On Tuesday, City Councilman Ryan Dorsey’s sworn duties to the citizens of Baltimore included driving around the city and snapping photos of downed streetlights.

City data showed him there were just 20 across the entire city; he counted 26 in about an hour and a half.

Why does it take so long to replace a simple streetlight?

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It was the latest line of questioning that Dorsey’s land use and transportation committee had for the long-beleaguered DOT, whose new director recently implemented plans to revamp parking enforcement but who is facing a litany of other agency issues from road paving to traffic signal timing.

It was also the latest tiff involving City Hall and BGE, which has faced public ire in recent months for steep energy rate hikes and has sparred with the city over the responsibilities for underground conduits.

Dorsey outlined a bulbous collection of oddities and inefficiencies that he described as a “galling level of dysfunction.”

“The citizens of the City of Baltimore deserve so much better,” he said.

BGE maintains 85% to 90% of Baltimore’s streetlights, but City Hall lacks a formal contract with the company for it — there’s just a “handshake agreement.”

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Baltimore has tens of thousands of streetlights, which are city-owned. When one rusts over or gets knocked down by a car, DOT provides the pole and BGE installs it. The problem, Dorsey said, is neither one is really keeping track of how often this happens.

One result is a disparity between open BGE replacement orders and how many poles DOT has in stock. They have a big surplus for some kinds — plenty of “Homeland” style and 11-and-a-half-footers — but big shortages for the taller ones.

It can also leads to a confusing chain of insurance events.

Drivers cause millions of dollars of damage to fixed objects like streetlights every year, Dorsey said, but the city struggles to get compensated for them. Drivers’ insurance companies reach out to BGE for some light pole knock-overs, a company official said, and then create purchasing orders for DOT to use to settle up.

Beyond muddying the water of responsibilities, the lack of a formal contract leaves City Hall “out of sync with the city’s charter,” said Council President Zeke Cohen. “That cannot continue on.”

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Council members asked DOT officials for a verbal commitment to a formal contract that could outline roles, responsibilities, costs and data sharing.

BGE has a comprehensive asset map — it includes roughly 77,000 Baltimore streetlights, a company representative said at the hearing. DOT lacks such a map — at least a public-facing one. Residents can report outages and submit service requests through both 311 and BGE ‘s own web portal, but the systems don’t communicate well with one another.

It leaves residents unsure of where they should be reporting outages, council members said, and frustrated when they see 311 requests get lost in the ether.

The department is actively working to make the necessary system improvements, said DOT Director Veronica McBeth, and will focus on a “cleanup in-house” before going public with directives and messaging for residents.

Councilman Paris Gray, who represents the 8th District, homed in on this public engagement piece, particularly for residents who live in areas of the city that often go overlooked. He said that dark, poorly lit streets are a legitimate public safety issue.

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McBeth responded that the disparities between the “Black Butterfly,” the Butterfly-shaped area of the city where many Black residents live, and the “White L” were certainly on her mind. “I want to make sure we’re helping everyone,” she said, and welcomed accountability.

There’s plenty of work to be done: a light at the intersection of Charles and Centre streets that’s been down since 2018; poles next to light rail tracks on Howard Street “so rusted they are blowing down in the wind,” Dorsey said.

Said McBeth, “We’re looking forward to getting things right.”