Metro

City demotes two B’klyn sanitation chiefs after botched snow cleanup effort

The heads just keep on rolling following last month’s botched blizzard cleanup.

The city said today that two Sanitation Department bosses in Brooklyn were demoted “after examining our performance during the massive blizzard” and will install GPS devices in trucks that will plow parts of the outer boroughs.

The men that will be reassigned are Brooklyn South Assistant Chief Joseph Montgomery and Brooklyn South Deputy Chief Joseph Susol, although the city did not give a specific reason as to why they were being replaced.

“After examining our performance during the massive blizzard that hit us the day after Christmas, among the things we found were that structural and personnel changes were in order in Brooklyn to create a more balanced operation,” said Sanitation Department Commissioner John Doherty.

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The move comes a day after the city demoted EMS Chief John Peruggia as part of a post-blizzard shakeup.

The city was hit with 20 inches of snow on Dec. 26-27, with parts of Brooklyn and Queens remained paralyzed for days after the sanitation department failed to plow streets.

More snow is expected to fall on Friday, although forecasts call for as little as three inches in most parts of the city.

At a new conference at City Hall this afternoon, Mayor Bloomberg also outlined a plan to install GPS trackers in 50 Sanitation trucks, effective Friday, to help us “communicate” with drivers in Brooklyn.

“These are only initial improvements,” Bloomberg vowed, saying they will have more improvements to announce next week.

“We’re going to do better next time,” he added.

The city will also restructure operations in Brooklyn — moving three Sanitation Department districts into the Brooklyn North command from the borough’s South. The move — part of a restructuring effort in reaction to the blizzard scandal — is part of Bloomberg’s ongoing review of the cleanup effort.

The southern part of Brooklyn was one of the hardest hit areas of the city, where plows failed to show up for days following the storm.

Doherty said the move was made to relieve a “workload imbalance.”

The city also said it will improve training procedures for all sanitation workers, who The Post reported last week had, in some cases, intentionally slowed down the cleanup as part of a union action in response to department budget cuts. Neighborhoods like Dyker Heights and Borough Park, both located in Southern Brooklyn, were intentionally targeted by drivers.

Bloomberg and Doherty have said there was no deliberate work stoppage.

The Sanitation Department said it will also update training manuals and procedures for workers and employees.

The move to reassign Montgomery and Susol comes as the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, the Department of Investigation and the Brooklyn and Queens DAs offices have all opened probes into the cleanup effort.

The City Council will also hold a hearing on Monday to look into why the city responded so poorly to the cleanup.