Corey O’Connor tied together Pittsburgh’s past and future Monday, reprising one of his father’s old slogans and urging the city to “redd up” ahead of the coming NFL Draft as he took office as the city’s 62nd mayor.
The inauguration ceremony took place 20 years and two days after O’Connor’s father, the late Mayor Bob O’Connor, was sworn in as the city’s 58th mayor.
Slideshow from Corey O’Connor’s mayoral inauguration on Jan. 5, at Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland. In first photo from left, Katie and Corey O’Connor hold their children in their laps beside Gov. Josh Shapiro and his wife, Lori. (Photos by Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh’s Public Source)
The younger O’Connor’s installation capped a rise through city politics built on a decade of City Council membership and a stint as Allegheny County controller.
The 41-year-old Point Breeze Democrat ousted outgoing Mayor Ed Gainey in last May’s Democratic primary, running on promises to stabilize city finances, invest more in the city’s emergency vehicle fleet and promote population and economic growth.
He took the oath after 2 p.m. Monday before a crowd of hundreds at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland.
In his inaugural address, O’Connor restated his campaign theme of trying to make Pittsburgh “every family’s first choice” and paid tribute to his parents.
“I know that there are two people watching this ceremony from heaven with smiles on their faces,” O’Connor said. “My parents loved this city to their very core. They loved each and every resident. … My dad was both optimistic and passionate about the city’s potential and what we can all accomplish together.”
O’Connor’s brother, Rev. Terrence O’Connor, said to his brother in an earlier speech: “Cor, you have a chance to finish the job that daddy started, but in your own wonderful and unique way.”
Mayor-elect Corey O’Connor visited his new office with two-year-old son, Emmett, his wife, Katie, and his daughter, Molly, 4, on Jan. 4, at the City-County Building in Downtown. “It doesn’t hit you until you actually walk in,” said O’Connor while visiting the office with his family the day before his inauguration.
O’Connor announced 30 City Hall appointees prior to his inauguration, a slate that suggests the new administration will be partially flavored with staff of administrations past, along with some who served in federal government and the private sector.
Newly sworn-in City Council members sounded optimistic about the coming O’Connor term Monday morning as they opened the new year’s session.
“I’ve never been more confident about the City of Pittsburgh,” said Councilor Anthony Coghill of Beechview, who endorsed O’Connor in the primary and was re-elected easily himself, adding that he sees a “great leader” in O’Connor.
Councilor Erika Strassburger of Squirrel Hill, who ran unopposed for a third term last year, noted new challenges posed by a federal government opposed by every elected member of Pittsburgh’s government.
“I am committed to building trust in the government, no small task at a time when the federal government seems committed to undermining that,” Strassburger said.
Council unanimously reelected R. Daniel Lavelle as its president.
What’s on the new mayor’s agenda?
O’Connor pledged during his address Monday to “rebuild” the city’s police bureau, citing a need to improve safety in the city.
He reiterated a campaign promise to streamline permitting in the city, which earned him support from business in the election and applause in the auditorium Monday.
“Public safety is not a statistic,” O’Connor said. “It is a feeling you have when you walk down the street.”
“For too long, Pittsburgh has said, ‘We can’t, we won’t.’ A culture of no,” he said.
Council moved in late December to give O’Connor a little breathing room in the city’s budget. Council members denounced the 2026 budget proposed by Gainey, saying it underestimated key costs and would have depleted its already shrinking reserve fund.
Councilors raised property taxes by 20% Dec. 21 in a contentious, divided vote, balancing the city’s books for the time being.
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O’Connor is statutorily allowed to reopen the budget in January to propose changes. After that, his next chance to reshape the city’s budget will be with the 2027 spending plan, which will be enacted late this year.
Council members and public commenters said throughout the tax hike debate in December that a better solution would entail major nonprofits, especially UPMC, paying the city more to partially offset property tax exemptions.
Gainey, like mayors before him, made that one of the chief goals of his administration, though little ultimately came of his legal maneuvering.
O’Connor said he would take a more diplomatic approach with the nonprofits, pitching them on contributing to specific services instead of lump sum payments. He said, for example, he would suggest the healthcare giant UPMC fund the purchase of new ambulances. Closing deals like that will be near the top of the new mayor’s to-do list, both to build momentum for his administration and to give it more financial resources.
“If you can be specific with them on those issues, I think you will gain some momentum on those issues,” O’Connor said during a December interview with Public Source. “… Obviously if you could do it right away, that would be helpful, because then I could free up capital and start investing in other things that are much needed.”
The NFL Draft will pose a leadership test in April. Possibly the largest event in the city’s history, it is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of football fans to the city, stretching transit, entertainment and public safety infrastructure.
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Where does the term “redd up” come from?
The Pittsburgh-area phrase meaning to tidy, clean or put things in order comes from Scots and Scots-Irish dialects. The phrase came to Western Pennsylvania with immigrants in the 1700s-1800s and became a staple of local speech.
Not since the 2009 G20 summit has the city been under similar scrutiny, and O’Connor said he hopes the event’s telecast, to be viewed by millions, will serve as an advertisement for people to move here. His father in 2006 invoked a Pittsburghese term in creating a “Redd Up Crew” to ready the city for both guests and residents, and the son led off his tenure with the same concept.
“We have to make sure that when you’re looking at TV, we make it as unique an experience as possible for the viewer,” O’Connor said, “but then also for those hundreds of thousands of people here, we want you to feel like Pittsburgh is a safe, welcoming community so that you’re going to come back or you’re going to go home and tell 10 people, ‘Hey, I went to Pittsburgh. It was great, I never thought about it.’”
Who will fill key posts?
O’Connor’s first move after winning the Nov. 4 general election was to name Dan Gilman his chief of staff. Gilman held the same role under former Mayor Bill Peduto from 2018 through 2021 and can offer O’Connor, a newcomer to the city’s executive branch, deep knowledge of its inner workings.
Three other Peduto aides are among early appointees, including Molly Onufer as press secretary. Onufer directed communications for Peduto before he left office. Since then, she worked for Piatt Companies, the firm that just broke ground on the major Esplanade complex in the city’s North Side.
At least one appointee worked under O’Connor’s father: Yarone Zober — who was briefly acting mayor while Bob O’Connor was hospitalized and then served as chief of staff to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl — is set to serve as director of redevelopment under the younger O’Connor.
Twelve of the announced appointees have not had previous government experience. Most are in assistant-level roles and worked on campaigns for O’Connor or other local Democrats.
Sophia Shapiro, the daughter of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, was named senior special assistant to the chief of staff. She graduated from Pitt in 2024 and, according to LinkedIn, worked on various political campaigns since.
Director-level appointments or nominations announced so far include:
- Director of Public Safety: Sheldon Williams, former city police officer and paramedic
- Chief of Police: Jason Lando, former Pittsburgh police commander and police chief in Frederick, Maryland
- Director of Parks and Recreation: Eric Sloan, former corporate talent acquisition executive and Dynamo youth soccer organizer
- Chief Operating Officer: Sharon Werner, former PNC executive and attorney at the Department of Justice under President Barack Obama
- Director of Community Impact: Ricky Burgess, former city councilor for District 9
- Director of Economic Development: Steve Wray, executive director of the Block Center at Carnegie Mellon University
- City Solicitor: Lisa Zeidner Marcus, a Department of Justice attorney since 2007.
Some of the nominations require council approval.
How did O’Connor get here?
O’Connor grew up in Squirrel Hill and attended Central Catholic High School, where he later coached golf. His father, Bob O’Connor, became a councilor when Corey was 7, became mayor when the son was 22 and died of brain cancer less than a year after that.
Corey O’Connor rarely talked about his father on the campaign trail last year, but has spent decades following his example. After graduating from Duquesne University and working for a few years in the office of former U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, he ran for his father’s old council seat in 2011 using money left over from his late father’s campaign account.
His council days included pivotal moments in city history: the emergence from state financial oversight, the transformation of post-industrial neighborhoods like the Strip District and Lawrenceville and the unfathomable tragedy of the 2018 synagogue shooting.
He stayed in the seat for a decade before being appointed county controller, but soon turned his gaze on replicating his father’s highest achievement.
O’Connor managed to avoid negative, heated campaigns for the first 15 years of his political career, but it took a fight to topple Gainey. He accused Gainey of leading the city toward a financial “cliff” and of failing to promote growth.
A majority of council members backed O’Connor, and he received a steady flow of campaign cash from people in the development, construction and real estate industries. Gainey maintained much of the progressive base that carried him to victory in 2021 in a four-man primary field.
A third-party political group sent mailers to voters that some observers called racist, attempting to tie Gainey to blight that predated his administration. In the end, the primary vote was largely split along racial lines, with predominantly Black neighborhoods strongly supporting Gainey and white East End neighborhoods giving the mayor less of its vote than they did in 2021 and shifting support to O’Connor, who won 54% of the citywide vote.
O’Connor hardly conducted a public-facing campaign for the General Election, cruising to an overwhelming win over Republican nominee Tony Moreno. He swept all 403 of the city’s precincts, picking up dozens that Gainey lost to Moreno in 2021, and racked up a vote total not seen in decades.
Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
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