Baltimore Public Works Director Jason Mitchell resigns amid calls from City Council members to step down

Baltimore Director of Public Works Jason Mitchell has resigned after fewer than two years on the job that included an outbreak of E. coli in the city’s drinking water supply, a state takeover of the city’s wastewater treatment plants and mounting criticism from members of the City Council over reduced recycling collection.

The announcement came Monday, just hours after Democratic Councilmen Zeke Cohen and Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer called for Mitchell to resign if significant progress hasn’t been made toward resuming weekly recycling collection in the next eight weeks.

Mitchell joined the city in May 2021 after making the move from Oakland, California, where he served as assistant city administrator and had previously headed the city’s Department of Public Works.

The department has been the subject of repeated criticism from elected officials and the public during Mitchell’s tenure, most recently when E. coli was detected in the city’s water over Labor Day weekend. Thousands of people in West Baltimore and a portion of Baltimore County had to boil tap water for days until the system could be flushed.

The department’s delayed communication of the contamination to residents and the methods of contacting the public that the department used sparked the ire of Baltimore City Council and the public. While the first positive test was recorded at 11:30 a.m.Sept. 3, notice was not widely disseminated to the public until the morning of Sept. 5, which was Labor Day, a review of the incident found. The department’s initial communication to the public was made via Twitter and the online platform, Nextdoor, for targeted city neighborhoods.

During a hearing, council members lambasted department leadership, saying they were “disgusted” and “disappointed” with the flow of information.

Council members questioned the wisdom of using Twitter, as opposed to other social media platforms or methods of communication, particularly given the limited internet access and older ages of some West Baltimore residents.

Mitchell’s tenure also included the discovery of severe problems at both of the city’s wastewater treatment plants — the two largest in the state.

State inspections revealed that long-standing mechanical issues at each of the plants resulted in millions of gallons of excessive pollution in the Patapsco and Back rivers, which border the facilities.

A blistering report from the Maryland Environmental Service, dispatched last spring to provide emergency assistance at the Back River plant, blamed the department for a “lack of leadership,” as understaffing and insufficient maintenance hurled the plant into disrepair.

When state staffers arrived at the plant, Mitchell displayed a lack of urgency about the plant’s woes, according to the MES report. During discussions about bringing a potable water line into the plant to address a problem, Mitchell defended the city’s slow action, saying only seven days had passed since the state stepped in. State officials reportedly reminded him that the plant had been out of compliance with its environmental permit for seven months.

Mitchell was an infrequent attendee at subsequent meetings, and his bureau chief maintained a “defensive attitude” according to the report, which the authors stated “does not bode well in expecting workers to be responsible and accountable.”

Following the report, the Scott administration came to Mitchell’s defense, emphasizing that the issues at the plant predated his tenure. A spokesman for Scott said at the time that the department had a “renewed commitment to continuing to address these challenges, including governance, operations, and employee safety” under his leadership.

Curtailed recycling service has been the subject of repeated criticism of DPW during Mitchell’s tenure, although there were service issues that predated his arrival. For instance, service was suspended altogether for nearly five months in 2020 as the department struggled to contain COVID infections among sanitation staff.

After Mitchell came on board, the city announced plans to scale back collections to biweekly after daily recycling routes were routinely being missed leaving recyclables piling up for weeks in some Baltimore neighborhoods. Officials said the move was necessitated by massive staffing shortages as a result of the pandemic. They have continued to fault staffing problems in subsequent public hearings when pressed for a date to resume weekly collection.

Members of the City Council mounted a veritable filibuster last summer during budget talks, peppering DPW officials with questions about recycling collection for six hours. Ahead of the meeting, council members delivered a letter to Mitchell demanding a plan for the restart of collection.

Mitchell argued at the time a route optimization study should be conducted before full recycling service resumes.

Mitchell replaced acting DPW director Matt Garbark, who now heads the Office of Infrastructure Development.

Mitchell was paid a salary of $245,000 in fiscal year 2021.

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