The Baltimore City Council spent just over five-hours on Wednesday night grilling the Department of Public Works. Recycling service became a recurrent theme during budget hearings as the council considers Mayor Brandon Scott’s $4.4 billion FY 2024 budget proposal.

DPW says they are on track to meet Democratic Mayor Brandon Scott’s promised date of early 2024 to resume regular weekly recycling, however, that will be dependent on equipment and crews they said. Baltimore City residents haven’t had weekly recycling since 2020

City Councilmember Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer of District 5 has regularly been critical of DPW’s reduced recycling service and asked what money DPW has saved by switching to a bi-weekly service.

“There are no savings,” said Director Jason Mitchell of the Department of Public Works. “Actually, there's additional costs, because our overtime costs went up. Because there's four times the work. Our fatigue costs went up because our employees are working 12 hour shifts, lifting garbage up all day and all night is unacceptable.”

Deputy Director Richard Luna said that in order to have weekly recycling by the first quarter of 2024, the department will need 20 new crews and 30 new garbage trucks. That money would come from the general fund and $15 million in American Rescue Plan money.

According to the current plan, DPW needs 10 crews to “stabilize” bi-weekly recycling, therefore eliminating overtime and contractors.

For the first time in over a century, the city council has power to cut and allocate funds in the mayor’s budget proposal. They have until June 26th to pass a balanced budget.

DPW, as many other city agencies in Baltimore and around the country, has been challenged by severe staffing shortages. It’s one of the city’s largest agencies and currently has over 700 vacancies, about 25% across the board.

There are some improvements, said Luna; vacancies in the Bureau of Solid Waste are down to 9% from the 15% that stood when he came in. It’s a bleaker situation in the Bureau of Water and Wastewater where there are 534 vacancies at a rate of 28%.

One of those vacancies will soon be Director Jason Mitchell himself; he announced his resignation in January after a string of controversies at the department. City Administrator Faith Leach said the position is in “active recruitment.”

The current total proposed budget for DPW is $676.6 M, up from $631.5 M in FY 2023.