Baltimore City Council

With four council members deciding to abstain, and two council members absent, it did not get the required 12 votes to pass.

“The earliest date we can resume weekly recycling for the entire city, would be at the end of February,” said Richard Luna, the interim director of the Department of Public Works.

The commission delayed the vote after technical issues prevented online participation.

Three days after state regulators ruled that a confidential memo shedding light on the deal between Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore’s dominant utility provider should be public, the company released the document. For all the public outcry, though, the document is complex and its implications are not obvious.

“We have overwhelmingly proven that we can lead ourselves.”

“The basis of a commission decision, particularly a rate case, should not be evidence that is shielded from view by the public,” wrote the commission.

That amendment, put forth by Councilmember James Torrence (D-7), would have stopped the tax credit after 350 affordable units were constructed– effectively ending the policy.

The Robert Wood Foundation gave grants to nine cities across the nation.

The Scott administration urged lawmakers to pause on the bills, citing concerns about the city’s finances. Baltimore faces a $100 million budget deficit for the next fiscal year, according to the city’s finance department.

“Public utilities are monopolies; they provide essential services for Marylanders …those customers are entitled to know the rationales for how BGE is proposing to recover those costs,” said David Lapp with the Office of People’s Counsel.