Also at this morning's city council briefing (a detailed account of Metro head Kevin Desmond's presentation available here), Seattle Public Utilities solid waste director Tim Croll told council members that SPU will be trying to make up for service missed during the storm. Although Croll, in response to a question from council member Richard McIver, said SPU couldn't do much about squirrels getting into trash—"they can chew through just about anything"—he did say that customers who missed more than two trash pickups (a lot of folks in West and Southeast Seattle, apparently) can expect a rebate. "We will do our best to confirm which areas were missed twice" and "come up with options for a rebate," Croll said. Council members also grilled Croll and SPU deputy director Sharon White about the whereabouts of utilities director Chuck Clarke, who resigned to become chief executive of the Cascade Water Alliance in December. "Is he in town now?" Tom Rasmussen asked. "Yes," White replied. "Was he invited?" "Yes." "Did he decline?" "I will be here when Chuck leaves, so there’s a bit of continuity, so I felt I was best suited to come here." That wasn't enough explanation for Tim Burgess, who remarked sharply at the end of the meeting, "If we have invited a department head to come, they should come."

SPU spokesman Andy Ryan says the department is still figuring out how many people went more than two cycles without trash pickup, and will figure out how much of a rebate to issue, what it will cost the city, and how to pay for the rebates in the next few weeks.