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Wed. Jan 03, 2007

DeKalb County Water Follies

We take our federal government to task regularly due to their failure to take necessary steps to protect citizens, whether from acts of terrorism or flood waters held behind government (mis)built levees. But there are times it is your local government that is supposed to protect you from and inform you about more localized problems.

Last week in my county, it was one of those times. And it appears they not only failed pretty completely, they’re now rather defensive and dismissive about it.

Maureen Downey, on the editorial board on the AJC, writes about “A blunder in DeKalb.”

Faced with a major water main break last week, DeKalb County officials asked the county’s homeland security department to activate a rapid, emergency alert system to inform Avondale Estates and Decatur area residents that they faced a potential health threat and should use boiled or bottled water for eating, drinking and washing.

Thousands of DeKalb residents are still awaiting that call, including brand new DeKalb County Commissioner Jeff Rader, who represents some affected communities. “This goes beyond water main breaks,” said Rader. “There will be immediate public health and safety issues that we need to communicate and, if this is an example, I think we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

DeKalb has a Reverse 911 system to enable officials to contact large numbers of people by phone in a crisis or terrorist attack. Its bumbling performance last week should make residents worry about how DeKalb would handle a more dire threat, such as a bioterror attack on its water supply.

Perhaps if the county’s homeland security department spent less time protecting the ham, they’d have been able to apply their resources towards making important systems functional. Just a thought.

OK, the system for calling out didn’t work. Surely there were citizens who called in, seeking details…

Not only did the county fail to notify many of the 50,000 properties affected by the boil-water warning, it misinformed residents who inquired about the problem. Lynne Huffer, an Emory professor and Decatur resident, called the county Water and Sewer Department Thursday morning to inquire about low water pressure.

“I was told that the pressure would be restored within two to four hours, then assured that no further action was needed on my part. I drank and used the water all day Thursday and Friday, only to find out while out on a walk on Friday evening that the water may be unsafe,” she said.

Hmmm. Ok. The phone thing isn’t working, in or out. But, by golly, it’s 2007! What about the Internet?

The county Web site — which should have been a reliable and current source of information — was also of little help. Some residents who called the county were told that the Web site was not being updated regularly because no employee in the office was able to do so.

Oh, my. Well, I can see how an individual employee might take a look at this mess and say, “Nope, no way, not me.” With a tag soup of tables and font tags, it’s clear the site structure has not been completely updated in years. But the idea that the county web site is not being updated even with a minor red text bulletin at the top of the home page, simply because “no employee in the office was able to do so” is absolutely nuts.

Because it is so fixable. Take a DeKalb County citizen like me, or the hundreds like me who know their way around a web site. Sit that person down with three DeKalb County employees. If it takes more than three hours to set up a simple home page update system and instruct those three people how to use, then all involved should quit work forever and file for disability pay.

Because there is simply no excuse for this. Yet, when it comes to excuses, the county seems well stocked:

Rather than address the problem, DeKalb’s administration reacted with typical defensiveness, complaining that the media never tell the good stories about the county.

“I was surprised and disappointed in the picking apart of this small matter of notification. It’s really a slap in the face to our employees,” said Ann Kimbrough, the CEO’s chief of staff, in a telephone interview.

Ms. Kimbrough appears to think the situation was handled fine. In fact, she’s downright snarky about it (“Will we be criticized for something else trivial, such as having too many leaves falling off some trees in DeKalb County this winter?”). And since she’s the chief of staff to DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones, we can assume there will be no changes or improvements. Oh, and Mr. Jones is thinking about running for the US Senate, presumably taking Ms. Kimbrough with him. How about taking care of the county first? That is, if you expect the people of DeKalb County to vote for you.

But it’s a good thing for a citizen to know. DeKalb County apparently can’t inform you when there’s a problem that might imminently affect your health, either by phone (in or out) or by the Internet.

And they see that as a “small matter.”