More turnover at Oklahoma County jail trust as Allbaugh rejoins board

A former member of the Oklahoma County jail trust will soon rejoin its board.

Joe Allbaugh, who resigned his seat on the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority last year to seek elected office in Kay County, was unanimously appointed to fill a vacant spot by county commissioners last week.

Allbaugh replaces Adam Luck, a former member of Oklahoma's Pardon and Parole Board. Luck joined the trust last September, only to resign earlier this year.

Allbaugh's reappointment will take effect once he takes the oath at the trust's next meeting.

But the trust's board of nine members will have a full roster for just a single meeting.

M.T. Berry sent a letter to Oklahoma County Commissioner Brian Maughan in May to notify him he would resign from his seat June 10. Berry is a former Oklahoma City police chief and assistant city manager who has served on the trust since it was formed and was part of a group who recommended the hire of Brandi Garner to replace Greg Williams as the jail's CEO.

The turnover on the trust comes as the agency works to correct issues reported by a multicounty grand jury in March. The grand jury called for the trust to be dissolved after it said inadequate drug interdictions and health screenings led to the deaths of several inmates.

The Oklahoman in May published a year-long investigation into 43 deaths at the jail that have occurred since the trust took over operations from the sheriff’s office on July 1, 2020.

More: Living Hell: The Oklahoma County jail

"I have appreciated the opportunity," wrote Berry, who will complete a four-year term as a member of the board. Maughan and Timothy Tardibono, executive director of the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Advisory Council, thanked the former police chief for his service.

"As a founding trust member, he helped navigate the trust through a global pandemic and pushed for numerous improvements for the health, safety and welfare of both residents and staff. We appreciate he served out his full term and wish him the best as he hopefully enjoys his time outside of public service to our community,” Tardibono said.

Only two of original nine Oklahoma county jail trustees still serving

Berry's departure leaves the trust with just two of its original nine members — former state Sen. Ben Brown and Sue Ann Arnall, an attorney and president of the Arnall Family Foundation.

Here's how the trust has changed over time:

• Former Oklahoma County Sheriff P.D. Taylor left the trust at the end of his term after deciding not to seek re-election in November, 2020. He was replaced by Sheriff Tommie Johnson III.

• Tricia Everest, a former assistant attorney general and the president of the Palomar Family Justice Center, resigned from the trust in April 2021 after being appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt as his secretary of public safety. Allbaugh initially was appointed to replace her, before resigning and then being replaced by Luck.

• Former Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb resigned from the trust in September 2021, after attending only 14 of 34 trust meetings held since January, 2020. He was replaced by Chad Alexander, a Republican lobbyist. Alexander continues serving as a trust member.

• Francie Ekwerekwu, a public defender who had spent years working inside the jail as a program director, volunteer and advocate for various organizations and boards to provide management, legal representation and advocacy to its detainees, resigned from the trust in October 2021 because she was moving into a new role professionally. Oklahoma County Commissioner Carrie Blumert named Loretta Radford to fill her place. Radford, however, only served for a little under a year. After her departure, Blumert filled the seat by appointing the Rev. Derrick Scobey to the position. Scobey continues serving on the trust today.

• Jim Couch, Oklahoma City's longest serving city manager before he retired in January, 2019, resigned from the trust in December, saying he wanted to spend more time with family. He was replaced by Steven Buck, a former executive director of Oklahoma's Office of Juvenile Affairs, in February.

• Oklahoma County Commissioner Kevin Calvey stepped off the trust when he completed serving his term as a county commissioner at the end of 2022. Commissioner Myles Davidson, who won an election to replace Calvey in November, agreed to take Calvey's seat.

Commissioner: Finding volunteers willing to serve is a challenge

Maughan said serving as a member of the trust goes far beyond attending monthly meetings.

Maughan said he asks trust members to attend jail-staff meetings, plus investigate and attempt to resolve complaints made about the operation and how its detainees are treated.

Brown, he offered up as an example, regularly attends jail staff-related meetings and routinely follows up on complaints to get answers for upset constituents, the commissioner said.

Often times, detainee-related issues involve Oklahoma County's judicial or bail bond systems, not necessarily the jail's daily operation.

"Whenever a complaint comes in, it takes some investigation to discover where the kink in the hose is," Maughan said. "He (Brown) contributes an enormous amount of time, while receiving zero compensation for doing it."

While the grand jury was critical of the trust's structure, Commissioner Maughan said commissioners chose to appoint a politics-free organization as they could by making trustees' appointment terms longer than those for commissioners making the appointments.

That way, an appointed authority member wouldn't face the prospect of immediately being replaced if their commissioner were to lose an election or otherwise decide to leave office.

Maughan said serving on the jail trust is much more difficult than volunteering to serve on any other board commissioners appoint.

"This is probably the yuckiest topic local government has to take on — it is just not pleasant. For as hard of a job we are asking them to do, we are incredibly blessed by the high-caliber group of people who have been willing to serve."

Maughan also said he is nominating J'me Overstreet, the former director of Oklahoma County Juvenile Bureau, to replace Berry on the authority.

Allbaugh nominated again after retired general decides against serving

Commissioners previously had picked retired Maj. Gen. Michael C. Thompson to replace Luck.

But Thompson, who had led Oklahoma's National Guard under both Gov. Mary Fallin and Gov. Kevin Stitt, changed his mind about serving on the authority's board after reviewing the scathing multicounty grand jury report.

"I am deeply disappointed to learn from the media that the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority has been under grand jury investigation for allegations of wrongdoing for over a year," Thompson wrote in an email he sent to Tardibono on March 24, a day after the grand jury's report was released.

"Some of the findings revealed ... are troubling and inconsistent with my personal core values. Please allow this email to serve as my notice I no longer wish to be a member of the authority," Thompson wrote.

This week, Commissioner Myles Davidson put Allbaugh's name forward as an alternative.

More: Broken Trust: How the Oklahoma County jail leadership failed those it sought to protect

"We have been sitting with this seat vacant since Luck resigned. Thompson has let other people know (through a letter and through texts to other trustees) he doesn't wish to serve," Davidson said, "while Mr. Allbaugh has told me he has a desire to come back in and help us with this."

Allbaugh interested in guiding county's future

Allbaugh, who recently returned to central Oklahoma for personal reasons, is an experienced criminal justice professional who served as director of the Oklahoma Corrections Department from January 2016 to June 2019. He also headed the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President George W. Bush after leading Bush's presidential campaign in 2000.

This week, Allbaugh said he wanted to re-involve himself in Oklahoma County's criminal justice issues.

More: Designer for new county jail/health center selected by Oklahoma County

"Those issues are not going to change until we can get into a new facility," Allbaugh said. "Nobody in their right mind builds a 13-story prison."

Allbaugh said he has watched closely as the county has worked through the process to get voter support for a new jail/health center, to select an architect-engineer for the project and to begin considering where it could be built.

He told The Oklahoman he intends to push to ensure that staff who operate the new jail actually have opportunities to influence its design.

"In my experience, most operational people have always been cut out of that process, and that's when design mistakes are often made," he said. "I just want to put my shoulder to the wheel, utilize my expertise and most of all, make a difference."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Joe Allbaugh reappointed to fill a jail trust seat for Oklahoma County