In surprise, Allegheny County Council rejects nominees for Alcosan, Jail Oversight Board seats

In a rare move by Allegheny County Council on Tuesday, three appointments to two county boards were rejected, leaving some council members in shock.

The nominations were made by Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald to the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority board and to the Jail Oversight Board. They were expected to move smoothly through the meeting since just five days ago, they were approved in the appointment review committee. Such appointments are rarely challenged.

But on Tuesday, as roll call votes were taken, it was clear that some county council members didn’t know what was happening.

By a vote of 8-7, two nominees for the Alcosan board, state Rep. Nick Pisciottano, D-West Mifflin, and Sylvia Wilson, were voted down.

And in a 9-6 vote, the nomination of William Stickman III to serve as a citizen member of the Jail Oversight Board, was also defeated.

“For too long, the county executive has been awarding board positions as political favors,” said County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, who also sits on the jail board. “Council is putting a stop to that unethical practice.”

As the votes were unfolding Tuesday evening, Councilman Sam DeMarco and others were left shaking their heads.

“Can I ask what’s going on?” he said. “We have appointees affirmatively recommended by the review board getting voted down. There’s been no communication — at least to us — as to what is happening or why.”

“I’m quite flabbergasted how this vote happened,” added Councilwoman Cindy Kirk.

Councilwoman Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, who chairs the review committee, which met on March 17, said that since then she has heard from constituents with concerns about the appointments.

Council President Patrick Catena said members have the right to vote against nominees if they choose and can change their minds after the committee meeting.

Councilman Tom Duerr criticized the no votes, saying that both nominees for Alcosan were outstanding and that any concerns should have been raised at the review meeting.

Councilman DeWitt Walton, who was appointed to several boards Tuesday, agreed, calling the actions of those who voted against the nominees “disingenuous.”

“I also find it to be one of the reasons people choose not to want to serve government today,” Walton said. “I find it really disconcerting members of council would continue to operate in a less than transparent manner.”

Fitzgerald responds

In a statement, Fitzgerald criticized the council members who voted against his nominees.

“The votes cast by eight members of County Council tonight sadly represent politicians at their worst. Instead of voting on the merits of submitted appointments, those members chose to put politics above people,” he said.

Fitzgerald said Pisciottano would elevate the Alcosan board and that Wilson is a well-known labor leader. He nominated Stickman, he continued, after repeated requests from members of the Jail Oversight Board for corrections expertise and perspective.

All three nominees were unanimously recommended in the review committee, and no one who voted against them Tuesday explained why.

“These nominations were made out of genuine concerns for the direction of these boards and the vital role they serve, without regard to the political agendas of these eight members, and with the expectation that the public interest would prevail over those agendas,” Fitzgerald said. “I am disappointed and saddened that I was mistaken in that regard. We all deserve better.”

Stickman: Can he be a ‘citizen member’?

Questions about Fitzgerald’s nomination of William Stickman III, a former interim warden at Allegheny County Jail, came up earlier this month at a Jail Oversight Board meeting.

Stickman, who spent his career in corrections, was nominated to fill the role of a citizen member. Some members of the board believed that he did not fit that definition.

Stickman spent 29 years working for the state Department of Corrections, serving as a superintendent of two different facilities before retiring in 2007 as the deputy secretary of the western region.

After Stickman was nominated to the Jail Oversight Board, Downs praised his background, saying that he could be an asset to the board on issues like best practices.

Stickman, had he been approved, would have replaced Terri Klein, who has been on the board the last six years. She works as a physical therapist and has a master’s degree in public health. Klein was nominated by Fitzgerald in 2016 to serve on the Jail Oversight Board. After her second three-year term expired, Fitzgerald chose not to reappoint her.

On Tuesday, council did unanimously vote to reappoint M. Gayle Moss, who has served since 2007, to the jail board.

Abass Kamara is the third citizen representative on the board and joined in 2017.

In the Alcosan board seats, Fitzgerald nominated Pisciottano to fill the spot that was held by Allegheny County Treasurer John Weinstein. Wilson, who is also a member of the Pittsburgh Public Schools board, was being reappointed to the Alcosan seat after having served on it since 2000.