Mayor Bloomberg is – again – throwing snowballs at the outer boroughs, City Council members say.

He�s refusing to send Sanitation Department reps to a series of Council hearings that will be the first chance for many New Yorkers to sound off about the disastrous Dec. 26 blizzard.

He�ll instead send community affairs representatives with details about the mayor�s 15-point plan to improve the city�s snow response.

�Unacceptable!� fumed Council Sanitation Committee Chairwoman Letitia James (D, WFP-Brooklyn). �This is an actof disrespect to the outer boroughs, mostof which were ignored during the blizzard.�

James had asked for the sanitation superintendents from each borough to explain at six hearings what went wrong in the hardest-hit parts of the city.

�I don�t want Community Affairs to tell me about salt, snowplows, chains, deployments and assignments,� James said.

New Yorkers were so furious after the wind-whipped blizzard left streets unplowed for days that the Council took the extraordinary step of scheduling eight hearings into the city�s response.

Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith and Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty both acknowledged, at a major hearing on Monday, Jan. 10, serious flaws in the city�s snow response. Top Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials were grilled at a second hearing this past Friday.

The first outer borough hearing, tonight at Staten Island�s Petrides School, will be the first chance for New Yorkers to testify. It will be followed by hearings in downtown Brooklyn, southern Brooklyn, Harlem, Queens and the Bronx.

A spokesman for Bloomberg said the community affairs reps will be equipped to respond to concerns.

(Source: NY Daily News)