Jersey City Releases After Action Report On January Winter Storm, Outlines Comprehensive Public Works Department Reform
JERSEY CITY RELEASES AFTER ACTION REPORT ON JANUARY WINTER STORM, OUTLINES COMPREHENSIVE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT REFORM
Administration publishes transparent accounting of response failures and actions already taken to deliver improved response for historic blizzard in February
Report can be found at
JCNJ.org/AAR
JERSEY CITY, NJ (March 20, 2026) — Mayor James Solomon today released the City of Jersey City's After Action Report on the January 25, 2026 winter storm, providing a full public accounting of what went wrong during the city's response, the root causes behind those failures, and the reforms already underway to rebuild the Department of Public Works.
"Jersey City residents deserved better during the January storm, and they know it, and so do I,"
said Mayor James Solomon. "This report doesn't make excuses. It tells the truth about what we found when we looked closely at storm operations: a department that had been neglected for a decade, left without the leadership, systems, and operational planning it needed to handle a major weather event. Publishing this report is an act of accountability. And the reforms we've already put in place — tested during the February blizzard — show that rebuilding is possible and that it's already underway."
What the Report Found
The January 25 storm dropped over nine inches of snow on Jersey City at rates reaching two inches per hour, prompting Governor Mikie Sherrill to declare a state of emergency. While the city deployed over 60 pieces of snow removal equipment and activated its Emergency Operations Center, the response fell well short of resident expectations - particularly in residential neighborhoods, at crosswalks, and along pedestrian corridors.
The After Action Report identifies the root cause not as a failure of execution, but as a decade of organizational atrophy that left DPW without the systems or leadership needed to manage a major storm.
Specific failures included:
• No shift work planning, leaving staff burned out over a multi-day event with declining quality of work
• No quality control mechanisms to verify that routes were being completed as reported
• Paper-based systems from the 1990s and GPS tools that were never integrated into operations
• Snow route maps decades out of date, designed for a fundamentally different city
• A primary salt vendor that failed to deliver 4,250 of 4,900 contracted tons before the storm
• No functioning dispatch office, eliminated by a prior administration
• Low staff morale stemming from years of underinvestment and unresolved union contracts
• No plan or equipment for bike lane clearance, leaving cycling infrastructure unserved during and after the storm
• No prioritization of pedestrian infrastructure, resulting in dangerous conditions at intersections, corner ramps, and crosswalks that persisted for days after the storm
Actions Already Taken
The Solomon Administration moved immediately following the January storm to address the most critical gaps. Those reforms were deployed and tested during the February 22, 2026 blizzard — itself a historic storm — with measurably improved results.
Actions already taken include:
• Implemented rotating shift schedules and pre-positioned auxiliary staff and contractors before the storm began
• Deployed supervisors in the field alongside GPS fleet tracking and CCTV integration to enable real-time quality control
• Replaced the city's primary salt vendor after Morton Salt's delivery failure and brought all storage sites to full capacity
• Established a functioning incident command structure with assigned leadership roles and defined areas of responsibility
• Instituted standard operating procedures for field-to-command communication
• Created a structured incident reporting process to keep elected officials informed throughout storm operations
• Identified and prioritized high-traffic intersections and crosswalks for rapid post-storm clearance
• Returned experienced operational leaders from administrative positions to frontline roles
• Launched a nationwide search for a new DPW Director with proven snow operations experience
The Path Forward
The report also outlines a comprehensive set of short-, medium-, and longterm recommendations, including a full overhaul of snow response protocols, complete redesign of snow routes to reflect the current city, technology modernization, a mandatory training program for DPW personnel, and modernization of the city’s dispatch and records management functions. The report additionally calls for the acquisition of specialized equipment for bike lane clearance and the integration of bike lanes into the updated snow plan, as well as formal protocols to prioritize the clearance of pedestrian corridors — including intersections, crosswalks, and corner ramps — so that all residents can move safely through the city following a storm.
The full After Action Report is available at
JCNJ.org/AAR.