Baltimore councilmen push DPW for answers over recycling pickup at oversight hearing

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore's city council held a public oversight hearing to improve transparency and accountability within the Department of Public Works. 

Director Jason Mitchell touted improvements he's made to the department within the past year and a half, reducing response times and launching the "Water4all" discount program.

However, the recycling issue is still unresolved. 

At Wednesday's hearing, Baltimore City Councilman Isaac Schleifer asked Mitchell when recycling will return to normal operations.

In January, Mitchell announced recycling would be picked up every other week instead of every week because of staffing challenges. 

Councilmen Schleifer and Zeke Cohen sent a letter to Mitchell saying the move violated Baltimore City code, and demanded DPW resume weekly collection.

Shortly after, Mitchell resigned citing health and family concerns. 

Schleifer said he received numerous complaints from citizens about the recycling schedule. 

"It's every single place all across the city," Schleifer said. "On the weeks that recycling is not picked up, wind blows the recycling all over. It ends up in our waterways, it ends up in people's yards."

Residents in Baltimore's Canton neighborhood told WJZ that recycling now gets collected every other Thursday, so on the day before pick-up day, you'll see a lot of bins overflow. 

"It would be preferable to be weekly because, as you can see, between our neighbors and us, we definitely are overflowing with boxes here," Brady Hill said.

At the hearing, Mitchell said DPW is working with the administration to find a solution but did not have a timeline. 

"We'll be providing clarification sometime next month on the quickest way to get to weekly recycling," Mitchell said.

One problem that remains is the vacancy rate which is still at 25 percent. Council asked DPW for a list of all open positions as well as current employee compensation.