Tim Burgess' City View

Snow Storm Fact Finding

The Council finds itself in the position of having to dig deeper into the city's response to the December storms. Stories published in The Seattle Times last week showed that our earlier review was incomplete. The "after action" report presented to the Council was very inadequate.

Last Friday I asked Council President Conlin to request all documents that were given to the Times as a result of their public disclosure filings be provided to the Council. The Council will also soon direct the City Auditor to conduct a review of these and other documents. Clearly, we must redo our review with more aggressiveness.

That being said, my larger concern remains the city's failure to recognize the big picture, strategic implications of the storms. This failure led to multiple operational problems--not hiring sufficient private plows to augment city plows, not coordinating closely enough with Metro, not realizing the huge negative impact on the business community. These strategic shortcomings are far worse than any of the operational errors, in my opinion. Just think major earthquake, a more severe storm, or, heaven forbid, a man-made disaster.  It's essential that city emergency operations and decision-making be strategically and operationally sound.  The response to the December snow storms raises questions about both areas.

Snow Response: Evaluation Round One Complete

After two days of meetings and briefings on the city's response to the December snow storms, plus my own personal observations made while moving around the city during the storms, including walking throughout downtown and my own neighborhood, I'm beginning to understand some of the core problems that led to the less than adequate mobilization of city resources.

I posted some initial thoughts yesterday, including a list of some of the successes that were achieved during the storms.  It's important to keep these successes in mind as we continue to dissect what went wrong. 

Our review of exactly what happened in city government is very important because it will help us be better prepared for the next emergency, whether nature-caused or man-made.  And we have a lot to learn from these December storms.

Now, I also acknowledge that it's very easy to play Monday morning quarterback, that hindsight is invaluable and always more obvious.  But we shouldn't be deterred from asking the hard questions. 

I've drawn some very preliminary conclusions that still must be tested against the facts and refined, but, at this stage of the process, they help me focus my work—

1. I don't believe city officials properly assessed the big picture or strategic scope and impact of the storms.  This failure led to inadequate mobilization of resources.  Most of the testimony

Snow Response: Briefings Continue

Today is Day 2 of the Council's review of the city's snow response.  Here are the key facts and conclusions I gleaned from yesterday's briefing:

1. The Mayor's decision to allow some use of salt, along with de-icing solutions and sand, is a good one and represents the kind of balanced approach necessary to enhance mobility of vehicles around town.  Scientists told us yesterday that the occasional use of salt to melt snow and ice is not a significant negative factor with regard to fish populations.  Far more damaging is the debris from vehicle brakes, dripping oil, and other vehicle pollutants that flow into the storm water drainage system and eventually into Puget Sound, lakes and streams.
2. The director of SDOT reported that city crews plow to the roadway surface and do not plow to leave a compact layer of snow/ice.  This is contrary to what has been reported by the news media, personal observation, and anecdotal reports from citizens throughout the city.  We need to get to the bottom of this issue, so to speak. 
3. It is not clear whether Metro's primary snow routes for buses are all included in the city's

City Snow Response & Public Comments

Council President Conlin released this statement earlier today.  Note the special meetings and public hearing scheduled next week.

The City must learn from this experience, review policies, procedures, and equipment, and identify improvements immediately.  The Council cannot undue the difficulties the last few weeks have brought, but we can make a genuine effort at learning from this situation and finding constructive ways to do better.

We will review the City's performance in this storm, with the goal of identifying lessons learned and determining what specific steps can be taken to improve the response.  The council intends to create a work plan that will implement those recommendations as soon as possible (the storm season is far from over).

The City Council does not directly manage the departments and a number of the policies and procedures for response to these kinds of situations are administrative.  We do have a responsibility to the public to improve government response, provide the budget for training, new equipment, if needed, and other improvements.

The Council’s review will begin on Monday, January 5, at our regular Monday morning