BREAKING VIDEO – EXCLUSIVE: Mayor Miller and Committeman Lichtenstien Blast DPW over Plowing Failure

so you bumped into us here at Public Works manash and I are working here at public works with other members of the township committee it's a little busy but at the outset let me first say uh that I think an apology is due uh to those roads that have not even been hit once yet this is a storm of proportions that nobody could have thought would happen however at the same time I think that there was some very poor planning uh in the public works department that went into effect so there's a few things here and I want to make it very very quick first of all um for those people at Public Works that did come in and do did do their job and those of us who were involved in the proper planning phase um I think uh they deserve a very big thank you they work very very hard I think a thorough and proper investigation has to be done what happened in this storm and to see what went wrong and why it took so long for us to get some trucks on the road uh I was here at one point during the storm almost 40% of our equipment was sitting idly in the slot with no operators there uh that could e be because operators didn't come in uh when they were supposed to that could be because there was poor planning on the shifts whatever it may have been that has to be corrected again to those hardworking people thank you to those people who sh their responsibilities if in fact that's what happened that's something that's going to be looked at and I need to say that uh hopefully with the support of the mayor I'm sure and Township committee we're going to ask for a good thorough investigation as to what happened and to to make sure that this doesn't happen again to the best of our ability and if it means that people have to find employment elsewhere that's what's going to happen mayor I I don't mean to jump in but I just can't control myself those that sh responsibilities will be held responsible and will be held accountable absolutely uncalled for what what took place over here this is totally uncalled for we have people right now sitting in sitting in developments that have not yet been plowed I'm not one to say that the place is done we we're far from being finished but we're working hard may my colleague mayor came over here he walked over here shabas afternoon he was sitting here with regard ambulance is stuck I was here late last night till 4:00 in the morning without sleep I haven't eaten breakfast yet today and my my colleague mayor as well we will do everything and anything I I'm I'm round up I to your this afternoon you're mixing us up at o not o this is totally totally totally unal for and I will say that's for the past but let's let let's talk about moving forward right now uh the mayor and the township committee uh and I have been working together I have been here we have private contractors coming in um I think we have between 8 and 10 already lined up big pieces of equipment that are coming in and possibly more um and if uh if you go out to the yard you'll probably be able to see some of them unless they left already um they're not Township employees they're private contractors under the mayor's declared state of emergency uh we are able to hire them uh they are going to be going out and getting our roads done I don't know when all the roads will be done but I do know that I will not leave here uh I will not leave public works until I know that all our private contractors are out on the road banging out what has to happen so that our roads are plow and I feel so bad for those people who who are just stuck and for the future we are going to make sure that Department of Public Works has better planning I'm going to ask the mayor and the committee uh to make sure that this doesn't happen again in the future by doing the proper planning it is not a Township committe men's job to sit here in public works and run the operation but there has to be a point where this doesn't happen and it doesn't come to something like this mayor I don't know if you want to conclude I'll just conclude by saying that we are absolutely pursuing and we already have as the may as uh my colleague mentioned we absolutely have already private contractors here we have Bill Jim Ren with a lot of his equipment coming here we are calling out any private contractor that's available right now to come assist us here in our state of emergency we want the town clean and we want to clean now and and let me apologize many of you have reached out to me via email email cell phone people have called my home some people very frustrated and I understand why you're frustrated I do um and I just want to apologize to you for not getting back to you because I had a choice of either responding to 100 or 200 phone calls or getting on the phone and finding private contractors and working with public works and I thought that to be more important that is very very true myself as well many people I know my wife keeps telling me people are calling me at the house and I'm getting a lot of text and stuff like that at the same time it's either sit hours and respond to everything or just keep plugging ahead and getting the job done we're Mission focused we're goal oriented we're going to get the job done thank