Former Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto unveils official mayoral portrait

Former Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto celebrated his birthday Sunday by unveiling his official mayoral portrait in the City-County Building.

“Being the mayor is the hardest job, but it is rewarding,” Peduto said as he and members of his administration gathered in City Council chambers to see the portrait and reflect on their eight years in office.

Peduto’s portrait will now hang in the Mayor’s Office, along with similar portraits of all of the city’s prior mayors.

The portraits are all brass etchings, a tradition started by former Mayor Charles Kline in 1933. Because he commissioned paintings of all of his predecessors — going back to Ebenezer Denny, the city’s first mayor, who took office in 1816 — he chose brass etchings as a cheaper manner of portraits, compared to hiring artists to paint each individual, city officials said.

“Now we’re stuck with what I think is a really unique sort of look,” said James Hill, who served as Peduto’s executive assistant.

Officials from the Peduto administration were joined by Mayor Ed Gainey and members of the current administration, as well as other local officials.

“Every mayor, I think, is called for a purpose and time,” Gainey told Peduto. “I think you fulfilled that role quite well.”

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald highlighted the partnership that Peduto fostered between the city and the county — something he said has continued under the new administration, as well.

“It’s so important for us as a region to (get along),” Fitzgerald said.

He also highlighted Peduto’s accomplishments in setting the city on firmer financial footing, welcoming diverse populations into the city and ushering in economic prosperity.

“As a city resident who grew up in this city, born in this city, lived here my whole life, those eight years that Bill Peduto was mayor was unparalleled prosperity,” Fitzgerald said. “Bill spent a lot of time making sure Pittsburgh was a very welcoming city, and we welcomed people from all over the world.”

Members of Peduto’s staff thanked him for the opportunities they provided for them personally, and touted the good work they felt the administration had done for the city.

“You always did what was right, regardless of the politics,” said Kevin Acklin, who served as Peduto’s first chief of staff and now serves as president of business operations for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Peduto told his former administration officials that their work was also imperative for the city.

“I enjoyed coming to work every day simply to work with the people I worked with,” he said.

Lindsay Powell, who served as Peduto’s assistant chief of staff, read from his official biography, which touted Peduto’s handling of the state oversight of finances, the Tree of Life Shooting, the covid-19 pandemic and the social unrest spurred by George Floyd’s death at the hands of police.

“Mayor Peduto guided the city through all with a commitment to north star values and public institution-private partnerships,” she read from his biography.

The city’s 60th mayor also secured $10 billion for economic development in the city, grew the city’s revenue by more than 20%, cut the city’s debt level in half and established the Office of Equity, Welcoming Pittsburgh and the Office of Sustainability and Resilience, according to the biography.

“There’s opportunities here now where young people are moving here instead of young people leaving,” Peduto said.

The former mayor — who now works in consulting and teaches as part of a residency at Carnegie Mellon University — said seeing his portrait hanging on the wall Sunday was “a nice capstone to a career of serving the people of Pittsburgh.”