Officials Questioned
On Snow Removal

In the wake of a record-setting snowfall that crippled the city, officials offered some suggestions for the next blizzard: As soon as eight inches fall, open the emergency center. Start towing before the snow falls. And don’t make promises you can’t keep.

Those ideas came from aldermen and department heads who gathered in City Hall’s aldermanic chambers Thursday evening to discuss the city’s snow clearing operations.

The briefing was the result of a request by several aldermen upset with snow plowing snafus in their wards. Aldermen Darnell Goldson and Greg Morehead put in the official request, to which eight others added their names.

As the briefing occurred, the city was experimenting across town with melting huge mounds of collected snow. Click here to read about that and watch a video.

New Haven has received over four feet of snow this winter. The historic fall has stretched resources and left the city piled high with ice and snow. Aldermen and neighbors have complained of absentee plow trucks, poorly cleared or uncleared streets, unkept snow clearing promises made by the city, and a general confusion about what is happening when.

At Thursday night’s City Hall hearing, John Prokop, head of the Department of Public Works, promised better communication with aldermen during emergency snow operations. But he blamed the mayor’s communication staff when asked about messages that did not make it from him to aldermen during the recent storms.

Asked for specific ways to improve operations in the next snowstorm, Prokop said he has put forward a proposal that the city open its Emergency Operations Center with a minimum of four staffers as soon as eight inches of snow falls. That way, people will be able to call in to get answers from a live person 24-hours a day, not just during regular business hours, Prokop said.

Prokop said he’d also call on contractors sooner in the storm. He said he hesitated calling plowing contractors during the most recent storm, in an effort to preserve the city budget.

Contractors are necessary for snow removal, for which the city is not equipped, Prokop said. The city has the trucks and tools for snow ​“push-back,” but not for a full-scale removal operation, in which snow is hauled off the streets, Prokop said. It would take $3.5 million just to buy the equipment needed to be fully prepared for snow removal.

Aldermen called for more and better supervision of plowers, to ensure that they are actually clearing all the streets they claim they are. Aldermen Darnell Goldson and Jorge Perez both recounted stories of standing in unplowed streets, calling for a plow, and being told the streets had been plowed already.

“I’m saying this with all humbleness, we need to have assistance from other departments for oversight and supervision,” Prokop said. Public works has five fewer supervisors than it did several years ago, he said.

Several aldermen also urged Prokop and other city officials to be more aggressive with towing. Their message was: If you say you’re going to tag and tow and then you don’t, you lose all credibility and people stop listening. East Rock Aldermen Matt Smith went so far as to urge the city to begin towing cars before a flake of snow even falls, when a big storm is predicted.

Prokop said he’d like to have political back-up from the full board if he were to start doing something like that.

Officials acknowledged that the city bungled the even side/odd side parking restrictions during recent storms. In the future, the rule is: Just park on the even side.

Prokop also acknowledged that the city messed up by promising to visit every street with a plow and then being unable to meet that goal in the time allotted. Aldermen urged him to make promises that he’s sure he can keep; people will be patient if they understand why the plow is not there, but not if they’re told told it will be there and it’s not.

The Independent broadcast live from City Hall during the meeting. Read on for a live blog of the briefing.

Live Blog

6:33 p.m.: We’re off. Alderman Greg Morehead is calling the meeting to order.

Morehead: We just wanted to have this meeting to address some of the procedures that go on during a snow storm.

There will be no public testimony. There are 11 aldermen present: Thorpe, Perez, Morehead, Antunes, Smart, Goldson, Goldfield, Elicker, Dildine, Smith, and Paca. Goldfield has taken over running the meeting.

John Prokop, head of public works, is the first city official to testify.

Prokop: Rob Smuts (chief administrative officer) is sick and won’t be joining us. Since Dec. 26., we’ve had ten events of precipitation. In January alone, 57 inches of snowfall, an all time record. We’ve put in over 2,000 hours, just from the last snowstorm. I’ve had three of my mechanics go in for counseling. The amount of repairs they had was phenomenal. The cost of repairs: close to $50,000 just from the last storm. … Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions. That being said, when we have a snow operation, the director of public works is in charge of coordinating. Livable City Initiative and the parks department are at my disposal. We get probably 18 hours advance notice: a weather forecast, and then an update every six hours. We use the forecast to allocate resources. … Sometimes the snow is greater than or less than the amount that was anticipated. …

Prokop: Public works is not set up to do snow removal. We can do minimal removal at corners. The entire city of New Haven has four payloaders at a cost of $175,000 each. Those payloaders fill Class A trucks with three bucket loads, 10,000 pounds of snow per truck. We have 22 such trucks. … During the last storm, three of the payloaders went down at the same time. They were offline no more than two days. We don’t keep parts on hand for them, because the parts cost $3,500 a pop. … Payloaders are going constantly, loading trucks with sand or salt. … Every vehicle is properly outfitted for snow operations beginning in October. … We base our best decisions on the weather service. … In this last storm, with approximately two to three inches coming down per hour, and nine trucks off line… It become almost impossible for certain streets to be cleared. Smaller trucks can’t push back the amount of snow in the time available to us. … We consult with the fire department and with aldermen about ticketing and towing. …

Prokop: The real problem was so much snow, no place to put it. We were forced to go into snow removal, which we were not prepared for. During this last storm we had to hire nine contractor teams, at $1,000 an hour. … Then the rain came, which turned to ice. … The snow interfered with trash collection, in some cases making it impossible for collectors to get to garbage. … We’ve learned a lot of things what we did correctly how we can improve. It’s a very intricate operation, with a number of considerations and caveats that we don’t normally think of. Including, salt not being delivered. That didn’t happen here, but it happened to other municipalities. … It’s a very involved process.

[In this preamble, Prokop seems to be trying to head off criticism from aldermen. His message: This is a really difficult situation; we did the very best we could.]

6:49: Jim Travers, head of traffic and parking: We only do tag and tow when we are working with public works plowing.

Rick Fontana, deputy director of city’s office of emergency management: I want to tell you how the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) functions. It’s a 24-hour program. Starting on the 28th, we kept that center open for seven days straight, 24 hours a day. We kind of act like a triage center. … We put together plans every 12 hours… ​“to make sure people understood we were with them.” … ​“The inconveniences? We all had them.” We were first and foremoset trying to deal with public safety.

6:53: Morehead: Did the contractors you mentioned have specific streets they worked on?

Prokop: Yes. The 10 fire stations went out and identified impassable streets. There were 39 of them. … We took that list and gave it to the contractors. It took us five days to get to everyone of those streets for snow removal. … We did a street today. On average you can get a street that’s 30 feet wide that we’ve removed cars on one side that’s 2,000 feet long, you can clear that in about five hours. So to do Carmel Street, from Whalley Avenue down one block: Four hours at $1,000 an hour. …

Morehead: Public works employees, do they have a set schedule that each truck does? Do they all have assigned streets?

Prokop: They do. There’s a route sheet. Routes for bigger trucks and then routes for smaller trucks.

Morehead: Each ward has a neighborhood LCI specialist. Can’t that person go out and evaluate some of the streets and get back to you, so that all the streets can be taken care of?

Prokop: Yes we could have utilized them. We did not. We utilized the fire department to assess every day. The fire department went out and validated plower claims of completion. The fire department personnel are attuned to how wide a street needs to be.

7:01: Goldson: I know this was an extraordinary storm. I still have some questions. First, when was fire department called in?

Prokop: As soon as the EOC [Emergency Operations Center] was opened.

Goldson: Who is designated as the communicator with the public and the board of aldermen in emergencies?

Prokop: It always went through communications staff in the mayor’s office.

Goldson: ​“It’s not that we want to be whiners or complainers. … We really felt that there were some issues and concerns out there.” You guys weren’t set up for snow removal. Why wasn’t that info given to us?

Prokop: We had those discussions at EOC, I can’t say why that didn’t get back to you.

Goldson: Here are a couple of examples: On the 27th, I spent three hours digging myself out and got stuck on my own street, then drove to every street in my ward. Valley Place South had not been plowed. I called the EOC and I was told that it had been plowed. Finally, a plow truck came. … So I’m wondering, how is supervision being done? My residents were calling me, saying streets were unplowed. I would call and be told it had been plowed. It’s embarrassing for me and for the city. So how are those folks supervised?

Prokop: During a snowstorm: four supervisors for 29 trucks, 16-hour shifts. They work with drivers, take their sheets, call them, pass on citizen complaints. The supervisor is supposed to inspect streets where complaints have come from. All trucks have GPS. If I see a GPS signal on your street, I have to assume the driver dropped the plow. Some streets were not done and then the driver felt afraid to tell us because they had been made uncomfortable by icy conditions. I tell them to tell me.

Goldson: What happens if you find out that street was not done when the employee said it was done?

Prokop: We go through disciplinary process, not in the middle of the snowstorm. … Three and a half years ago, there were five more supervisors in the budget.

Goldson: ​“Ronald Reagan said, ​‘Trust, but verify.’ I need you to verify.” … I had to sit on a street and make sure the plow came. I got out there at 4 a.m., after being told the street had been plowed.

Prokop: Maybe in the future, I shouldn’t send a supervisor to an accident. … ​“Let me use your words. We’re inundated.”

Goldson: I had several streets that hadn’t been plowed for all three snowstorms. These people are complaining and calling me and calling public works and posting on SeeClickFix. How do streets not get plowed for three snowsotrms?

Prokop: ​“I don’t have an answer for you.” In the future, we’ll use the fire department to supervise.

7:14: Perez: I realize this was difficult, but this was the worst I’ve seen in 40 years. It started after the second or third storm. If you don’t take care of it, it gets worse. I also was told streets were plowed while on the phone standing on unplowed streets. .… This odd/even thing, 90 percent of the time it wasn’t done. … If you use the fire department, don’t use the battalion chiefs, ​“they’re the most useless human beings” … ​“I’m surprised they can find the streets.” … I was on Herbert Street called in for a plow, the battalion chief came down, said a truck could pass when I saw that it couldn’t pass. … By the time we realized we had a crisis, it was too late. … ​“This was really frustrating.” People ended up in the hospital with anxiety attacks. … ​“I’m very disappointed.”

Fontana: We had ten engine companies, each in their district, had to go out and see if apparatus fit down the street.

[Asst. Fire Chief Pat Egan is stepping up to the table.]

Perez: I’m praising the fire department, but battalion chiefs didn’t know what they were doing.

Egan: In clarification, what we really dispatched to assist DPW was our engine companies and our truck companies. … Myself and Asst. Chief Black coordinated at EOC. … I don’t recall sending any battalion chiefs out for surveys. … For the most part it was our fire apparatus and not our chief officer vehicles that were doing the surveys.

Perez: I don’t want to beat up anybody.

Egan: What’s that, you can’t unring the bell? How’s that saying go? … It was quite an operation out there. The guys and gals of the fire department did a great job.

Perez: You went down my street and couldn’t get by.

7:23: Elicker: I know you all worked very hard. It’s probably frustrating to have so many complaints. I think this conversation should be collaborative. … We keep talking about this as an unusual storm event, but climate change says we’ll see more like this. How will you change in the future?

Prokop: We need to start our operations sooner than later, address the pushback issue. … We learned lessons about communicating. … We learned that we’ve given to some people unrealistic expectations. … We need information to funnel back to aldermen. … Checks and balances for us are very good. … In moving forward with equipment, ​“I think that we probably would use contractor equipment more readily on the onset of a larger storm than ever before.” … I made a bad call by trying to preserve the budget by using only city equipment first. … Maybe we should expand equipment.

Elicker: Did the mayor ask the governor for help?

Prokop: I don’t think he did.

Elicker: Did other cities?

Prokop: Some town had the national guard doing roof snow removal after a collapse. … We kept operations in full swing, even when state pulled trucks off of roads because of icy conditions.

Elicker: How do you collaborate with other towns? There might be some special equipment that could be jointly purchased.

Prokop: I met with officials in Hamden. I’d like to put a salt and sand shed in their town that we could use. We are talking about issues like that.

Elicker: How many residents are signed up for phone calls?

Fontana: About 26,000 households. Anyone with a land line listed in the white pages automatically gets called. We also have about 2,400 opt-ins. We don’t call businesses because it creates a problem with our phone system. … People can sign up on the website. … We sent out 23 messages in January. It’s a powerful tool. We used it tonight to let Eld Street know to park only on the even side tonight. … There will be no more, even/odd. Now it’s: Just park on the even side. That’s because more hydrants are on the odd side.

Elicker: You’ve got to get more people on that system [the phone system]. People don’t know what’s going on. Street-sweeping. People want to be informed about the problems. … In this cell phone world, ​“the white pages aren’t going to cut it.”

Fontana: I agree.

7:35: Blango: I have three questions. … What is the priority for removing snow? How much does it cost to remove snow?

Prokop: It’s $1,000 an hour. … Tonight, we will be melting ice stockpiled at public works.

Blango: Do we have a priority list as far as streets? Who has access to it?

Prokop: I have a list given to me by crossing guards. That is the priority list. It may be completed by the end of the weekend.

Blango: Fire hydrants are still snowed in.

Egan promises to clear them.

Blango: At Bassett and Winchester, people are parking in the middle of the street.

Prokop: The priority list given to us came from school principals, crossing guards, and school bus companies. Public works will continue to remove snow once the list is complete, but we won’t hire contractors to do it at $1,000 an hour. … It’s going to be several weeks before we get around to doing all that work. I’m hoping the warm weekend will work in our favor.

Prokop promises to give the priority list out to aldermen.

7:43: Paca: In my view, I think you guys did a pretty decent job. ​“As far as communication goes, Liz Benton called me so much I thought we were related.” .… Howard Weissberg answered all of my phone calls. I didn’t have any trouble getting in touch with anybody. … I fielded at least 50 calls, 100 residents. I stayed in constant contact with my residents and used by ward committee to coordinate shoveling. I created a block leader program, I organized people to shovel out cars, move cars. ​“We did what we had to do.” … ​“We did a good job communicating and helping each other out.” … I have a 20 foot pile in front of my house.. It’s what happened. I don’t want you guys to feel discouraged. ​“I think overall you did a good job and I commend you.” … On Pendleton Street one of my ward committee members called me up 20 times one day and told me she was organizing people.

Prokop: One thing we learned is that to get a call of an alderman is very important. … When constituents pull together and you call us we’re more inclined to move, having gotten confirmation of something already in the works.

7:50: Smith: The city isn’t equipped to deal with five feet of snow in four weeks. I’m concerned about the time between storms. … I had urged administration to prepare for the storm in advance. … I was a little disappointed on that. … ​“We need to enforce parking bans and they need to happen before a flake of snow falls.” … Otherwise, problems are compounded. … We need to enforce sidewalk and curb cut clearing, to make sure elderly and disabled residents can get around. If you were handicapped, you wouldn’t have been able to leave your house since December. My question is, will you in the future be prepared to do more towing in advance of the storm?

Prokop: We can independently make those decisions, but I would like feedback about the idea of ​“before the first flake falls.” I don’t know that the entire board of alderman would feel that way. I wouldn’t want a department head to go too far. ​“Once we do it, are we going to get the support?” … ​“I do agree, we can be more aggressive.” … We increased towing dramatically, and really didn’t get any flak over it. But I’d like consensus, so we’re all on the same page.

Travers: We cant tow cars when we don’t have an ability to plow. … We did not tow where we did not plow. …

Prokop: The alders should be kept apprised when we didn’t finish a block and why: equipment failure, waiting for tow companies.

Smith: For me, what worked was door knocking and emailing to coordinate parking. … This even then odd parking didn’t work. If the street wasn’t plowed, people couldn’t move their cars. ​“We began to lose credibility at the top.” When there isn’t follow-through, it makes it harder to do the next time.

Prokop: When we don’t communicate why things are finished, ​“that’s wrong. … We will do a better job.”

8:00: Dildine: When was the fire department happy with access to all streets.

Prokop: When we closed down the EOC.

…

Prokop: I’ve recommended that we activate the EOC for telephone operations given a minimum of eight inches of snowfall, so that someone is available to answer questions 24 hours a day.

Dildine: Did the fire department communicate assessments prior to Jan.28?

Prokop: We did not have an established protocol prior to this storm.

Dildine: The minimum expectation for everyone is a travel lane for emergency vehicles. … Odd side / even side communication needs to be improved. … We talked about equipment. What about people? Can anybody speak on the challenges with different work rules? Holidays? Weekends? Overnight work?

Prokop: Public works staff, we have a complete full staff for the first 16 hours. To augment, we work with the fire department. But they are on a different schedule. … Parks is very helpful overnight, but in the daytime they have certain obligations to pedestrians. So there’s challenges, not necessarily with union issues, but with availability. … ​“Public works does not have the staffing availability to run a three day storm for 48 hours, effectively.” That’s because of trash and recycling and other duties that are still going on. ​“Our resources are stretched extremely thin once we get out of the eye of the storm so to speak.”

8:13: Robinson-Thorpe: How are the plowers trained? They went down Norton Street just in the middle of the street. That’s not acceptable. It needs to be a two-way street.

Prokop: Some have CDL licenses. We do refresher trainings. The purpose of going down a middle of the road is that we lay material in the middle of the road. It’s then kicked up by vehicles and spread to the sides.

Robinson-Thorpe: Well in the past, they would go up and down the streets. … You should utilize us as alders. ​“I don’t think the alders were kept in the loop so much.”

Prokop: I couldn’t answer why you weren’t kept in the loop. I was led to believe that our briefings were getting back to aldermen.

Robinson-Thorpe: What about drains? A lot of people in my wards had backups.

Prokop: If you’re having sewage backups, that’s not related to storm drains. … We’ve asked homeowners to assist in clearing drains if they know where they are.

Robinson-Thorpe: Police were stopping people from going into their homes during snow removal.

Prokop: I can’t answer that particular question. Police are supposed to allow residents onto the street and radio ahead to warn DPW.

Robinson-Thorpe: You said you don’t tow where you don’t plow. I was told that happened on Winthrop. Constituents are really upset.

Travers: I have not heard that that happened.

8:26: Smart: Ice is dangerous in my ward. ​“I need some attention to detail with that, and I haven’t gotten it.”

Prokop promises to follow up.

…

Morehead: A lot of us have newsletters and can encourage people to sign up for phone updates.

…

Jennifer Pugh: The total cost for the Jan. 11 – 12 storm was $220,000. FEMA could get us 70 percent of that reimbursed.

Morehead: Can we try to find contractors that are the least expensive?

Prokop: The cost for the last storm was $650,000 and growing. That’s cumulative for all city departments. … Contractors: Laydon won the contract based on their bid. We had to call in other contractors, but no one was paid more than Laydon’s contract promised.

Morehead: Moving forward, what specific things are going to be done next time?

Prokop: If we have an 8 inch snowfall we’re going to open up the EOC for information gathering and have it staffed with at least four people. I think we also need to have more communications with the Board of Aldermen, so that when your constituents call, you’ll have better information. And we never want to give expectations that we can’t deliver. … We jumped the gun by saying we were going to have some streets plowed and telling people to move cars to other sides of streets.

Morehead: Supervising?

Prokop: I will need supervisors from other departments to go out and do inspections. … ​“I’m saying this with all humbleness, we need to have assistance from other departments for oversight and supervision.”

Morehead: Some of us would be able to go out and do ride-alongs.

Prokop: I have offered to any alderman or any person you want to represent you, to ride along with our plow drivers.

8:39: Goldson: ​“We want to be your partners. We can be your eyes and ears out there.” … I’m going to suggest that, in terms of this tag and tow: you should tag and tow. If you make the commitment, then follow through, or else everyone starts breaking rules. I’m willing to put forward a resolution that we support your efforts.

…

Prokop: We gave out about 85 citations for sidewalk issues and throwing snow into the street.

…

Goldson: Looking at this $650,000 figure and growing, supervision is even more important.

[Goldson and Prokop discuss the snow-melting machine the DPW is testing out tonight. Look for more on that in tomorrow’s Independent.]

8:47: Goldfield: What would we need to buy the equipment needed to handle these storms?

Prokop: It would take $3.5 million. And that doesn’t include the labor costs. That’s just the rolling stock the city would need.

Goldson: Again, we need better communication, so that people know the city doesn’t have the equipment we need. They would be more patient.

Prokop: I’m talking about hauling equipment. We have the capacity to do a push-back operation. … If we have equipment that goes down, we need to tell you that.

Goldson: I’m disappointed the communications staff isn’t here.

[We’re down to just five aldermen left in the aldermanic chamber, nearly two and a half hours into this meeting.]

…

Goldfield and Travers discuss how residents are notified that there will be towing: Phone calls, PA systems driving up and down the street, signs posted.

Goldfield: Why wouldn’t we go to a system where everyone parks on the even side before a storm, and then just tow?

Prokop: Even with all the tow companies, we can’t tow everyone. They have to go to AAA emergency calls first. There are only nine flatbed tow trucks in the city.

Goldson: If you tag people they’ll learn after a while.

Prokop: But it’s hard to tow when that one car is still there.

Goldson: All my residents are so upset at cars out on the street buried after three storms. Folks are going to be very supportive when we get their streets cleared, even if it means towing.

…

Prokop: I can only hope for no more than eight inches at one time.

9:03: Meeting adjourned.