Apres Miller, Le Deluge
Remember when that 75-foot-wide river that washed Bethesda away after that water main break? That wasn't Juanita Miller's fault. But almost everything else is.
At least, that's the way Miller's many critics have seen it over the course of her career with the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. That career has now come to an end, according to a Washington Post report, which says that PG County Executive Jack Johnson asked the PG Council not to reappoint her as commissioner.
Her critics might say that the decision comes not a moment too soon for the second time. Before her appointment to the WSSC in 2005, Miller had in fact already served as a WSSC Commissioner -- from 1996 to 2002. Her first stint was marked by controversy, as Adam Pagnucco of Maryland Politics Watch explains:
It did not take long for Miller to leave her mark on the agency. One year into her first term, Miller intervened in a contract dispute. Recyc Systems Inc., a white-owned firm, won a sludge-hauling contract at WSSC’s Blue Plains site with a low bid of $11.5 million. But Miller pushed the WSSC board to reject Recyc’s bid in favor of MTI Construction, a minority-owned firm, which was the third-lowest bidder at $13.5 million. Miller never told the board that MTI had contributed to her political campaigns. A state court ordered WSSC to reconsider its rejection and an ethics investigation ensued.After the WSSC board deadlocked on the Recyc-MTI dispute, Miller accused the agency of racism in contracting.
Given her divisive presence (and the fact she burned PG County for $2 million), why was the vote to reappoint her nearly unanimous in 2005? As it happens, it wasn't. Apparently, the 8 votes registered in favor and one abstention represented an effort at comity, not a ringing endorsement of Miller. As one voting council member told the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity at the time, "We just have to hold our nose and do it. . . . Let's just say it won't be one of our prouder moments."
Ouch. The acrimony surrounding Miller may have as much to do with her management style as with her frequent accusations of misconduct, racism, and corruption through the county. She was known -- and let's face it, you know someone like this and you hate working with this person -- for calling out individuals with sharp words in correspondence that reached every employee at the company. Pagnucco has an example up of a dressing down that Miller emailed to the director of human resources -- and any number of other people.
Any WSSC Commissioner worth his salt should be able to tell you that certain streams flow downhill. So when Maryland Senate President Mike Miller -- who defeated Juanita Miller in the 2002 Senate primary 62% to 31% -- told County Executive Johnson it was time to clean house, Commissioner Miller was the first to find her head on the chopping block. Sen. Miller didn't mince his words: Having called the WSSC a "cancer" in the past, he described the work of the agency as "total incompetence."
Did I mention the profligate spending? It might have been Sen. Miller's directive that "[t]he use of ratepayer funds for questionable activities by WSSC members should also be reviewed" that tipped County Executive Johnson's hand. Commissioner Miller spend $29,600 from 2006 to last year attending political, charitable, and business events -- more than any other WSSC commissioner.
For her part, setbacks don't seem to have set Commissioner Miller back in the past. After serving as a special administrator in PG County schools, she was elected for one term to the House of Delegates. She failed in bids to join the PG County Council as well as the State Senate. It doesn't sound likely that this is the end of her shall-we-say distinctive career in public service.