David Scott has a greater sense of style than might have been expected of the city's chief garbage man.

Before he was forced out as public works director in July, Scott spent more than $28,000 renovating and decorating his office. The renovation — wood flooring, stone facade on one wall, full bath, that sort of thing — came to about $11,800. The furnishings, which included a $1,200 office chair, $999 zebra-stripe area rug and $968 glass desk top, rang up to $16,600.

WBAL-TV was first with this scoop, but I managed to get Scott on the phone Wednesday to hear what he had to say for himself.

Scott said lots of people signed off on the makeover, which was approved when now-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake headed the Board of Estimates. "The Board of Estimates did approve the flooring, and finance and procurement approved everything else," the Sheila Dixon appointee said.

(I'm not sure that will make taxpayers feel any better, but why should Scott be hung out to dry on his own?)

Even more puzzling than how so many bureaucrats signed off on this stuff is this: How can a guy who is supposed to be focused on sewers, storm drains and solid waste have a taste for such elegant office décor? Was I wrong, I asked Scott, to assume DPW chiefs are devoid of style?

"I am not devoid of style," Scott replied with a laugh. But he said the makeover was not about personal chic so much as a public agency's mission.

"It is actually a greener office," he said. "The wood floor was actually reclaimed barn wood." (That recycled barn wood commanded $15.52 a square foot.)

And the stone wall?

"We were thinking stone from the watershed — watershed features, things like that," he said. "Public Works is not just garbage. It's also water and wastewater."

And waste.