BALTIMORE  — The legal battle continues over the city’s year of rolled back recycling collections.

Last week, the Concerned Citizens of Baltimore, a group of nearly 200 Baltimore City residents, filed a lawsuit claiming the lack of city services is a violation of the city charter. This week, the same group filed another petition in Circuit Court, this one, calling for the city to immediately shut-down Mayor Brandon Scott’s Clean Corp initiative.

"It's frustrating when you elect representatives to do a job and that job is ignored," said the organizer of Concerned Citizens of Baltimore, Desmond Stinnie. "That's just the position that the mayor is putting us in."

The city invested nearly $15 million in the Clean Corp program, which hires city residents to empty public trash cans, maintain vacant lots and alleys, and remove street debris across the city. It's a job Stinnie argues is better suited for trained city employees.

"One of the biggest concerns we had was worker safety and whether or not the workers are covered by health insurance, if they are entitled to workers compensation," he said.

"It’s simply a complete waste of money and they’re harming these employees," said Baltimore City Councilman, Yitzy Schleifer.

Schleifer has pushed back against the Clean Corp initiative since the idea was first being discussed by the Scott administration late last year.

"We have the open positions in DPW right now, fully funded pins to hire every single one of those employees. They would be making more money working for the city. They would have full benefits," he said.

Especially as the Department of Public Works (DPW) grapples with staffing shortages, along with failing equipment and antiquated software, Schiefer and Stinnie say until recycling is fully back up and running, Clean Corp should be brought to a halt.

"If these employees were employed by DPW, rather than this cleanup effort, we'd be closer to getting recycling back on track," said Stinnie.

"To spend that large sum of money for community cleanups, it's just it really is just silly," said Schleifer.