Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It's hard to get your arms around the quiet, unannounced, late Friday release of about 50 pages of memos from various Erie County Departments that detailed after action perspectives on the deadly Buffalo blizzard.
It's no secret the storm claimed nearly 50 lives, with some estimates greater, and there is widespread concern about a lack of coordination and communication during the storm that contributed to that tally.
The Buffalo News, in seeking the after action reports from the county, resorted to a FOIL request that was not initially met.
Listen LIVE to WBEN:
Then, late Friday, more than a week after the initial reporting appeared in the News and was addressed by other news outlets as well, the county quietly posted a link on a county web page with access to the memos.
No explanation. No press release. No press conference.
The page housing the link to the documents indicated the county receives hundreds of FOIL requests. "Here is where we will post those documents that seem to be of particular public interest," the page notes.
Why did it take a FOIL request and why the delay in releasing the documents? And then, of course, why were they released in such an incognito manner?
We all need to learn from the blizzard and be forthcoming with whatever information can help us get to a "better place" before the next massive storm strikes.
While WBEN was the only media outlet providing continuous, wall-to-wall coverage of the storm on air, we've identified a failure of our own regard in not placing that coverage on every broadcast signal we control. That will now happen if, God forbid, we find ourselves in the same situation again in the future.
The New York State report on the blizzard was released in recent weeks in similar fashion, late on a Friday and with no press release or press conference.
The City of Buffalo, to its credit, previously released the independent study it had completed by New York University and released the details during a full city hall press conference.
Don't we owe it to the victims and families of all those killed during the storm a more productive and thorough release and discussion about these reports?
Poloncarz told WIVB-TV the memos would not contain anything "sexy", and told WGRZ that it would contain things like, "We needed more cots."
During the immediate aftermath of the storm, Poloncarz went on an emotional rant targeting Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and later apologized for his outburst and behavior. He was passionate then about how the storm was handled, but not as much so now as the memos were quietly released.
Now it is up to the public to sift through 50 pages of internal memos to interpret the meaning of them and look for any glimpse of hope that things will be handled differently when Mother Nature orchestrates another killer storm on the region.
Press conferences and press releases have been issued and held for much less important matters for sure, and now the media can follow Poloncarz to those less important events and continue to ask about an issue that impacted each and every citizen of Erie County.
The residents of the county are owed a more open and orchestrated response to the blizzard missteps. Gov. Kathy Hochul, Poloncarz and nearly every elected official attended a "rally" in the weeks following the blizzard at SUNY Buffalo State. I was there, and it was somewhat uncomfortable.
I'll wait patiently for someone to be the first to stand up and say it's time to not just meet the press, but meet the residents of Erie County and Western New York in a unified fashion and be open and honest about what went wrong.
The families of 46 people would like to hear something other than how their loved ones made poor choices or were somehow ignorant to the fact a blizzard was unfolding.
In pointing out inequities and wrongs in other aspects of life in Erie County, Poloncarz often says, "Do better."
Let's go.