Fitzgerald seeks to appoint former warden to Allegheny County Jail board

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald has nominated a man who spent his career in corrections and once served as the county’s interim warden to be a citizen representative on the Jail Oversight Board.

The county announced the nomination of William Stickman III to the board last month, and the issue was raised during public comments at the board’s March meeting.

Stickman, who spent 29 years with the state Department of Corrections and was Allegheny County Jail’s interim warden in 2012, would replace Terri Klein, who has been on the oversight board since 2016.

During her time on the board, Klein has sometimes disagreed with jail administrators but is known to be measured, diplomatic and rarely reactionary.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Beth A. Lazzara said Thursday that Klein is committed to the well-being of the people incarcerated at the jail.

“She was absolutely a fantastic member of the board — truthful, committed and hard-working,” Lazzara said.

At Wednesday’s board meeting, Jonas Caballero, who once was incarcerated at the jail and advocates for those held there, criticized the county administration for its nomination of Stickman. He argued that Fitzgerald wanted to replace Klein because she doesn’t “toe the company line 100% of the time.”

Caballero called it a “blatant and unapologetic attempt to pack the board” with people who will side with the county executive.

Amie Downs, a spokeswoman for the county executive, said Stickman served as interim warden at the jail at the recommendation of the Department of Corrections. He followed others in that position who were on loan from the DOC.

Regarding Stickman’s nomination, Downs said, “The addition of an individual who has a background and expertise in corrections at the local and state level can be an asset to the board, providing additional information related to corrections best practices and procedures.”

Klein, who would not comment for this story, said during Wednesday’s meeting that her second three-year term had expired.

“It is the prerogative of the executive to choose community members,” she said.

Klein, who works as a physical therapist and has a master’s in public health, served six months on county council in 2015 after Councilwoman Barbara Daly Danko died in May of that year. After completing her term on council, Klein wanted to continue in public service and was nominated to the Jail Oversight Board. She had a particular interest in improving medical services there.

The other two citizen members of the board are M. Gayle Moss, who has served since 2007 and was nominated for another term in February, and Abass Kamara, who joined the board in 2017.

According to monthly meeting minutes, Kamara has attended four of the board’s public meetings since March 2021. He was present at Wednesday’s meeting.

People nominated to the board must be confirmed by county council. The committee on appointment review is expected to take up the nominations of Moss and Stickman on March 17, and then they will be sent to the full council for approval.

According to state statute, the Jail Oversight Board is to be composed of the county chief executive, two Common Pleas Court judges, the county sheriff, the county controller, the president of county council or a designee and three citizen members.

The statute says that to qualify to be a citizen member, the person shall not be an employee of the county or state.

“They shall serve for a term of three years and shall be representative of the broad segments of the county’s population and shall include persons whose background and experience indicate that they are qualified to act in the interest of the public,” the statute says.

Downs said that Fitzgerald makes an effort to ensure that his board appointments reflect the county’s diversity, including race, gender, geography and origin.

“With any board or authority, members that have an expertise or background that provides a perspective on the work of the board is important,” Downs said.

According to the state Department of Corrections, Stickman started as a corrections officer trainee in 1978. He continued as an officer until 1997 when he became a deputy superintendent at the State Correctional Institution-Pittsburgh.

He then served as a superintendent at SCI-Greene and again in Pittsburgh. Stickman retired as the deputy secretary of the western region in 2007.

He was appointed by Fitzgerald to serve as interim warden at Allegheny County Jail in 2012 and interim director at the now-shuttered Shuman Juvenile Detention Center in 2013.

Bret Grote, legal director of the Abolitionist Law Center, criticized the decision to replace Klein with a career corrections officer.

“This is a transparent move to undermine the independence of the Jail Oversight Board by replacing a community advocate with a prison official hand-selected by the county executive,” he said. “At a time when even the staff at the jail have joined the chorus calling for a change in leadership, the county executive should be heeding those calls rather than trying to outmaneuver critics.”

Khalif Ali, the executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, said the idea of having citizens on a board like this is to reduce and eliminate the politics inherent on them.

The positions should go to people without a vested interest in pleasing elected officials or adhering to a partisan position, Ali said.

“There should be some type of boundaries that eliminate appointments designed to curry favor with an elected official,” Ali said. “You want someone with an eye toward fairness and not with a bias toward any one position.”