No Bloomberg Blizzard Slowdown By Sanitation Workers

Remember the stories about the supposed sanitation slowdown that unionized workers took part in to embarrass the mayor during the Bloomberg Blizzard Disaster of 2010?

The NY Post was all over that story.

But it turns out it didn't happen.

I mean, not even a little:

Late last December, a councilman from Queens inflamed the frustrations of many New Yorkers upset with the pace of snow removal after a blizzard when he claimed to have evidence that city sanitation workers had intentionally slowed the cleanup.

The councilman, Daniel J. Halloran, became a national news celebrity for a more than week. Talk show guests said his evidence showed how public employee unions were harming America.

But on Friday, a report by the city’s Department of Investigation said that Mr. Halloran had no evidence for his accusation, and appeared to have misrepresented what two workers told him.

“In toto,” the report said, “Mr. Halloran’s information about city employee statements contributed no actual evidence about a possible slowdown.”

In fact, the report said, there was no evidence of a slowdown at all. A few workers photographed buying beer or coffee during the cleanup were doing so only while stuck with broken-down equipment, and not as part of a labor slowdown, the report said.

Mr. Halloran said he based his comments, which first appeared in The New York Post, on conversations he had with two Transportation Department supervisors who had been assigned to the cleanup and with three Sanitation Department workers.

But he refused to give the names of the sanitation workers to investigators, citing attorney-client privilege. And when city investigators spoke to the transportation supervisors, the two said they had said nothing of the sort to the councilman.

In fact, one said that he did not reach out to the councilman, as Mr. Halloran had said, but had been summoned to his office by a mutual friend. The supervisor, who was not named in the report, said he submitted to a brief “grilling” by Mr. Halloran, but told the councilman that he knew nothing about a slowdown other than the rumors he had heard in the news media.

The supervisor said Mr. Halloran appeared to be upset with that answer.

The other supervisor also said he knew nothing about a slowdown and was present only because he had happened to tag along with his colleague. He said Mr. Halloran appeared annoyed.

According to the report, one of the sanitation supervisors told investigators that as they were leaving the meeting, Mr. Halloran said, “If you don’t want to talk, I will find a disgruntled worker who is ready to retire who is.”

Mr. Halloran could not be immediately reached for comment on Friday.

In short, Mr. Halloran was full of shit.

As was the NY Post.

I'm sure the Post will go front page with the news tomorrow.

Uh, huh.