TUESDAY, MAY 17 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU B5
The members were chosen from
a slate of 20 nominees submitted
by the MDC. The committee said
Monday that those not chosen to
serve on the board have been invit-
ed to create an advisory commit-
tee to work with the foundation.
“At the end of the day, it’s not a
victory for one perspective or an-
other, it’s a victory long-term for
Montpelier,” said Greg Werkheis-
er, a lawyer with Cultural Heritage
Partners representing the MDC.
“The opportunity now is to take all
of the attention that was paid to
Montpelier’s stumbles and refo-
cus it and engage it to help write
Montpelier’s next chapter.”PHOTOS BY JULIA RENDLEMAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTwho is a Harvard professor and
former NAACP chief.
“As our nation grapples with
and even grieves over the racial
injustices of this day, the work of
the Montpelier Foundation is all
the more important: teaching the
lessons of the living legacy of Pres-
ident James Madison, studying
the past and possibilities of our
Constitution, and sharing across
our Republic and beyond the on-
going story of those enslaved at
Montpelier,” Brooks said in a news
release.
Some 300 people were enslaved
over a 150-year period at Montpe-
lier, the family home of Madison,
who was the nation’s fourth presi-
dent and the father of the U.S.
Constitution.
Montpelier had attracted
worldwide attention a year ago
when it pledged to seek “structur-
al parity” on its board with mem-
bers of the descendants communi-
ty. But earlier this year, Hickok led
MONTPELIER FROM B1 a vote to strip power from the
MDC, which the descendants had
organized as their official repre-
sentative.
Hickok said in interviews that
the MDC had become difficult to
work with and that the board
needed to maintain control over
its membership. His stance
prompted an outcry among staff-
ers at Montpelier, and last month
the foundation fired several of the
more outspoken of them, includ-
ing the chief curator and a director
of archaeology.
More than 11,000 people signed
an online petition expressing sup-
port for the MDC and the fired
staffers. The National Trust for
Historic Preservation, which
owns the estate and retains the
foundation to run it, also ex-
pressed strong disapproval with
Hickok’s effort to strip the MDC’s
formal status.
Faced with that outcry, the
foundation appeared to reconsid-
er and announced plans late last
month to accept MDC-nominated
members after all.
On Monday, board vice chair-
man Peter McHugh praised Hick-
ok in an email: “Gene Hickok has
over a decade of service to Mont-
pelier and, at the Board’s request,
even extended his service as Chair
to help move Montpelier forward.
As he leaves the Board on May 16,
we are deeply grateful for his dedi-
cation and commitment to Mont-
pelier.”
The new appointees increase
the board’s overall membership to
- Of those, 14 have ties to the
MDC. Another two represent the
National Trust and have support-
ed the efforts to include the de-
scendants community.
Descendants of
enslaved will have
say at Montpelier
“At the end of the day,it’s not a victory for oneperspective or another,it’s a victory long-termfor Montpelier.”
Greg Werkheiser, lawyer with
Cultural Heritage Partners
representing the Montpelier
Descendants CommitteeABOVE: Visitors tour
Montpelier, the estate of James
Madison — the fourth U.S.
president, who is known as the
father of the Constitution — in
Orange County, Va., in
December. LEFT: Replica
quarters for enslaved people at
the Montpelier estate. About
300 people were enslaved at
Montpelier over a 150-year
period. Descendants of those
enslaved workers have pushed
to have a formal voice on the
board of the foundation that
oversees the historic site.hailstones clattering onto roofs,
streets and backyard decks.
At their peak, the number of
power outages amounted to more
than 40,000, lining the path of
the storm, from Fauquier, Prince
William and Fairfax counties in
Virginia, to eastward across the
Potomac River and into Southern
Maryland.
Southeastern Fairfax County
along the Potomac River in Vir-
ginia and northern Charles and
Calvert counties in Maryland
were hit particularly hard before
the storm crossed the Chesapeake
Bay to Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Reports of hailstones seemed
to follow a similar track, evoking
astonishment at both their size
and their number from many
witnesses. People looked at them
in wonder, listened to the clatter
they made and took pictures ofthem as they fell. One witness
described at least one of the glit-
tering agglomerations of ice as
measuring three inches across.
Only a few miles to the north of
the storm’s track, residents saw
what mainly were only hints of
the meteorological intensity their
neighbors were experiencing.
Between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. the
wind gusted up to 45 mph at
Reagan National Airport, which
was near the storm’s northern
edge. Heavy rain cut visibility to
three-quarters of a mile and
amounted to about one-fifth of an
inch.
Warnings about the possibility
of the storm prompted transit
systems and school systems to
take precautions. Schools in
Howard County, Md., closed three
hours early. Anne Arundel Coun-
ty Public Schools canceled after-school activities.
In some places trees reportedly
fell onto houses; in other spots
they fell onto streets and rain-
slicked roads, at times blocking or
slowing traffic.
Several large trees were up-
rooted in the Lake Ridge area of
Prince William near Springwoods
Drive and Old Bridge Road. Trees
fell on the George Washington
Memorial Parkway south of Alex-
andria.
Police in Prince William Coun-
ty warned motorists that traffic
lights could be out at some inter-
sections.
For all its power and ferocity,
the storm swept out of the area
early enough for skies over Wash-
ington to clear and sunshine to
flood the city, and for an atmos-
pheric serenity to govern the eve-
ning.BY MARTIN WEIL
AND JASON SAMENOWFierce and furious thunder-
storms, suggestive of the turbu-
lence of summer, slashed across a
swath of the Washington region
Tuesday, toppling trees, tearing
down power lines, and sending
THE REGION
Storm hits
D.C. area
with fierce
winds, hail
to a request for comment late
Monday, but in a statement he
said Andrew Off, Metro’s senior
vice president for capital proj-
ects, will serve as interim chief
executive until newly appointed
general manager Randy Clarke
joins Metro later this summer.
Clarke, chief executive of the
Austin-based Capital Metropoli-
tan Transportation Authority,
was named Wiedefeld’s replace-
ment last week, although his
start date hasn’t been deter-
mined. Off was appointed inter-
im chief executive during last
Thursday’s regular board meet-
ing to work with Wiedefeld dur-
ing the transition.
“The Board appreciates Paul’s
and Joe’s commitment to [Metro]
over the last six years,” Smedberg
said in the statement. “We feel
the timing is right for Interim
General Manager and CEO Andy
Off to lead the organization
through this critical transition
period, with a continued empha-
sis on safety. Safety is and will
continue to be our top priority.”
In a separate statement re-
leased through Metro, Wiedefeld
said the time was right to provide
a “more timely transition” to Off.
“I believe conveying all au-
thority of the General Manager’s
office to Mr. Off better positions
him to address the challenges
that came to light this week,
while preparing for the transi-
tion to the next CEO,” Wiedefeld
said. “Stepping aside a few weeks
ahead of schedule is in the best
interest of the agency and its
workforce, whom I have been
deeply proud to lead over the last
six years.”
The changeover comes one
week after Metro touted rider-
ship increases and the hiring of
Clarke. After the positive news,
the revelation that nearly half of
METRO FROM B1 Metro’s train operators had not
received required refresher
training and testing sank the
agency back into familiar terri-
tory — a self-inflicted setback
that reversed progress on reduc-
ing wait times while further
frustrating riders and elected
officials who questioned the
transit agency’s management
practices.
The decision to remove the
train operators extended delays
on a rail system already saddled
by a shortage of trains amid a
federal safety investigation that
has left most of its rail fleet
unusable for months.
Metro’s internal breakdown in
tracking training compliance,
generally a routine task for tran-
sit agencies — but one with safety
implications — follows similar
lapses dating back at least seven
years. It’s the latest disruption to
upend the nation’s third-largest
transit system, which is trying to
lure back riders who shifted to
telework or other modes of trans-
portation during the pandemic.
Before the change in Metro’s
leadership, D.C. Mayor Muriel E.
Bowser (D) said Monday that she
was disappointed in Metro’s in-
ability to provide the region with
reliable service at a time when
many people are resuming social
activities, returning to workplac-
es and coming to the city for
vacations. She said she supports
funding that boosts Metro safety
and capacity, but she cited a
“management problem” in the
latest obstacle.
“It has been disappointing to
residents, workers, and visitors
that, as D.C. has reopened, Metro
has not been able to deliver the
level of service we expect and
deserve,” Bowser said. “This lat-
est setback is frustrating for
everyone who relies on Metro.”
In explaining Metro’s most
recent problem, transit officials
said the agency granted waivers
or extensions for recertification
in 2020 because the pandemic
made classroom training un-
available. The issuance of waiv-
ers should have ended later that
year, Metro spokeswoman Sherri
Ly said.
She said there were no “checks
and balances” in place to make
sure waivers didn’t extend be-
yond 30 days.
Recertification, which in-
cludes refresher courses with
supervised testing in rail yards
and on the mainline, will contin-
ue for three or four months until
the lapsed operators are up to
date on training. The sudden
removal of operators will result
in an operator shortage, Metro
said.
Waits on the Green and Yellow
lines increased by five minutes to
20 minutes Monday, and extra
trains that had been used to fill in
for breakdowns or to increase
frequencies during busy periods
might not be available this
month.
The lapses were discovered by
the Washington Metrorail Safety
Commission, an independent
agency created by Congress in
2017 to oversee safety after years
of repeated problems. Rep. Ger-
ald E. Connolly (D-Va.) said in a
statement that he was grateful
for the commission’s discovery of
an issue that threatened safety
on the system.
“Train operators are funda-
mental to Metro safety,” said
Connolly, chairman of a House
subcommittee that requires Met-
ro to provide Congress with peri-
odic performance and safety up-
dates. “Training lapses for opera-
tors are deadly serious. This is yet
another preventable service and
safety setback for Metro caused
by letting a safety issue languish.”
Some of the safety commis-
sion’s findings were included inan audit last month. In follow-up
investigations in recent weeks,
commission spokesman Max
Smith said the panel learned that
Metro had stopped refresher
training courses.
Metro has a history of not
providing operators with ad-
equate and regular refresher
training.
The safety commission’s April
audit said Metro was cited as
early as 2015 for not having a
consistent recertification pro-
gram. That year, a Federal Transit
Administration safety manage-
ment inspection identified prob-
lems that included train operator
recertifications “not occurring as
scheduled.”
In 2016, the Tri-State Over-
sight Committee, an agency that
preceded the safety commission,
found that Metro “was no longer
providing annual refresher train-
ing to train operators, train oper-
ators were signing off on rule
changes without fully compre-
hending them, that a one-day
7000 Series rail car familiariza-
tion course was insufficient, and
that training personnel did not
get sufficient lead time to devel-
op training curricula for new
[Metro] initiatives as they were
not included in the process from
the beginning.”
“There are no more adjectives
left to describe the mismanage-
ment of [Metro],” Maryland Del.
Marc A. Korman (D-Montgom-
ery) tweeted Sunday night. “Hav-
ing to remove your own opera-
tors because of a failure to have
them recertify as required dem-
onstrates an inability to under-
take even basic functions.”
Metro officials said the transit
officials took immediate action
to correct problems.
“We continue to investigate
how and why waivers were is-
sued and will report back to the
[Metro] Board when all informa-tion is gathered,” Ly said in a
statement.
D.C. Council member Brianne
K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1) said she
was disappointed but will contin-
ue to support Metro, especially
with looming financial trouble
ahead.
“We’re presented with a golden
opportunity to increase transit
service just as ridership is pick-
ing up again, and it’s an under-
statement to say that [Metro] has
not risen to meet the moment,”
Nadeau tweeted Monday.
The union that represents
most Metro workers, Local 689 of
the Amalgamated Transit Union,
will help Metro rotate operators
in and out of training. The union
declined to comment Monday on
the recertification lapses.
Metro’s staffing woes come on
top of a train shortage that began
in October, when the safety com-
mission suspended the agency’s
7000-series trains — about 60
percent of its fleet — after a
defect was found during a Na-
tional Transportation Safety
Board investigation into a derail-
ment. The defect causes car
wheels to shift outward, making
trains unstable.
Metro is looking at how to
restore the trains through a regu-lar inspection process that would
check for the slow-progressing
defect on a daily basis.
Metro officials have said they
hope to begin incorporating the
suspended cars this summer, but
the agency has yet to submit
paperwork to the safety commis-
sion for approval.
The lack of available cars has
created lengthy waits and more
frequent delays at a time when
the transit agency is hoping to
recover riders. Starting next year,
$2.4 billion in federal coronavi-
rus aid that Metro had been
using to fill budget holes will
start to run out.
For riders such as Burke resi-
dent Chris Townsend, an admin-
istrator at a D.C.-based nonprofit,
the latest delays are reigniting
discussions about whether to
stick with Metro. Townsend re-
sumed commuting in mid-
March, when his workplace be-
gan calling employees back into
the office.
“If the trains start to be slow
and crowded, that — combined
with the rise of covid cases —
would probably be like the last
straw for me,” Townsend said.
“There’s no good that comes from
riding the Metro at that point. It’s
just a no-win situation.”Metro back in familiar territory with resignations, recertification problems
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