Suburban Maryland’s water utility has picked the head of the District’s water agency to be its new general manager.
Jerry Johnson was set to resign as general manager of the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority this summer. He has been criticized by watchdog groups for the agency’s poor response to reports of high levels of lead in the city’s drinking water, but he said that situation “was not an issue” when he decided to leave WASA.
The selection by the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, which is contingent on a background check and contract negotiations, would end a lengthy and contentious search for the next head of the agency. The utility provides water and sewer services for Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.
Johnson told The Examiner that he was looking forward to leading WSSC, which he called “a fundamentally strong organization that is poised on the edge of greatness.”
WSSC is the eighth-largest water utility in the country and serves 1.8 million residents in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. Its infrastructure woes drew national attention in December when a water main burst on River Road, leading to dramatic rescues of motorists trapped in an icy torrent.
In January, 611 WSSC pipes broke, the highest monthly total in the utility’s 90-year history.
The six-member commission, which is made up of three members from each county, has been deadlocked on a pick to head the agency for more than a year.
Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett and Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson stepped in to shepherd in a compromise. Their first pick, David Chardavoyne, was announced in April. But his candidacy sank after information surfaced that he had a history of messy departures from former employers and had been the subject of a racial discrimination lawsuit when he headed a utility in Texas.
Residents as well as elected officials have been growing increasingly frustrated over the lack of leadership at the WSSC.
“It is far past time for a massive overhaul of this agency,” Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller wrote in a letter to Jack Johnson earlier this week.
Jerry Johnson has been general manager of the District’s Water and Sewer Authority since 1997. His biography on WASA’s Web site said that he is a “nationally known turnaround specialist,” who guided WASA from a projected budget deficit of $8 million to a surplus of $170 million in two years.
But critics have said Johnson withheld information about high lead levels in the District’s drinking water, and the Environmental Protection Agency found in 2004 that WASA had violated federal law under Johnson’s leadership by not properly informing the public of high lead levels.
Leggett’s spokesman, Patrick Lacefield, said Montgomery County officials who had served on WASA’s board approved of Johnson’s leadership abilities and his response to problems associated with high lead levels.
