DPW deputy dir. talks ‘concerning' IG report on working conditions

This summer, allegations of poor working conditions came from workers within the Baltimore City Department of Public Works.

Reports from the Baltimore City Inspector General detail allegations, including poor bathroom conditions, no air conditioning, and a lack of adequate water during the year's hottest days.

Richard Luna, the department's deputy director, addressed the allegations with reporters on Wednesday.

"The inspector general's report is concerning for all of us here at DPW," Luna said.

Luna told WMAR the department is looking through the report and focusing on areas they can fix right away.

"What we've been doing," Luna said, "and prioritizing, is looking through the IG report, going through our facilities, working through our partners at the department of general services—to prioritize those areas we can fix immediately. So all those minor repairs that need to be addressed at those facilities—that's what we're currently working on."

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Luna said the department is in the design phase for renovations and improvements at some of the solid waste facilities cited in the report.

"We've actually been working with a vendor," Luna continued. "We're actually currently in a design process for those facilities. Those designs should be completed at the beginning parts of 2025. But what we anticipate to see over the next 3 years is major renovations, complete replacements of some of these critical facilities."

A new report from the Baltimore City Inspector General looked into nine DPW facilities.

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“Before the hot weather came, we were actually getting ahead of some of those HVAC repairs," Luna said. "We know some of these facilities—the HVAC systems hadn't been touched in a long time. And they’re really not designed to withstand the extreme heat that we were seeing. We were seeing heat indexes over 100 degrees for multiple days. These AC units within these older buildings, they’re not meant to withstand that kind of energy that’s being drawn upon them. So we started working with vendors to proactively get those measures addressed; however, you think about it, every single building within Baltimore City and this region were making those same requests. All of these older buildings were calling those same vendors, those same contractors, to come out and do [that] work."

Luna said since the outside temperatures have gone down, so, too, have the temperatures in those buildings.

"This is a good learning experience for all of us," Luna said. "Prior to the colder season, prior to next year's summer season, what we'll be doing is coming up with a full checklist, making sure we're going through each facility."

"Checking whatever needs to get repaired immediately, because we do want to make sure we're providing a comfortable space for employees when they're working in those facilities," Luna added.