Brandon M. Scott President Baltimore City Council 100 N. Holliday Street, Suite 400  Baltimore, Maryland 21202 410-396-4804  Fax: 410-539-0647 E-Mail: councilpresident@baltimorecity.gov Monday, August 31, 2020 Acting Director Matthew Garbark Department of Public Works Abel Wolman Municipal Building 200 Holliday St, Baltimore, MD 21202 Dear Acting Director Garbark, I am writing to you regarding Thursday’s announcement that pick-up recycling services would be suspended through November 1, 2020. For some of our neighborhoods, this announcement comes on top of weeks of disruptions to residential trash and recycling pick up. While COVID-19 has created unprecedented challenges for our city, it is unacceptable for us to be at this point and more must be done to ensure seniors, people with disabilities, and people without personal vehicles can access basic city services. I am frustrated that Baltimore continues to struggle with regular trash pickup, a problem that predates this pandemic. Even as we navigate challenging and unprecedented circumstances, the City has to find a way to complete its most basic responsibilities on behalf of our constituents. This is not to diminish the labor of the hard-working women and men of DPW, who have contended with coronavirus outbreaks, extreme heat, and an increased load. With the tragic passing of a DPW solid waste worker on the job last week, we must do everything we can to support our frontline workers and keep them safe. I thank our solid waste workers who have continued to show up for their dedicated service. For my part, I will be out there to help alongside our solid waste workers and will be mobilizing my office to support in that effort until regular services can resume. In these challenging times, we must pull together as a community and be willing to think outside of the box. I am calling on the Department to take the following steps as soon as possible to better serve our residents during this suspension in services: 1. Better prioritize 311 requests for missed trash collection so that residents who have been consistently missed in pick-up trash services can have confidence that it will be corrected in a timely fashion; 2. Increase the number of drop-off sites in each district, with a focus on denselypopulated neighborhoods where access to vehicles is low; 3. Extend hours at the City's three citizen drop-off centers to make this less-than-ideal situation more convenient for our residents and working families; 4. Engage in consistent, proactive communication with neighborhoods and clearly establish a point of contact who can answer questions from residents and elected officials. 1 Additionally, to understand what necessitated the suspension of services, I am requesting answers to the following questions: (1) What alternatives did DPW consider before implementing this plan, including moving to bi-weekly recycling collection first, hiring temporary or other workers, and working with private contractors?; (2) Did DPW consider redirecting workers from other divisions and agencies to temporarily fill the shortage in workers?; (3) Do frontline DPW employees have the PPE they need to do their jobs safely?; (4) What impact has COVID-19 had on DPW employees and operations to date? The City Council will continue the conversation around the impact of the pandemic on DPW pick-up trash and recycling services on Tuesday, September 15 in the Housing Committee. I understand that COVID-19 will continue to pose challenges for our city, but we must also live up to our basic duties as a government. Thank you in advance, Brandon M. Scott Baltimore City Council President 2