How Many Emails Does It Take to Get a MoCo Pothole Fixed?

In the iconic television commercial, the boy asks Mr. Owl, “How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?” The answer: The world may never know.

For one Montgomery County citizen, it's the same for emails and potholes in Rockville.

This cartoon begins in July 2024, when a Kensington resident contacted his district Montgomery County Councilmember, Kate Stewart, about potholes and deteriorating conditions on a service road near the McDonald's at 1390 Rockville Pike. The service roadway is actually a 1.1-mile continuous stretch running parallel to the Pike from Edmonton Drive to Congressional Lane. The service road is within private property lines, meaning the owner of each parcel along the road is responsible for upkeep on their portion.

This pothole was reported to Montgomery County officials in July 2024. Photo is from August 2026.

Stewart's deputy chief of staff, Paul Ellis, replied on July 8, 2024, saying that the roadway was on private property within the City of Rockville and therefore outside the maintenance responsibilities of the Montgomery County Department of Transportation and the Maryland State Highway Administration. Ellis acknowledged that the road “should be made smooth” and said he referred the matter to the office of Councilmember Sidney Katz, whose district includes the location.

The resident followed up one month later, and Ellis said Katz's staff were looking into the matter with Rockville officials. That same day, August 9, 2024, the citizen received an email from Laurie Mintzner Edberg, deputy chief of staff in Katz’s office. She confirmed “that the service road is on private property” and “the County would not have authority to act on this issue.” Edberg said she would bring the matter to the attention of the City of Rockville and MCDOT. In a follow-up email the same day, Edberg told the citizen they could create a 311 service request and contact the Rockville City Manager directly.

Two months elapsed. In October 2024, the citizen requested another update. Ellis said he and Katz's office were checking with the Rockville City Manager “for greater insight on this property within the City.” The following day, Ellis reported that Rockville staff had determined there was no public access easement over the roadway and that city staff were preparing to contact the property owner about the applicable city code and pursue code enforcement.

Six more months passed, and the pothole remained. In April 2025, the citizen contacted Kate Stewart’s office again. Ellis responded that the matter was being raised with Rockville staff again. In August 2025, after more than a year had passed since the original complaint, the resident asked Ellis to inquire about the status once more. Ellis responded, “We are inquiring again with Rockville City staff and can apprise you as we hear.”

There was no follow-up, and the frustrated resident gave up after 13 months, with the road in even worse condition than when he made his initial request.

On August 22, 2026, without knowledge of the citizen's emails with Ellis and Edberg, Montgomery Fix published a video about the Rockville Pike service road potholes. For the video, traffic cones surrounding a newly repaired Glenmont pothole were transported across Montgomery County to a large Rockville pothole on the property adjacent to McDonald's. Montgomery County had recently gotten the Glenmont property owner to fill its potholes after a four-month-long effort that included multiple inspections, violation notices, citations and letters from lawyers.

August 22, 2026 Video posted online by Montgomery Fix

Along with posting the video, we went directly to members of the Rockville City Council to make them aware of the problem. It wasn’t until the next day that the resident who had spent more than a year trying to get the Rockville problem addressed contacted us and shared his correspondence with county officials.

After receiving our information, Rockville's city government did what a constituent should reasonably expect. The request was sent to the city manager, code-enforcement personnel were dispatched to the property, and a notice of violation was issued to the owner. The owner subsequently repaired the pavement. The entire process took three weeks.

Pothole on Rockville Pike service road after patching.

This situation begs the question: Why did a problem that had generated 13 months of constituent correspondence without resolution get fixed with a single video and email from Montgomery Fix?

The answer isn’t the embarrassing video. We figured out who had jurisdiction over the roadway and went directly to the responsible elected officials. Montgomery Fix doesn’t have any special influence, and the City of Rockville leaders didn't do anything extraordinary. They just did their job.

The county councilmembers and their staffs dropped the ball. Constituent service involves more than determining that something isn't your government's responsibility and passing the buck. Once the jurisdiction was identified, the job was to help get the complaint in front of the government representatives that could actually act on it and keep pushing until the problem was resolved. All it would have taken was one phone call from Kate Stewart to Rockville Mayor Monique Ashton. Instead, a constituent spent 13 months asking for updates and finally gave up in disgust.

Montgomery Fix didn't ask Kate Stewart's office why it failed in the follow-up, or why it didn’t refer the matter to a Rockville elected leader after it went unresolved for so long. Quite frankly, it would be a waste of our time trying to get the answers. Stewart is the same councilmember who, when serving as council president, banned this reporter from her press conferences.

What we do know is this: the Rockville City Manager and city staff did their job and did it well when we reported the problem to City Council members. That's something Montgomery Fix has experienced repeatedly. The municipal leaders in Rockville (and Gaithersburg, Kensington and Takoma Park) are generally approachable and responsive. In our experience, the same cannot be said of County Councilmembers.

Mr. Owl, how many emails does it take to get a Rockville pothole fixed? One, if you know where to send it.

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Publisher’s Note: City of Rockville staff recently identified several potholes on the Rockville Pike service road. Others are expected to be patched in the coming weeks.