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The snow has melted enough now to provide a peek at the ground, and a glimpse at the local political landscape.

Both views appear to be quite slushy.

Let’s start with the fact that St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones apologized Monday night about the city’s performance in clearing the snow off city byways.

Yes, the mayor is sorry:

• Three weeks after about more than half a foot of snow fell on Jan. 5-6. Nothing close to a surprise, this major dumping had been dissected and Dopplered for a week before it hit.
• Two weeks after she — indeed, she put herself in the “above averageâ€� range — for the city’s reaction to the storm under her watch.
• Ten days after she jetted off on a trip, this time to a in Washington D.C. Though she couldn’t be here with us, she did join us by video.
• One week after she changed her own grade from B-minus to “incomplete.â€�
• Five seconds after she began her opening remarks at a candidate forum Monday night in southwest St. Louis.

Smart move, as Jones likely knew if she didn’t head it off at the pass, she was in for a very long night of getting slammed by citizens for the city’s snow job.

In essence, Jones apologized just in time.

And now that the “I’m sorry� seal has been broken, it will be easier for her to apologize when opponents of her reelection bid — Alderwoman Cara Spencer, Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler and Andrew Jones — keep raising the subject as the campaign progresses.

But say what you want about Mayor Jones’ leadership during the snow, she didn’t even come close to winning the “Can’t Believe They Said That� award.

That prize goes to the city’s streets department director, .

Williams took the post in 2021, after working 17 years at the Missouri Department of Transportation.

There, she was an “area liaison� working on tasks that include “prioritization,� “future planning� and “addressing big-picture issues.� All transformational stuff, I’m sure.

But what has to be among the worst statements ever made by a bureaucrat in this or any city, Williams said:

“It was clear that I had been given incorrect information from within the department about the status of our secondary and hill routes,� Williams said.

Well, at least that’s what we assume Williams said. Like a note in second-hour study hall, the statement was passed from Williams to the mayor’s office, which passed it to the Board of Alderman.

Williams did not respond Wednesday to phone calls or emails asking for a comment.

The difficulty here is trying to identify the worst aspect of the statement.

First, if you’re the head of the Streets Department, show up and deliver the news yourself to the aldermen.

Things sometimes go belly up, but at least there is some honor in the boss showing up to take the heat. It may not gain you any fans, but it does take some wind out of detractors’ sails.

Second, on showing up, the letter clearly implies that Williams had not made any kind of thorough inspection of the streets — her streets, in a civic sense — in the first 10 days after the storm.

High on my to-do list as streets director would be, on the day before a major storm is supposed to hit, is to call an employee, tell her or him to get a four-wheel drive vehicle from the garage and be at my house at 8 a.m.

Then, I’d call every television station and newspaper with a photographer and let them know where I’ll be to give media updates.

For it really doesn’t matter if the director shovels any snow or spreads any salt; you just have to get a photo or video taken of you actually being there.

Allow this bureau to look back fondly to times when the streets director was everywhere in the news — so much so that a 2014 column noted that former city street director Todd Waelterman “looked like he hadn’t slept in 72 hours as he peered bleary-eyed into TV cameras and answered the same questions over and over again.�

Former Mayor Francis G. Slay Jr., who was mayor during the 2014 storm, declined to weigh in on this recent snow event. But he did take time to praise Waelterman.

“Todd was a bulldog; he was relentless,� Slay said. “The guy was always there.�

One guesses that those were the days when showing up was still half the battle.

Waelterman, by the way, was fired by Jones in 2022. Then working as refuse commissioner, he fell out of favor with the new mayor amid widespread problems with trash pickup.

Critics of Jones said Waelterman, who died in 2023, was unfairly blamed for a problem that was aggravated by the city’s ill-timed resumption of regular recycling collections — a program spearheaded by Williams.

Finally, on a deeper managerial level, Williams’ statement indicates she decided her best defense was to say her subordinates had so little regard for her that they would lie about what they had done, or not done as the case may be.

Or maybe they just knew Williams wouldn’t be out checking their work.

But now, with global warming coming to the rescue, we can get back to the standard complaints about crime, trash pickups and water-line breaks.

And that incomplete grade Jones bestowed upon herself will get closed out, one way or the other, in the March and April city elections.

But on those tests, the mayor doesn’t get the opportunity to grade her own paper.