Sentence:  Councilman William D. Schaefer ( D. , Fifth ) said in a letter to Mayor Grady that plowing and salting crews should be dispatched earlier in storms and should be kept on the job longer than they <WSD>were</WSD> last month . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)