Metro

De Blasio blames ‘glitch’ in bungled snow cleanup

For the first time Friday, Mayor de Blasio cited an unspecified “glitch” in the distribution of plow trucks as a factor in the bungled snow cleanup on the Upper East Side.

Neither he nor his aides specified the nature of the snafu following Tuesday’s dump of snowfall, but de Blasio said he would soon share the findings of an internal review.

“What we’re doing right now is we’re getting a managerial review of what happened,” Hizzoner said at City Hall. “We do know this much: The equipment was available, the personnel was available, the orders were given. So now we have to figure out what went wrong.”

The mayor also acknowledged accumulating complaints from Staten Island about sub-par plow service — amid calls by City Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-Staten Island) for an oversight hearing.

The de Blasio administration was criticized earlier this week for being slow to react to complaints of neglect in pockets of the city.

“The broad point will be we need to understand better when something isn’t working,” said de Blasio. “We needed to understand in real-time that [the plow-tracking site] PlowNYC was malfunctioning. We needed to understand in real-time that some kind of glitch had occurred in distribution of the trucks,” added the mayor. “So we’re going to work to improve that feedback.”

Longtime Sanitation Chief John Doherty met with First Deputy Mayor Tony Shorris Thursday to discuss his agency’s handling of street cleanups. Doherty has been collecting a six-figure pension of more than $100,000 since 2006 on top of his $205,000 salary.

De Blasio noted Friday that Doherty’s appointment was meant to be temporary.

“We’ve asked him to stay on in a transitional capacity – we’ve talked about focusing on the snow season,” the mayor said.