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Montgomery County representatives on the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission are refusing to meet with Prince George's members on the water and sewer utility's governing board unless all Montgomery members are present.

Recent actions by their Prince George's counterparts have left Montgomery with "a lack of trust in our fellow commissioners," according to a statement read by WSSC vice chairman Gene Counihan at the board's meeting on Oct. 15.

Counihan cited two moves during a Sept. 17 closed session as reasons for the stance: "disregard for ‘Robert's Rules of Order'" when a motion that was seconded and discussed was suddenly ruled out of order, and denying Montgomery members the "courtesy" of consulting with county officials on "an extremely important and previously unannounced motion."

"I don't want to be in a position of having to walk out of the room ... if they're going to try to ram something through in this manner," Counihan said Oct. 16.

"It's not a comfortable position," Counihan added.

Counihan's fellow Montgomery commissioners, Adrienne Mandel and Roscoe Moore Jr., endorsed the statement, but commissioners declined to elaborate because the matters came up in closed session.

"It reflects the difficulties in present WSSC governance — in terms of what's happening between the county commissioners," said Patrick K. Lacefield, a spokesman for Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D).

The commission oversees water and sewer service to more than 1.6 million customers in Montgomery and Prince George's.

Leggett and Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) are scheduled to meet before the end of the month, said James P. Keary, a spokesman for Johnson.

Sources familiar with the Sept. 17 closed session said the unannounced motion that Counihan referenced had to do with selecting a general manager, a decision the commissioners have struggled over since Andrew D. Brunhart left that post in February.

Keary said Johnson believes the commissioners have established a process for selecting a general manager, and they should follow it to select the best candidate.

But commissioners have differed in their interpretations of the process they approved.

Prince George's Commissioner Juanita Miller said Thursday that Montgomery commissioners "have yet to justify why they won't proceed with the process" and select the highest-ranked candidate.

Other commissioners have refused to discuss the closed-door deliberations.

According to the commissioners' rules for the selection: "If there is a spread of less than five points among the top candidates, the commissioners will consider having a second round of interviews with candidates receiving the highest scores [and] if one candidate receives an average score that is more than five points higher than all the other candidates, that candidate will be the choice."

The highest-ranked candidate's score did not mandate that candidate's selection, sources suggested.

Moore left Wednesday's meeting shortly after 3 p.m., and Counihan and Mandel, who participated throughout the meeting's roughly six-hour span by conference call, left the room and the phone line shortly thereafter.

Their leaving was "unfortunate," said WSSC chairwoman Joyce Starks of Prince George's.

Starks said she knew Moore would have to go by about 3 p.m., but got no notice that other Montgomery commissioners would leave until the morning of the meeting.

"If there was an issue I want you to pick up the phone and say you are uncomfortable," Starks said, adding that she would have asked Montgomery members what they needed to be comfortable.

Also, Starks and Miller said Montgomery commissioners have not identified any rule of order that was violated.

Montgomery's departure delayed the presentation of staff reports, including an audit.

Before they left, commissioners agreed to advertise bylaw changes that Counihan proposed in time to allow review before a possible vote at their Nov. 19 meeting.

Counihan's amendments would require at least one affirmative vote from each county for an action to pass.

"There should be an ability for one county to give the other county the courtesy to delay significant action," Mandel said.

"We have to look at these bylaws and see how they can serve the commission and ratepayers and the community."

Starks said she wants to make sure any bylaw revisions do not hamper the commission's ability to do its work, perhaps in circumstances where some commissioners cannot be present.

"I can't look at one incident and say this is how things should be," Starks said.

It is not uncommon for the six-member commission's votes to split along county lines.