In a continued investigation, the most recent report from the Baltimore City Office of the Inspector General found that poor working conditions are widespread across solid waste facilities in the Department of Public Works.
“This involves people’s lives, people’s safety, people’s working conditions,” said Inspector General Isabel Cumming during an interview with WYPR.
The report outlined details of workers using locker rooms with no air conditioning and broken water fountains. Some bathrooms had broken sink fixtures or only hot water came from the taps. At the facility on Bowley’s Lane, male workers did not have access to toilet paper; they had to ask a supervisor to get the paper from a locked supply closet. During those site visits, Cumming also observed that some work vehicles did not have air-conditioning and were badly in need of repair.
At the DPW Special Services Street Sweeping Site on Kane Street, the OIG observed one cooler properly filled with ice and drinks but another that only contained a few bottles floating in water; it was instantly refreshed when the inspector asked about it. That facility did have cold drinks available in refrigerators at other parts of the building. The OIG also found that there were no working air conditioners on that site but only a few fans blowing warm air.
Cumming and her team visited nine DPW facilities on July 16th, a day on which the Baltimore City Health Department had issued a Code Red Heat Advisory. The team was specifically looking at access to water and Gatorade, air conditioning and temperature control, and general building conditions.
While there were issues at multiple facilities, Baltimore City Inspector General Isabel Cumming said conditions at the Cherry Hill Sanitation Yard and Bowley’s Lane stood out as the worst. Likewise, some of the locations had fully working air conditioning and easy access to drinking water.
The follow-up report is part of an ongoing investigation at DPW facilities that started when workers at the Cherry Hill Yard, known as the “Reedbird” yard, began calling in complaints, like extreme heat and lack of access to water. Cumming released a report earlier this month confirming that many of those allegations were true.
"I won't ever just listen to what someone tells me has been fixed. Our job is to verify that it's been fixed and not everything was fixed," said Cumming, noting that some of the conditions at Cherry Hill have been improving since she began her investigation.
Still, issues at that yard linger. When the OIG arrived at Cherry Hill on July 16th, employees reported that they hadn’t been given water and some had already gone out on their routes. A supervisor then showed the OIG where drinks were stored but it was an area inaccessible to most employees– afterwards the supervisor dumped some of those bottles into a lined trashcan with ice for workers to take. Despite a fan and fan being added to the employee locker room, the OIG observed “no cooling effect.”
Cumming says the calls haven’t stopped coming into the tipline. Instead, they’re becoming more frequent and now come from workers outside of the Department of Public Works.
“The city needs to have a serious review, not just of DPW… the infrastructure needs to be a priority,” said Cumming.
That infrastructure is a priority for Mayor Brandon Scott, who addressed the OIG’s report during a Wednesday news conference, noting that many of the DPW facilities have not had significant repairs or investment in a generation.
“We’re talking about facilities that have had zero, zilch nada investment and now you have an administration that is going to be building new ones so that they can have the quality facilities they deserve,” he said.
Scott pointed to the efforts that his administration is making to address the issues, such as purchasing water and Gatorade. Both Cumming and City Administrator Faith Leach went out to the sites together on Tuesday morning where Scott said they observed many of the issues being remedied. He also said that the severe heat would strain any HVAC systems and that issues would be likely to happen given the days of consecutive heat.
Cumming pushed back on that assessment during an interview with WYPR, noting that some of the malfunctioning air conditioning units were in DPW trailers, not simply old buildings.
Repairs and renovations are coming soon to DPW facilities.
“We set aside $20 million that's going to go to our solid waste facilities and the majority of these facilities that you see in this report are going to have complete renovations and transformations over the next three or plus years. That’s really our focus right now,” said Richard Luna, Deputy Director for the Department of Public Works.
Also in her most recent report, Cumming found evidence that DPW knew of many potential issues at Cherry Hill before the summer began. A memo sent in March to the Bureau of Solid Waste from an engineering firm detailed issues that could be fixed with “minor” repairs including “missing floor tiles in the office trailer, unreliable heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems in the trailer and worker facilities building, and a missing faucet handle in the men’s locker room among other items.”
When asked about the report, Luna said the issues raised in that report are part of the overall redesign of the Cherry Hill facility.
“There are some minor repairs that need to be taken in place for us, it's really about getting those work orders assigned and getting the proper work assigned,” said Luna, which includes finding the correct vendors. “We’re committed to getting this work completed as soon as possible.”
Luna said the department currently has vendors addressing faucet and HVAC repairs along with other items noted in the report.
Cummings urged the city to prioritize improving facilities to make way for safer working conditions.
“It’s not about Gatorade,” she said. “It’s about the way essential employees are treated.”