Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Page 3
AOC Regional Director Sheila Calabro Announces Retirement
By SHERRI M. OKAMOTO, Staff Writer
In the wake of long-time Administrative Director of the Courts William C. Vickrey’s announced retirement, another high-level official with ties to the embattled California Case Management System project has said she will be stepping down as well.
Vickrey told AOC staff on Monday that Sheila Calabro, Regional Director for the Southern Regional Office, has scheduled her departure for June.
Last Tuesday Vickrey announced his plans to retire in August, and last Wednesday he told staff that Kenneth Kann, 66, director of the Executive Office Programs Division, is also slated to leave in August.
The hiring process for their successors has not yet begun, a spokesperson for the AOC said yesterday.
Calabro, 67, told the MetNews yesterday that she had “been trying to retire for over two years now” but agreed to stay on until the end of the development phase of CCMS.
“I believe in the program and I hope it is successful,” she said of the $1.9 billion technology project which has fueled criticism of the AOC’s management and spending priorities.
Responsibility for the day-to-day oversight of CCMS shifted from Calabro to current Executive Program Director Mark Moore last November, but she remains co-chair of the project’s governance committee and yesterday was named to the panel tasked with recommending reforms for the AOC’s organizational structure.
Calabro said she felt “privileged and blessed” by her “wonderful career,” but that “it’s time now” to retire and she leaves with “no regrets.”
She joined the AOC in May 2001 after having served as court executive officer, clerk, and jury commissioner of the Ventura Superior Court in 1989. Calabro spent the three years prior as the executive officer of the Ventura Municipal Court, and before that, she was an administrator with the Glendale Municipal Court.
Following her retirement, Calabro said she plans to “become a master gardener,” and “understand the stock market better,” as well as read, travel, and spend time with her family and friends.
Kann did not return a call for comment yesterday.
He has served in his current position, which is responsible for overseeing the AOC’s Court Interpreters Program, Court Program Services, Editing and Graphics, Public Information and Communications, Research and Planning, Presiding Judges and Court Executive Officers, Promising and Effective Practices, and the Judicial Administration Library, since 2006.
Kann spent a year as assistant director of the division after having worked his way to a managing attorney position in the Office of the General Counsel.
Last year he was named as a defendant in a lawsuit by Jack Urquhart, a former AOC employee who claimed he was forced into retirement after complaining about the agency’s spending. The case was settled last March.
Kann earned his law degree from UC Hastings after graduating from the University of Wisconsin and joined the State Bar in 1986.
Copyright 2011, Metropolitan News Company