Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, to be sworn into the region’s highest elected office today after campaigning on a “county for all,” has been thrust into leadership of a government roiled by internal lawsuits and big personalities.
She will need to confront urgent policy problems, from homelessness to the jail to the environment, working alongside a County Council that spent the last few years aligning itself in opposition to her predecessor, Rich Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald, who began his political career as a member and then president of council before ascending to the executive’s office in 2012, saw the legislative branch work in recent years to override his vetoes and elect a vocal critic as its president in Pat Catena. In the last year alone, the legislative and executive branches have been locked in three lawsuits over who has the power to do what in county government.
For council members, who serve part-time and many of whom did not sign on to be political combatants, Innamorato could present a new beginning and a reset. The biggest change they hope to see?
“Transparency, first and foremost,” said Councilor Bobby Palmosina. “For us to work together.”
Fitzgerald’s loudest critic over the last four years, Councilor Bethany Hallam, an Innamorato ally, is cautiously hopeful for what’s to come.
“I’m really optimistic, but again I’m still forever being cautious because I know the power that that office holds,” Hallam said. “… I’m optimistic that Sara will do what is right, always. And council will be there to support her in doing that and also to make sure that she does.”
Judge sides with Fitzgerald, nixing county employee wage floor, as Innamorato pledges pay review
Pressing issues for Innamorato — and council
In an echo of Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey’s ascent two years ago, Innamorato has a host of pressing policy problems to attend to.
Two of the most prominent county government agencies, the Health Department and the jail, are leaderless. Her hires for those roles could define the early part of her tenure and will have a lasting impact on criminal justice and public health policy in the region.
The county’s largest agency, the Department of Human Services, has been struggling to deal with an increase in the number of unhoused people. The agency made the controversial decision to shutter a winter seasonal shelter on Smithfield Street last year, leading to confusion among its clients and anger among advocates and some council members.
Tent encampments remain in pockets of the city, illustrating the work that remains for the county under new leadership.
A string of deaths in the Allegheny County Jail brought heated criticism upon Fitzgerald during his final term, and made the facility a key issue in the election to replace him. Innamorato will be closely watched as she tries to turn the facility around, but she will have to contend with a staffing shortage. Jail union leadership says there are too few officers and medical staff to safely operate the lockup.
Innamorato has stressed the need to stop incarcerating minors in the jail, and instead house them in a facility specially designed for children. But an effort to reopen the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center spun into controversy over Fitzgerald’s decision to not only bring in a private operator, but one that is facing lawsuits alleging negligent care elsewhere in Pennsylvania. The contract with Adelphoi to run the center includes no simple exit clause for the county, which could limit Innamorato’s options for years.
Innamorato will inherit a property tax assessment system that most experts view as broken and that was the source of litigation against the county. She campaigned on instituting a countywide reassessment, which would require an extensive overhaul of the existing system and, if her own campaign statements are followed, built-in protections for vulnerable homeowners.
Council will play a role in each of these issues, whether by considering budgets or vetting and confirming the key department leaders Innamorato selects.
Lawsuits, not communication
Catena said council was “constantly blindsided” under the Fitzgerald administration, citing major plans to reopen a juvenile detention center and to close a homeless shelter made without its input.
The plan to reopen the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center with a private operator, which Catena said council learned of at the same time as the public, triggered one of the lawsuits between council and Fitzgerald. Council argued in legal filings that its consent is required to allow the private company, Adelphoi, to use the Shuman site.
Updated: Innamorato hears ‘alarm bells’ in lawsuits against Adelphoi, picked to run Shuman
The executive branch treated the arrangement as a professional services contract, which does not require council approval. The case is pending in the Court of Common Pleas, though the county has sent initial payments to Adelphoi and construction has begun at Shuman.
In June council passed a law setting minimum pay levels for county employees, wading into the day-to-day administration of government and causing Fitzgerald to sue to overturn the law and preserve the executive branch’s authority over wages. A judge ultimately ruled in Fitzgerald’s favor, though an appeal is still possible.
The third intra-government lawsuit was filed by Councilor Bethany Hallam, possibly Fitzgerald’s most outspoken critic. She asked a judge to confirm that Fitzgerald and two other elected officials were breaking the law when they sent proxies to meetings of the Jail Oversight Board, on which they serve by statute. Fitzgerald’s solicitor argued in filings that the law permits Fitzgerald’s behavior and that Hallam lacked standing to sue. The case is pending.
The legal back-and-forth is a reminder that the county’s system of government – formed in 2000 – is still relatively new. Innamorato is only its fourth chief executive.
“A lot of the disagreements could have been resolved if there was an open line of communication between the two entities,” said Tom Duerr an outgoing Democratic councilor who did not seek re-election last year.
Sam DeMarco, one of two Republicans on council, pointed the finger at Catena and other council members for communication breakdowns, and said Fitzgerald has typically been responsive.
“So this breakdown is one-sided, and coming from [council members] and not from [Fitzgerald’s] office,” DeMarco said.
Innamorato enters
Innamorato entered politics as a staunch progressive, originally a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. She left that group in 2019 and has sounded a more pragmatic tone in recent years, though not forsaking a “people-powered politics” and social justice focus.
Regardless of how much Innamorato has moved ideologically since 2018, when she entered office as a state representative, she stands firmly to the left of Fitzgerald and his predecessors.
Council members were cautiously optimistic that Innamorato will be a willing partner.
“She has a job to do, we have a job to do,” Catena said. “And everyone wants to just move the county forward at this point.”
Palmosina predicted that for Innamorato, “being a fresh face, more of a younger generation” could work to her advantage, and he predicted that she will have an “open-door policy” and “more dialogue with me and the rest of the members.”
Many eyes will be on Hallam, who has an ideological friend in the executive’s chair after making a name for herself as a foil to Fitzgerald. Hallam said she still takes her executive branch accountability role seriously even with Innamorato replacing Fitzgerald.
“There are absolutely going to be times that Sara does things that I disagree with, that council disagrees with,” Hallam said. “And that’s what makes government so sexy.”
Hallam said she will continue her push to make council a more independent body, including by seeking the authority to approve and reject government contracts, a power Pittsburgh City Council possesses but County Council lacks. She also said she wants council to have a bigger staff so members can pursue more expansive legislative agendas.
One of council’s two newcomers this year, Bethel Park Democrat Dan Grzybek, said he sees council as a potential asset to the executive because of the members’ ground-up view of their respective communities.
“Whenever you have that relationship with the county executive, you’re able to much better utilize the local nature of county council, and the ability that we have to know our communities a lot better than the high-level administration can,” Grzybek said.
DeMarco predicted that some of his colleagues will try to “push the envelope” on what legislation it can pass under an inexperienced executive and try “to usurp her powers.”
Duerr, a campaign professional, said he worries that while Innamorato brings a fresh face to county government, council may fall back on habits formed during the past four years.
“I’m worried that this council sees everything as a nail and they are a hammer, and try to push things through and sue their way through what I see as pretty ordinary disagreements,” Duerr said.
Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter and a Report for America corps member. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
