GOVERNMENT CONFLICTS, CORRUPTION AND INDICTMENTS

- MARYLAND -

Date	Individual / State Agency	Who, What, Where?
06/21/2005	Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission	Another Sewer Agency Ripe With Scandal Much attention is being focused on the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, which serves 1.6 million customers in Montgomery and Princes George’s counties, but for entirely different reasons. County Executive Jack B. Johnson has nominated Juanita D. Miller to serve as one of the agency’s six commissioners, obviously to placate black voters. Ms. Miller served as a commissioner from 1996-2002 and was a central figure in numerous scandals. In 1997, she led a charge to reject a white-owned company from winning an $11.5 million sludge-hauling contract even though they were the low bidder. In doing so she rejected the advice of the agency’s professional staff, a very rare occurrence. Ironically, she also served the interests of a minority-owned firm, which was the third lowest bidder. Although she violated no laws, a Maryland judge ruled that her actions had been “unspeakable, arbitrary and capricious.” An underling, Sharon W. Phillips, the chief minority business officer, held up a routine maintenance contract for a white-owned firm because she was unable to find a minority-owned contractor, which wound up costing the users of the facility $1.5 million. She also made a push to include black-owned subcontractors who would be paid but do no work on certain contracts. As we emphasized in our June newsletter, the state of Maryland should follow our recommendation for the state of New Jersey, and auction off the sewerage facilities by selling to the highest bidder. Not only would the state potentially realize hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars from the transaction, they should see lower costs through competition and the elimination of millions of dollars spent on politically incorrect ploys.