First, a brief primer on the WSSC:
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Go us! Foul DC!The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) was established on May 1, 1918. But the concept of a bi-county water/sewer agency was first suggested in 1912 following a strong complaint from the neighboring District of Columbia about the streams within the Nation's Capital being fouled by waste from Montgomery and Prince George's Counties.
Now the FUN:
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On WSSC Board, a 'Pathetic' Stalemate
Feud Between Pr. George's, Montgomery Members Holds Up Manager Choice
By Katherine Shaver
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 18, 2009; B01
Decades of acrimony between the Montgomery and Prince George's county commissioners who oversee suburban Maryland's beleaguered water system have come to this:
The three Montgomery members say they so distrust their Prince George's colleagues that they now boycott monthly meetings to prevent a quorum unless all of them can attend.
The six-member board of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission has been stalemated, 3 to 3, for a year on the choice of a general manager. One Prince George's commissioner has filed a state ethics complaint against two Montgomery commissioners, accusing them of racial bias in the search.
And the board became so bogged down in minority contracting and other matters at its 12-hour January meeting that it has yet to scrutinize the Dec. 23 rupture of a 66-inch water main beneath River Road in Bethesda, which forced firefighters to rescue stranded motorists from the resulting torrent.
"This situation is pretty pathetic -- that's the only way to describe it," said Montgomery County Council member Marc Elrich (D-At Large).
The makeup of the WSSC board -- three commissioners are appointed from Montgomery and three from Prince George's -- has long reflected the political and cultural tensions between the neighboring counties. They date at least to the 1970s, when commissioners argued over why Prince George's got stuck with sewage treatment plants while clean water facilities were built in Montgomery.
But rarely before have the feuds so paralyzed the board at a time when the agency's pipes are failing so spectacularly. Some officials question whether the board's disagreements have prevented WSSC from fixing problems they now consider a matter of public safety -- or whether they will thwart efforts to secure money for repairs to the system, which serves 1.8 million people in Montgomery and Prince George's counties.
"It's very clear to me River Road is going to happen again," said Montgomery Council member Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At Large). "Next time, we might not get so lucky, and we might have loss of life."
In the past eight months, four huge pipes have burst, some decades short of their life expectancies. The larger breaks have led to advisories to boil water, shut down schools and restaurants, left hospitals scrambling for fresh water, snarled roads and left some homes and businesses without running taps or flushing toilets. Last month, WSSC officials blamed 611 breaks and leaks -- the largest monthly total in the utility's 90-year history -- on old pipes and freezing temperatures.
Even opinions about the board's effectiveness fall along county lines. Joyce Starks, a Prince George's commissioner who chairs the board, defended the utility's ability to respond quickly to the breaks and continue delivering safe and relatively affordable water.
"If we were having unsafe water or a whole bunch of things falling apart, then I'd say we have a real issue," Starks said, noting that large numbers of WSSC pipes have been breaking for years. "Even if we agreed on a general manager, that wouldn't change the aging pipes. In order to fix an aging pipe, you've got to have funding."
Her Prince George's colleague, Juanita D. Miller, said she's tired of the media portraying Prince George's commissioners as "holding up the process" even though they "follow procedures."
"This is my third term on this board," Miller said. "There were disagreements between counties, but we were able to move forward. . . . These Montgomery commissioners just want to take and not give anything."
Montgomery commissioners, meanwhile, say they're concerned that much of the debate occurs when Starks closes meetings to the public.
Roscoe M. Moore Jr., a Montgomery commissioner and the board's newest member, said commissioners "get bogged down in micromanaging" and spend too much time discussing contract awards.
Another Montgomery commissioner said he worries that the board's reputation for dysfunction could hurt the agency's pitch for $75 million in federal stimulus money.
"We need every ounce of our energy as commissioners to get money to fix the system," said Gene W. Counihan, a Montgomery commissioner. "We really don't have much time to be bickering."
The board will consider the utility's $1 billion capital and operating budgets today. WSSC officials have proposed a 9 percent increase in water rates, which would add about $4.50 a month to the typical residential bill. While some of that money would fund increased pipe inspections, WSSC officials said, it is far short of the 15 percent rate increase needed for "critical proactive maintenance."
Cuts required to trim the budget to a 6 percent rate increase, as proposed by the Prince George's County Council, could require scrapping inspections and repairs to the larger concrete pipes -- the kind that ruptured on River Road, WSSC officials said.
Adrienne A. Mandel, the third Montgomery commissioner, said the board's inability "to build consensus" would affect water customers only if the panel can't agree on a rate increase of 9 percent or more. Without stepped-up pipe maintenance, Mandel said, "I'd fear for our hospitals, our day-care centers, physicians' offices, everybody."
The budget does not include additional fees for longer-term infrastructure renewal. Commissioners deadlocked last year on how much to charge, and members from both counties say they won't try to impose such a fee now that the economy has soured.
Beyond old age, Starks and other commissioners said, the system is suffering from problems that have little to do with their disagreements. They cited the stress of temperature changes on pipes, swelling traffic volumes that increase vibrations, and, possibly, changing soil conditions due to continued development.
Board members are appointed to four-year terms by their respective county executives and confirmed by county councils. They make $13,000 annually. The even number of commissioners means that on issues that divide the two counties, a 3 to 3 stalemate is the most likely outcome.
Relations between the two counties hit a low point this fall, when Counihan said the Prince George's commissioners tried to "ram through" their candidate for general manager. He said Starks, the board's chairwoman, unexpectedly called for a vote after Moore, his Montgomery colleague, had to leave the meeting early.
Moore said he had told Starks at least twice that he had an appointment he couldn't reschedule. He said it's "obvious" that Starks waited for him to leave before calling for the vote. "That's the kind of nonsense that goes on," he said.
Counihan said he and Mandel left the meeting to prevent the quorum needed for a vote after Starks refused his request to delay it. He said all six commissioners had previously agreed to ask Montgomery Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and Prince George's Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) to resolve the general manager dispute.
At the next meeting, Counihan read a statement from the Montgomery commissioners saying that Starks's "actions represent a clear threat to due process and courtesy and leave us with a lack of trust in our fellow commissioners." They said they would attend WSSC meetings only when all Montgomery members could attend. Since then, Counihan said, Montgomery commissioners have walked out of one meeting to prevent a vote.
Starks said the board's "transition plan" was on its agenda for months and that "everyone was ready to go" before Counihan and Mandel balked. Miller, Starks's Prince George's colleague, said of the Montgomery boycott policy: "It's like spoiled children saying, 'either do it our way or no way.' They're holding up business."
Counihan and Mandel said their walkouts have not prevented approval of any major contracts. Moore said Starks has since told the board that she will not start a meeting until all three Prince George's members are present.
Counihan and Mandel said it would be inappropriate to discuss Miller's ethics complaint, which accuses them of trying to steer the general manager's job to a white man over an Asian American man whom Miller said is more qualified.
Raquel M. Guillory, a spokeswoman for the Maryland attorney general's office, said someone could try to legally compel a commissioner to attend meetings if it could be shown that his or her absences were harming WSSC business.
Legislation has been introduced to appoint a seventh commissioner to break tie votes. But WSSC-related bills typically die because they are difficult to bring to a floor vote without both Montgomery and Prince George's delegations approving them.
Starks said that she doesn't know how the board will break its impasse on the general manager issue, but that she is optimistic that it will agree on a way to raise money to replace decaying pipes more quickly.
"I think we can get there," Starks said, "because the aging of the pipes will force us to get there."
