PROVIDENCE — Criticism of the city’s snow emergency operation continues to fly as fast as last week’s snowflakes.

The City Council leadership, apparently unwilling to wait for a storm-response report commissioned by the mayor, has scheduled a special meeting for tomorrow to call department directors to account for why some children were stranded for up to six hours on school buses Thursday, among other problems.

Thursday’s snow emergency “called into serious question certain operational responses that have left Providence residents bewildered and outraged,” said Council Majority Leader Terrence M. Hassett. “This was a major breakdown of communication and performance, and the council wants answers.”

And two members, John J. Lombardi and Balbina A. Young, yesterday sent a disapproving letter to Mayor David N. Cicilline, reminding him that a similar post-storm review that he commissioned after an especially problematic snowstorm early in his administration spoke of the need to fix flawed internal and external communications.

The snowstorm Thursday and a combination snow and rainstorm Sunday has left the city an irritating landscape of frozen snow, and some commuters and residents grumbling about how the city handled both events.

But there is no unanimity. While Lombardi beefed that the city storm response was “an abysmal failure” in his ward on Federal Hill and downtown, and that streets were poorly plowed or in a few cases, unplowed, Council President Peter S. Mancini said the Department of Public Works did “a fairly good job” in his ward in the North End. Mancini is the leader of Cicilline’s team on the all-Democratic council and Lombardi is not on the team.

Cicilline last week directed John C. Simmons, his administration director, and Police Chief Dean M. Esserman to review the municipal storm response and the events that led to some children being stranded on school buses late into the evening. He told them to report back no later than Friday.

An independent investigator from outside the administration should have been called in for the review, Lombardi and Young said in their letter, because the people doing the review are implicated in the poor storm response.

While Thursday’s pre-winter storm was not especially heavy, it struck at midday and the snow fell rapidly for a while, hopelessly snarling traffic in metropolitan Providence as schools and businesses closed early. Many school buses were caught up in the gridlock, as were plow trucks that could not clear the way because of the traffic.

Lombardi also complained yesterday that School Supt. Donnie Evans told him on the telephone at 3:30 p.m. that day that he, Evans, had been assured that all students who were bused by the School Department had reached their destinations.

The council, according to Mancini, wants answers to a host of questions about the school transportation debacle, the quality of snow-plowing and a perceived absence of the police at congested street intersections, among other issues. One thing he wants to know, Mancini said, is how many cars left parked in violation of the parking ban were tagged and towed.

DPW Director John D. Nickelson said, “I think that we can improve in some areas.”

Given that the plow trucks were snared by the gridlock and had trouble returning to the DPW yard off Allens Avenue for more sand and salt and to refuel, it would be advisable for the city to set up a second stockpile of sand and salt and a second refueling station at another location, Nickelson said.

He withheld his other suggestions for a memorandum that he is preparing for the mayor and council.

The invitees to the special council meeting, at 6 p.m. in the third-floor council chambers at City Hall, include, besides Evans, Esserman and Nickelson, a representative of First Student, the school bus company; Leo D. Messier, director of the Providence Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security; and Fire Chief George S. Farrell.

POST-STORM COUNCIL MEETINGS such as tomorrow’s are a staple of Providence political life, giving council members, who sometimes see themselves as mayors of their own wards, an opportunity to directly and publicly challenge department directors. A similar post-storm meeting occurred in the aftermath of a storm Dec. 5-7, 2003.

A northeaster had pummeled Providence for more than two days, dumping 18 inches, and some council members and many residents were enraged by the city’s bad storm response.

Cicilline called an unusual nighttime news conference in the ready room of the DPW garage on Dec. 8, 2003, to emphasize that the DPW had a well-conceived plan to finish the cleanup. In an echo of that event, Cicilline was in contact with the news media from a command post at police headquarters this past Thursday night, assuring the public that all the stranded children finally had been ferried home, if necessary by the police.

The lessons learned, Cicilline and the council said in 2003, were that a parking ban was not called soon enough, that the police were tardy in having stuck and illegally parked vehicles towed to make way for the plows, and that the city did not have enough equipment because some private vendors welshed on their promises to provide help. By the time tow trucks were summoned, so much snow had fallen that some of the trucks became bogged down.

The city bought more equipment, and, to encourage a better response from vendors, hastened its payments and increased the sums paid. Vendors had been put off by the city’s longstanding reputation as a slow payer.

TOWING CROPPED UP AGAIN as an issue last week. Highway entrance and exit ramps were clogged by vehicles that had spun out, helping to create gridlock, and tow trucks were not quick to respond to the scene.

Nickelson said yesterday that his department was still receiving phone calls from people looking to have their streets sanded and or salted, to have snow mounds pushed back and to have the outlets of their driveways cleared. He said the DPW responds to those calls but won’t clear a driveway except in extraordinary circumstances.

“Some [streets] are still rutted, there’s no denying that,” Nickelson said. “We have trucks out scraping and treating today.”

As for downtown, he said there was snow plowing, but no significant snow removal. In a snowfall of a foot or more, he said, the city will seek to scoop up the snow with loaders and dump it at a soccer field on Admiral Street. A haul-away adds to the expense of a storm response because of the extra labor and equipment that it demands, he noted.

FIREFIGHTERS FANNED OUT citywide Friday to clear snow from the 3,000-plus fire hydrants in Providence to keep them readily available for an emergency. And Assistant Fire Chief Michael J. Dillon has called on citizens to take care that they do not rebury a hydrant when moving snow around.

While it is seldom enforced, a municipal ordinance requires property owners or caretakers to shovel the snow on the sidewalks at the perimeters of their property within four hours of the conclusion of a daylight snowfall or within four hours of daybreak after a snowfall. A path at least 3 feet wide must be cleared.

The ordinance also requires property owners to clear the snow from around hydrants, from curb cuts that accommodate pedestrian ramps and from any catch basins in sidewalks.

Violation of the ordinance carries a fine ranging from $25 to $300.

About six years ago, in response to departmental buck-passing, the council added a line to the ordinance making it clear that the police are responsible for its enforcement.

Police Maj. Paul C. Fitzgerald said the police traditionally issue a violation summons only if a complaint is received. If there is a problem involving a major downtown property owner, he said, the police will alert that owner and the problem generally is taken care of.

As of 3 p.m. yesterday, no violation summonses had been issued in the aftermath of either storm, according to Fitzgerald.

Because they cannot rely on the public to comply with the snow-removal ordinance, firefighters do the hydrant-clearing themselves, Dillon said.

gsmith@projo.com