In the fall of 2007, a Department of Public Works official along with a top police commander made an unusual trip to City Hall.
An investigation into complaints from workers at the Baltimore City Public Schools headquarters on North Avenue that Public Works employees were purchasing – and sometimes selling -- drugs had yielded damning evidence: photos of DPW workers in city trucks and uniforms purchasing crack cocaine from an open-air drug market 100 yards away.
At the meeting, according to a former top aide of Mayor Sheila Dixon who attended, the problem was characterized as so acute that school headquarters employees were phoning police on a daily basis, demanding action.
After the meeting, members of the mayor’s staff ordered several of the offending employees in the photos to be fired.
It's unclear if any workers were terminated or even disciplined, but the problems did not stop, said sources familiar with the investigation, and the complaints kept coming.
Public Works Director David Scott revealed to Investigative Voice that his agency has formed an internal investigation unit dedicated solely to ferreting out employees buying – and sometimes dealing -- drugs while on the clock.
“We’ve put together a group that is dealing specifically with this issue,” Scott said in an interview at City Hall. “This will be a priority for us; we need to deal with it.”
A DPW employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said drug-dealing colleagues make it difficult for honest workers to do their jobs.
“It’s terrible,” the employee said. “You can’t do your job when a drug dealer is running your shift,” he said. “They need to clean this up.”
Scott said employees buying drugs on the job has been a persistent problem for the department, noting that work crews can move throughout the city with ease.
But a program Scott instituted called “Director's Night,” a weekly sit-down where employees could bring concerns about the workplace directly to him, led to troubling allegations of workers dealing on the job, prompting Scott to take action.
“We’ve learned a lot from the Director’s Night program about problems in the workplace,” said DPW spokeswoman Celeste Amato. “It lets people feel safe saying what they need to say.”
Using an already formed “Solutions” group tasked with addressing problems raised by employees, Scott authorized the formation of a special unit last year to launch investigations into drug dealing within the ranks, Amato said.
“The investigation starts with us, and as it develops we work in concert with either the Inspector General’s office or law enforcement if we need to resolve an issue,” Amato said.
So far, Amato said internal probes have led to several arrests, but with several more major investigations ongoing she declined to give specifics.
“We don’t want to comment until the cases are completed,” she said.
Amato noted the DPW will help employees with addiction issues, provided they come forward or seek treatment. But that's sooner, rather than later.
“Once they break the law on the job, it’s a different issue.”
Photos by Stephen Janis
