A Flurry of Complaints Hit City Hall

After Long Beach was hit with a blizzard days after Christmas, City Hall faced a flurry of complaints over its handling of snow removal by residents from all corners of town.

Rob Catell asked the City Council at Tuesday's meeting why it took six days until his street, West Penn Street in the West Holme neighborhood, was plowed after an estimated 16 inches of snow fell on Dec. 27.

"I had a wife in danger of losing a baby because she can't get down a street," Catall said about his mate who is five-months pregnant.

Roy Lester said that after the storm his block, Boyd Street in the Canals, was a "complete disaster," so much so that he and his neighbors had to help push out two city snow-removal vehicles that got stuck there.

Council members themselves even weighed in. Mike Fagen cited streets in his West End neighborhood that had little to no snow removal, while John McLaughlin said the city lacked preparedness and went into a reactionary mode that he called "the kiss of death" in heavy storms. 

City Manager Charles Theofan —who said he was "appalled" when he drove to pick up a city employee on a Canals street and was unable to get down the unplowed road on Dec. 27 — characterized the storm as the worst in the city since 1996, and said that abandoned cars on snow-covered streets plagued the city.

"By no means was our response perfect," said Theofan. "… [But] we made a good faith effort in every neighborhood."

In part, he blamed the snow-covered streets on the high winds that gave the appearance that some hadn't been plowed, and said many people failed to heed warnings to stay off the streets, got stuck and therefore obstructed the plows.

When questioned about the city's storm plans, Theofan said snow removal preparations began Sunday (Dec. 26) morning with street sanding, and starting Monday morning some 40 to 60 vehicles were on the roads working around the clock.

Theofan noted that unlike past storms, including one in 1996, the Department of Environmental Conservation no longer permits pay loaders to dump snow into Reynolds Channel. "That was a very easy way to remove the snow," he said.

Meanwhile, North Park resident James Hodge put the blame squarely on city management, calling it "terrible."

"There were cars stuck on snow [emergency] routes that should have been the first streets to be cleared," said Hodge, who added that he saw fire trucks stuck in the snow.

The city manager said that certain streets, particularly in the West End, are too narrow for some plows, and there is little they can do anyway because there is no place to plow the snow. Fagen, who contended that there was a worse storm in 2006, said the city still has an obligation to protect people on those streets in case of emergencies.  

"I don't think anyone waited two or three days before [any snow plows] got to them," said Bill McCarthy, executive vice president of CSCA union, who pointed out that many people vacation during Christmas week and leave their cars on the streets.

Council President Thomas Sofield Jr. asked Theofan if he planned to meet with the departments involved in snow removal, in order to critique their performance and discuss ways they can do better. Theofan said he planned to have a series of meetings with the "key players" in those departments. 

McLaughlin said everyone on the City Council "didn't do something" to handle the response better. Searching for solutions, McLaughlin said that doing a better job during the next blizzard may be as simple as hiring private plows to address certain problem areas such as the West End and Canals, or it may involve something more complicated. 

"We have to come with a solid plan that works from administration to administration," he said. "When a storm hits every 15 years, there's always a change in employees. So this is a big thing."

Lester called on the city to improve its lines of communication with residents during blizzards, so that they can at least find out when their streets may get plowed. He said his worst experience was calling City Hall only to hear pre-recorded messages.

"You would get robo calls that said 'Every street has been plowed,'" Lester recalled, "which is really frustrating when you're sitting there not having seen plows for two or three days."