Seattle City Council has questions about botched snowstorm response

Seattle City Council members Thursday put the brakes on the mayor's proposal to reform the city's Department of Transportation, saying that an investigation by The Seattle Times raised troubling new questions about the city's bungled response to December's snowstorms.

"I was shocked when I read the story and wondered why we had not been told that same information," said Councilmember Tim Burgess. "It was disheartening to read ... because I guess I naively thought we were getting the full story, but obviously we were not."

The council on Monday was slated to discuss a resolution approving Mayor Greg Nickels' plan to improve the city's response to future storms to avoid a repeat performance of December, when the city was paralyzed by icy streets for about two weeks.

But Council President Richard Conlin said he will revise the resolution or temporarily shelve it until the council has a more complete picture of what really happened inside the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT).

A majority of council members on Thursday said they are interested in investigating further the city's use of resources and decisions by the department's top two managers.

Whether an investigation is conducted by an independent consultant or by council staff is likely to be discussed at Monday's City Council meeting.

The Times' investigation found that the top two city transportation managers had no experience directing a major snow response. They adopted a top-down management style that ultimately ended in major streets going unplowed for days, even as city plow and truck drivers reported abysmal road conditions, according to interviews and an analysis of about 2,000 records.

The investigation showed that the department rarely used all 27 of its plows at once, even after heavy snowfall. Plow drivers were diverted from priority streets to attend to special requests and to help less experienced drivers. An inordinate amount of attention was accorded to the Admiral district in West Seattle, home to the mayor and Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis.

"I suppose if I worked for the mayor, I'd want to make sure he could get to work, too," Councilmember Richard McIver said.

McIver said he wasn't convinced the council should spend money on a consultant, especially with budget woes. But he said he wished the council had been more thorough earlier.

"We know we can do a better job," McIver said. "Now, do we know how, or do we want someone to tell us that?"

Councilmember Tom Rasmussen asked for an independent review last month but didn't get support for it. He renewed the call on Thursday and said he had already discussed a review with the city's auditor.

"We are continuing to get conflicting information from the executive as well as from the news reports about what happened, and that is not a good sign," he said.

Missing information

Hundreds of readers on Thursday responded to The Times' story, most of them expressing lingering disgust and anger over storm management that made it difficult to get to the doctor, to work or even to the grocery store for days at a stretch. Downtown was iced over during the peak holiday-shopping period.

A self-critique prepared by the department at Nickels' request did not address management performance within the department, nor was the issue raised in two meetings the council called to address problems with the city's snowstorm response.

Nickels did not make himself available for comment Thursday. But his spokesman, Alex Fryer, said the mayor would not be making any management changes within the transportation department.

Fryer said he did not know whether the two managers identified in the Times report were involved in preparing the department's critique or in developing the "action plan" for future storms.

Fryer said Nickels was still satisfied with the storm-response changes he announced last month.

Those changes include allowing for the use of rock salt on roads under limited conditions and sending out "inspectors" to ensure that the department is getting an accurate assessment of road conditions.

Records analyzed by The Times showed that plow drivers accurately reported rutted, icy-road conditions to headquarters, but that their information was not passed on to emergency planners, and the department spokesman, Richard Sheridan, continued to report that main roads were clear.

Lacking information

Councilmember Sally Clark said The Times' story made it clear that the council had received incomplete information from city department heads, who gave reports at a series of meetings following the storms.

The story spurred "renewed interest," she said, "in an independent review of how SDOT performed."

Councilmember Nick Licata said the council couldn't force the mayor to make changes, short of cutting the purse strings.

"There is not a culture of wanting to find out," Licata said, explaining why the council didn't more aggressively question the failures at a department under the mayor's purview. "We have been far too polite. At some point, you have to stop being polite. It's not just that we're not getting good information — we're not getting information at all, or we're getting the wrong information."

Councilmember Bruce Harrell agreed that the council should probe further, but questioned whether hiring a consultant was the way to go.

"I have a hard time spending money to force people to be honest," Harrell said. "My job is not to manage and interrogate executives. My job is to get accurate information. I want to get at the truth and come up a with a plan to get at the truth and make sure we have a competent snowstorm response."

Councilmember Jean Godden is out of the country, and member Jan Drago was out of the office and unavailable.

Susan Kelleher: 206-464-2508 or skelleher@seattletimes.com

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com