Baltimore's DPW poor working conditions detailed in lengthy report: "We have to do better"

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore's Inspector General Isabel Cumming released a 46-page report detailing more poor working conditions at Department of Public Works facilities in the city.

Earlier this month, Cumming discovered that DPW employees at the city's Cherry Hill Reedbird Yard had been working in the heat without the city providing water or proper cooling facilities.

"City of Baltimore, we have to do better," Cumming said.

Since the complaints at the Cherry Hill facility were investigated, Cumming says she's received more complaints.

"There were employees telling us that some of the conditions were so bad it was becoming a safety issue," Cumming said.

Last week, Cumming's entire office went to eight other facilities and found poor conditions.

Those facilities were:

• Cherry Hill Yard 701 Reedbird
• Eastern Sanitation Yard 6101 Bowley's Lane
• DPW Special Services Street Sweeping 111 Kane Street
• DPW Landfill 6100 Quarantine Road
• DPW Property Management 231 S. Kresson Street (DPW rents property)
• Sisson St. Drop-off Center 2840 Sisson Street
• DPW Inner Harbor/Downtown Operations 3311 Eastbourne Avenue (DPW rents property)
• DPW Northwest Transfer Station 5030 Reisterstown Road
• DPW Water and Wastewater Yard 2947 Washington Boulevard

Cumming's report included photos of some of the problems she found. Some of them were taken at the Eastern Sanitation Yard on Bowley's Lane.

"In the locker rooms, they have hot water running," Cumming said. "They had a fan barely blowing and they had an air conditioner that was only doing 84 degrees as well. The conditions were horrific."

Cumming told WJZ she not only found deplorable conditions at the Bowley's Lane facility but also said there were signs of neglect of basic human needs.

"The men at Bowley's Lane had to ask for toilet paper," Cumming said. "There was no toilet paper and it wasn't like it was just missing. That is the way they operate."

Cumming also took another trip to the Reedbird Facility in Cherry Hill, finding more issues that need to be addressed, including sinks that only ran hot water she says the facility has known about for months.

"They were aware," Cumming said. "These conditions are not changing. We need to make this better."

DPW told WJZ earlier this month some upgrades were coming to the Cherry Hill facility.

However, Cumming says those changes need to happen now.

"Telling me that something will be done in three years is not good enough because in three years we might not have the money for any of that," Cumming said. "We need to fix these basic human needs right now."

Cumming also says she took the city's Chief Administrative Officer Faith Leach to two of the facilities Tuesday morning to show her some of the conditions.

WJZ reached out to DPW for a statement on this report.