Remember how during the Great Blizzard of 2010, members of the New York City Council complained that they were kept in the dark about storm preparations?

Well, with Hurricane Irene bearing down on New York City, Bloomberg administration officials, including deputy mayor Cas Halloway–who replaced deputy mayor Stephen Goldsmith after he bungled the snowstorm response–and Office of Emergency Management head Joseph Bruno invited all of the city’s elected officials to an 11 a.m. meeting in the governor’s room at City Hall. The purpose of the meeting was to brief the elected officials on how the city was preparing for the storm, which neighborhoods would be affected and how, and to go over which resources communities could expect in the likelihood of a major storm coming.

The only problem? Only a handful of City Council members showed up.

According to two people who attended the meeting with the mayor’s top staff, only Gale Brewer, Rosie Mendez and Margaret Chin showed up from Manhattan, only Dan Halloran from Queens, and Jimmy Oddo and Vinny Ignizio from Staten Island. Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer also attended, and a number of members of the Assembly and the State Senate, including Assemblyman Dick Gottfried of the west side of Manhattan and State Senator Liz Krueger of the east side.

A handful of members of the City Council sent staffers in their stead, but the sparse attendance surprised a few of the elected officials who did show up, especially considering that they were given advance notice the day before.

“What do you want me to say,” said one attendee. “The City Council isn’t the most diligent group.”

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