By Adam Pagnucco.
Infighting, leaks and purge politics at the planning board have created a crisis at Park and Planning. Planning board members are accountable to one body, the county council, which has been unable to stop the chaos. So far, the council has adopted the posture that the crisis is a confidential personnel matter shielded from public comment. That leaves astonished residents and planning board stakeholders wondering if anything will be done to save the agency from self-inflicted destruction.
Some observers have called the situation unprecedented. That’s not exactly true. Nearly twenty years ago, the council confronted problems with appointees at another agency – the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC). The events of those days offer lessons to which today’s council should pay close heed.
WSSC and Park and Planning are both bi-county agencies created in state law. Each has appointees from both Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. There are important differences between the two. First, while the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (Park and Planning’s official name) has some joint central functions, the Montgomery and Prince George’s branches are functionally independent of each other for the most part. WSSC is a unified entity with a six-member board including three members appointed from each county. Second, while Montgomery’s planning board members are appointed directly by the county council, WSSC board members are nominated by the county executives and confirmed by the councils. That means county executives get to play at WSSC – and they do.
In 2004, the relevant county executives were Doug Duncan (in Montgomery) and Jack Johnson (in Prince George’s). Duncan was setting up a run for governor. Johnson was a corrupt executive whose criminality only became fully apparent after his home was raided by the FBI in 2010. Johnson would later be sent to jail for accepting bribes, extortion, fraud and witness tampering. But that came later; the Johnson of 2004 was still preying on Prince George’s County Government and any other agencies within his reach. That included WSSC.
Johnson’s plan was to install his former campaign chairman, former WSSC commissioner Henry Arrington, as WSSC’s general manager. With his ally in place, who knew what Johnson could get from the agency? But Johnson had two problems. First, WSSC already had a general manager, John Griffin, as well as his deputy, P. Michael Errico. Both had to be removed. Second, Johnson’s three WSSC commissioners couldn’t oust Griffin by themselves. They needed at least one vote from Montgomery County’s commissioners to do that. And eventually they got it.
In February 2004, WSSC’s commissioners voted 4-2 to terminate Griffin and Errico, citing a host of charges against them related to alleged unauthorized bonuses, hiring problems and a $50,000 SUV purchase for Errico. A Montgomery commissioner who voted against the firings told the Washington Post, “We don’t fire employees like this, let alone an executive at this level… We don’t have anyone to replace him. No transition plan. It puts the organization in complete chaos, and I do not understand it.”
Griffin and Errico reacted by hiring super-lawyer and former delegate Tim Maloney and threatened to sue. Another complication was that WSSC lawyers “ruled that the vote was invalid because the purpose of the closed meeting had not been advertised and that the firing of Errico exceeded the commission’s authority.” Months later, an audit exonerated Griffin and Errico and the two accepted a buyout worth more than a half-million dollars.
Meanwhile, WSSC was crumbling. One of the Prince George’s commissioners was outed by the Washington Post for having his company contract with WSSC “as a ‘pass-through’ — a subcontractor who is on a job not to do any meaningful work, but solely because its status as a minority-owned business helps another firm secure the contract.” And after the aborted attempt to fire Griffin and Errico, the commission failed to approve contracts for months. According to the Post, “Perhaps the most striking example of disarray at the agency came Feb. 18, when four commissioners voted to table a contract for a chemical needed to treat drinking water, leaving at one point only a two-week supply of water at Potomac Water Filtration Plant, which serves 75 percent of WSSC’s customers.”
Arrington, Johnson’s pick to be the next general manager, was exposed by the Post in March for links to a WSSC manager and contractor who overcharged the agency through a kickback scheme. The contractor contributed to Johnson at a fundraiser held at the manager’s home to which “WSSC employees and contractors were invited.”
Eventually, the problems became so intense that Senate President Mike Miller threatened to get involved and the Post editorial board cried, “Clean House at WSSC.” Finally, the Montgomery County Council demanded the resignations of MoCo’s commissioners and they left one by one in September. Arrington was tossed aside and an interim general manager was hired. With new Montgomery commissioners coming in, Johnson’s plan for plunder was defeated. He would move on to other predations.
What lessons can be learned from that crisis that pertains to Park and Planning today?
First, while the county council ultimately got it right, they waited too long to act. The WSSC scandal went on for more than six months and the agency’s failure to approve contracts actually put residents at risk. Today’s council should not take months to deal with the planning board.
Second, outside pressure matters. The press covered the WSSC mess aggressively and the Post issued three different editorials that turned up the heat. One of them was wonderfully titled, “Watery Depths.” Today’s press needs to demonstrate the same vigor.
Third, council members should not be silent. The issues back then and the issues today far exceed confidential personnel issues. The future of a large and important agency is at stake. The county council of 2004 understood that and said so publicly.
Council Member Nancy Floreen, who at that time was chair of the council committee overseeing WSSC, told the Post, “We’re watching the dismantling of an agency before our very eyes.”
Council Member Tom Perez said, “There is a cloud hanging over this agency.”
Council Member Mike Subin went further, telling the Post, “This agency has been frozen in time by the commission that is supposed to be running it… In 18 years, I have seen nothing like this.” He went on to say, “There’s an old saying: Lead, follow or get out of the way.”
Finally, the council has the power to make a difference. In 2004, they succeeded in forcing out Montgomery’s WSSC commissioners by demanding their resignations and avoiding the hearing requirements in state law. Today’s council should attempt to do the same as the planning board members know full well that they could ultimately oust them formally if they so choose.
So come on, what are you waiting for, council members? Are you up to the standard set by your predecessors? Learn from their example and make a move!