Family members of Ronald Silver II, the Baltimore sanitation worker who died on the job on a sweltering 99° day, made their latest appearance outside City Hall today, this time asking sharp questions armed with fresh information.

“To put it plainly, our family needs answers and we need them now,” said Renee Meredith, an aunt of Ronald Silver II.

Meredith called tonight’s City Council hearing to review the 36-year-old employee’s death on August 2 – and the Department of Public Work’s handling of safety issues – “a really important first step in getting to the truth.”

High on their list of questions is the city’s choice of a law firm to conduct a review of the incident and of workplace policies and practices, said the family’s attorney, Thiru Vignarajah.

As The Brew first reported, Conn Maciel Carey LLP specializes in defending large employers and trade groups seeking to avoid regulatory trouble on occupational safety and health issues.

On behalf of a coalition of those clients, the D.C.-based firm leads lobbying efforts to weaken the national heat standard for U.S. workers being developed by the Labor Department.

“It is truly baffling and offensive to pretend that they are the ones that ought to come in and conduct an investigation when they are the ones that have been fighting nationwide to make situations less safe for workers facing extreme heat,” Vignarajah said.

“To select that firm makes it clear that the goal is not to get even-handed independent evaluation of what went wrong and what the city needs to do. It’s to manufacture a narrative that is favorable to the city, to inoculate the city from legal liability.”

He questioned why the city is responding to the tragedy by bringing in a firm hired by the city Law Department rather than doing as the Baltimore Police Department did after the Brooklyn Homes mass shooting – conduct its own investigation and publish the results.

“The police department did that, Commissioner [Richard] Worley did that and acknowledged that mistakes were made,” he said.

The city said Conn Maciel Carey was selected because its “niche technical expertise” gives the firm a unique perspective on the issue.

Scott’s office has not responded to multiple requests by The Brew to discuss the hiring of the firm or to release the contract.

The law department also has been silent, with Deputy Solicitor Stephen Salsbury not responding to questions.

Because the Conn Maciel Carey review is considered a professional services contract, it does not require review or approval by the Board of Estimates.

“Why wasn’t anything done?”

The family members called on the City Council members conducting a hearing tonight to ask why DPW did not take prompt action to protect Bureau of Solid Waste workers from the heat before Silver’s death.

Vignarajah walked through the actions taken by Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming to call attention to hazardous conditions in the yards where trash truck drivers are based.

Cumming recently published two reports documenting sweltering conditions in DPW buildings, broken ice machines, lack of air conditioning, unavailable Gatorade or bottled water and dilapidated restrooms – one without any toilet paper.

“Why wasn’t anything done after the Inspector General’s reports?” Vignarajah said. “They conducted a training on emergency [hot weather measures] within a couple of days of him dying.

“That was a dollar short and a day late, wasn’t it?”

He also urged Council members to look into what happened on the day Silver died.

‘Why was Ronnie walking away from his co-workers, toward a stranger’s house and knocking on the door begging for water and medical aid?” Vignarajah asked. “We hope the beginning of those answers will surface today,” he said.

Vignarajah said that DPW Acting Director Khalil Zaied and others need to provide answers directly, not “filtered through a law firm.”

The attorney yesterday called on Cumming to conduct an OIG investigation into “what transpired on the day Silver died and what could have been done to prevent this tragedy.”

While she could not confirm or deny whether her office was investigating Silver’s death, Cumming said her overall probe into workplace conditions at DPW is continuing.