Personnel chief vows swifter decisions on snow days

With meteorologists predicting a severe winter in the capital region, Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry on Thursday promised to be timely and accommodating in communicating the government's operating status during storms.

Berry told reporters OPM will do "everything in its power" to ensure decisions on closures or delays are made by 4 a.m. on days when dangerous conditions begin developing overnight, or severe weather is in the forecast.

"Commutes have to start early, and I think one of the errors in the past was that this decision waited too long," he said.

Despite a reputation for recoiling at the first sign of snowflakes, agencies in the Washington area haven't fully closed due to weather since 2003. But Christopher Strong, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Forecast Office for the Baltimore/Washington area, said a combination of low temperatures and high precipitation could lead to strong winter storms in 2010.

Berry said he will make the call on the government's status, unless he is out of town, in which case he will delegate the authority to another official in the region. "I think it's important that the decision-maker be on the ground, with eyes present, to make a final judgment about the situation," he said.

In the cases where bad weather develops during the day, the government will do its best to give local transportation officials a two-hour warning before ordering federal employees to go home, he added.

Berry said he will consult with emergency management and transportation officials before making his decision. Safety will be his chief concern, but another issue is cost. Keeping the roughly 270,000 federal employees in the Washington area home for a single day costs the government about $100 million in lost productivity, he said.

He emphasized that employees still can contribute by teleworking during government closures. "Just because we say the government is closing, that doesn't mean the government isn't working," Berry said.

A lifelong resident of the Washington area, Berry sought to dispel the perception -- reinforced last year by President Obama, a former Chicagoan -- that locals can't handle winter weather. He noted Washington's mid-Atlantic location makes conditions much more complex and unpredictable that most people realize.

"We can have a storm that goes from rain to sleet to ice to snow and back again," he said. "Not many areas in the country face that complexity on a regular basis."