Baltimore state’s attorney nominee Ivan Bates has a plan for squeegee workers. Will Mayor Brandon Scott go along with it?

Thursday’s sit-down at The Capital Grille on East Pratt Street between Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and State’s Attorney-to-be Ivan Bates was your standard political power lunch. Bates with salmon and the mayor with a salad, the two men held the first of many conversations about how to address public safety in Baltimore and the importance of collaboration. Both want to figure out how to get the roughly 117 squeegee workers who stand at 25 different intersections, cleaning motorists’ windshields for a few bucks, off the streets. But they differ in their approaches. The issue flared up in July after a deadly encounter between squeegee workers and a baseball bat-wielding man.