UPDATE: Halloran Gives Sanitation Commish A "D" At Snow Hearing

Update, Jan. 11, 8:51 a.m.: Councilman Dan Halloran said he supported the City Council's decision not to air allegations of an intentional slowdown by Sanitation supervisors at yesterday's .

"As a former prosecutor, I know it makes no sense to hold hearings while a criminal investigation is taking place," Halloran said, referring to four ongoing independent probes into the matter.

Halloran said investigators working with the city Department of Investigation, the U.S. Attorney and the Queens District Attorney's office made contact with him regarding allegations about possible misconduct by Sanitation supervisors. 

Regarding yesterday's snow hearing, Halloran gave Sanitation Commissioner a "D" for his testimony on the events during and immediately after last month's blizzard. 

"He spoke out of both sides of his mouth," Halloran said. "On one hand, he said Sanitation did a good job. But he couldn't explain any of the failures."

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It became the hot-button issue that wasn't.

Despite weeks of persistent rumors driven by allegations made to the office of Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone), in snow removal efforts by Queens Sanitation supervisors were pulled off the agenda at today's on the response to last month's blizzard.

"In the last few days there have been a number of theories, and one theory in fact focused on the alleged slowdown by the men and women of the Department of Sanitation," said Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Brooklyn). "This is not a criminal investigation. And those who have evidence to that effect should contact the various boroughs engaging in a criminal investigation."

Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) quickly seconded that statement.

"In light of the allegations of a worker slowdown, I'd like to remind everyone that that matter is not in the hands of the City Council, it's in the hands of at least four law enforcement agencies," Quinn said.

One of those agencies, the city Department of Investigation, put out a call today for information from the general public on the slowdown allegations.

"DOI is continuing its multi-borough investigation that we started last week into whether there is any evidence of intentional acts of commission or omission related to the snow cleanup," said DOI commissioner Rose Gill Hearn.

Though the investigation continues, the heat on the city's Sanitation Department over the slowdown rumors seemed to ebb a bit — at least, for now.

Even Halloran, who has appeared on several cable news networks in recent weeks to discuss the slowdown allegations, kept his remarks decidedly off the topic of any intentional effort to stall snow removal efforts — instead lobbying several pointed comments at Commissioner John Doherty in regards to an apparent lack of communication between city agencies and the public.

"You use statistics including claims that 'plowed' does not mean passable," Halloran said. "Well, then that's an absolutely useless term."

Bayside Patch editor Lori Gross contributed reporting.