality and lower prices?

You'll have to elect new leadership to make that happen.

Until then, Montgomery's leaders will continue to put politics first, safety last.

Once again, there was no reverse 911 to inform the public of the catastrophe. No reverse 911 to inform the public of possible drinking water contamination. And the WSSC alert system did not send any email messages out - none at all!! (I know because I signed up for the alerts months ago.)

This was an instant replay of the June disaster all over again. And with all of that experience, the executive and council chose to handle it exactly the same way.

Then O'Malley and Leggett do a photo op on River Road, attempting to take credit for the valiant rescues by firefighters and the State Police helicopter.

Here's one other detail - exclusive to http://www.robertdyer.net/ and not mentioned on TV or in the papers - that State Police chopper had to come from Andrews Air Force base. That's because, currently, our executive and council (in concert with the governor) have sat idly by while Montgomery's own helicopter was removed from its base within the county!!!

It's outrageous.

Once again, our county government puts politics first, safety last.