Baltimore residents can expect an empty soda can tossed into a blue recycling bin to be collected within days, thanks to the resumption of the city’s weekly recycling program.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, running for reelection in a crowded Democratic field ahead of the May 14 primary election, stood alongside sanitation workers and officials from the Department of Public Works in early March to announce that the pandemic-era twice-monthly recycling schedule was ending.
Oversight of public works, the largest municipal agency apart from public safety, is a critical and visible task of Baltimore’s mayor, who will get the blame if things go wrong. Baltimore’s next leader will confront staffing and senior leadership issues while making sure that services like trash and recycling collection, water service, and sewer and wastewater management flow smoothly.
“People were upset that it took three years to get the single-week recycling back up,” Scott said. “There’s nothing I could have done as the mayor of Baltimore to change the effects of the pandemic that caused the supply chain issues that cause solid waste vehicles that I ordered in 2021 to arrive in 2024. Nothing.”
Scott is proud of his efforts addressing the Department of Public Works pandemic-related staffing issues. He says he focused early on stabilizing services and keeping the city clean.
But his top opponents see room for improvement. Former Mayor Sheila Dixon, whom polls show running close to Scott, insists she kept the city cleaner and wants to prioritize outreach to neighborhoods where recycling is flagging. Repeat candidate Thiru Vignarajah wants to privatize trash collection.
The specific plans of the leading candidates illustrate the core nature of public works services and the fact that voters pay attention and even make decisions at the ballot box based on them.
Scott ordered 80 new load-packer trucks to handle recycling in 2021, and blamed previous leadership for ignoring basic city services for years before he took office.
“We couldn’t go out and pick up the recycling [more frequently] because we didn’t have vehicles to do so,” he said, “because the folks that came before me didn’t invest in the fleet.”
Scott pointed to modernizing collection routes using new GPS systems in the fleet which replace paper maps as an example of his administration’s investment. He said the agency has hired or promoted 35 new drivers and 74 new solid waste workers to drive down the vacancy rate that beset the department in recent years. According to the mayor’s office, the agency’s vacancy rate sits around 8.6%.
Dixon: Career paths for city workers
Dixon, the former mayor and Scott’s top rival, told Baltimore Fishbowl that there’s plenty to tackle when it comes to the public works department. She said “the city was cleaner” when she was mayor.
Dixon said she’d like to see city workers flagging areas in the city along their routes where recycling bins are filled with trash, so the agency can target those communities for outreach on the benefits of recycling.
She’d also like to work on outreach to the city’s youth. Dixon suggested a pilot program that would pay money to young people who collect bottles and cans, incentivizing recycling.
To tackle persistent personnel issues, Dixon would look to bring more training and career advancement within the department.
“You don’t have to necessarily be a sanitation worker your whole time in city government,” she said.
Vignarajah: Privatize collection
Vignarajah believes the city should be collecting trash twice a week. He panned the city transition away from twice weekly service in 2009—when Dixon was mayor.
“It’s not like we’re not working every day or every day, but we’re literally lifting bigger bags of trash, because there is more accumulation over the course of the week,” Vignarajah said of solid waste workers.
Vignarajah said the city should privatize trash collection, a move other municipal governments have done all across Maryland. If elected, he’d make sure contracts with private haulers would include stipulations requiring them to hire city workers once employed by the Department of Public Works.
“These private trash haulers pay more than DPW. They have better benefits than DPW. They have longer retention records, and they perform better,” he said.
Wallace: Reorganization and management
Businessman Bob Wallace said his company, Bithgroup, has worked with the city and the Department of Public Works for more than 30 years. Wallace said stronger leaders are needed at the agency.
“In recent years, it has not been met as very, very well,” he said. “If you don’t have the right management, the right leadership, that will infiltrate the organization.”
Wallace said he’d make sure agency the top posts will be filled by people with engineering backgrounds, and he’d eye separating the solid waste division from water and sewer, potentially creating a new city agency to handle water.
“First 90 days, number one, we’re going to look at all the resources we have in DPW, and how they can be reorganized. I believe we have the people, we have the equipment, we have the technology in place now, right to address a lot of the issues,” he said.
Wendy Bozel is also running for mayor and agrees that stronger leadership is needed at the agency. The Fells Point area teacher also said if elected she’d explore a second-chance hiring program with the jail system to address vacancies in the agency.
Baltimore Fishbowl is examining issues important to voters in the 2024 mayoral contest, and is soliciting views of candidates who are running active campaigns as measured by contributions to campaign accounts and by maintaining a campaign website. Among Democrats, Mayor Brandon Scott, former mayor Sheila Dixon, Thiru Vignarajah, Bob Wallace and Wendy Bozel are candidates who meet that criteria.
Full mayoral campaign issues coverage:
Mayoral candidates on bicycle transportation
Mayoral candidates on supporting art
Mayoral candidates on the environment
Mayoral candidates on vacant properties
Mayoral candidates on recycling, trash collection and public works
Mayoral candidates on graffiti, dumping and cleanliness
Mayoral candidates on jobs and the economy
Mayoral candidates on large development projects and special tax treatment
Mayoral candidates on squeegee workers and youth recreation
Mayoral candidates on crime and public safety
You know there are more than 3 to 4 candidates. Your reporting is anti-democratic and why Baltimore City will continue to fail.