Halloran Provides More Details On Snow Slowdown Allegations

Almost a month after a blizzard paralyzed the city, Councilman Dan Halloran revisited the furor which accompanied allegations made to his office by sanitation workers of an intentional slowdown in snow removal efforts during the storm.

"I don't think that the entire Sanitation Department was engaged in a slowdown," said Halloran, R-Whitestone, at a Town Hall-style meeting held at his district office last night. "I think there were a handful of supervisors who did something really stupid, not thinking what the consequences would be, not deploying people at certain times, not telling people to take their time — and at the end of the day, we all saw what happened."

He also addressed questions regarding the validity of the allegations, which are part of four ongoing investigations by local, state and federal authorities.

"There's a lot of people questioning whether or not I spoke to anybody," he said. "Three people spoke to me as an attorney about whether or not they did something wrong. I quickly told them I couldn't represent them and sent them on their merry way."

But when, Halloran continued, two Department of Transportation supervisors came forward with similar allegations without seeking his legal advice, the council member said he decided to make the allegations public.

"That's when I said something ... to the mayor's office," Halloran said. "From there, the media got ahold of it."

After appearing on several network TV outlets to discuss the charges in the wake of last month's storm, Halloran announced he would the names of his sources, including the two DOT supervisors he said last night approached him in his capacity as a council member and not an attorney.

Despite widespread anger across northeast Queens, particularly in Whitestone, over the pace of snow removal, issues related to charges of an intentional slowdown was largely a non-starter at a held Jan. 10 and a separate .

As the snow began to fall from the latest winter storm this morning, at least one Little Neck resident took the Whitestone councilman at his word regarding slowdown allegations.

"I'm glad he made it public," said Sandra Yee at the Starbucks at Little Neck Plaza. "The city needs to be held accountable for what happened here."