Home >  Local News >  Neighborhoods

Monday, January 20, 2003

By Timothy McNulty, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

In the early 1970s, there was no Pittsburgh paramedic squad. Back then, police transported injured people from emergency scenes by loading them into their cars or wagons and taking them to hospitals in a job affectionately called the "swoop and scoop."

	Bob Kennedy carries the Olympic torch through Station Square in December 2001. (John Beale, Post-Gazette)

The paramedic squad finally hit the streets in 1975, and a new recruit and Vietnam War veteran named Bob Kennedy went on the first two calls : a drunk guy who fell off his crutches at a Point Breeze bar and a double shooting in Homewood.

Twenty-eight years later, Kennedy is still getting calls. The latest came Friday, when Mayor Tom Murphy officially tapped the longtime paramedics chief for a new job called "director of operations," in which he will oversee the day-to-day performance of all city departments, from Public Safety to Public Works, Zoning and Building Inspection.

The scope of the job didn't seem to faze him.

"Once you're responsible for people's lives, it's pretty easy to transition into other things. You think this is a hard job?" Kennedy said, referring to the new position. "People are alive because of us [paramedics]. Babies are born."

Kennedy, 53, of Morningside, will replace outgoing Deputy Mayor Sal Sirabella, who is going to work on state emergency management issues for incoming Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll.

	Name: Bob Kennedy Date of birth: April 19, 1949 Place of birth: Sharon, Mercer County In the news: Named city operations director by Mayor Tom Murphy, replacing Deputy Mayor Sal Sirabella. Quote: "It's my job to get all the oars rowing together. If they row together, the boat goes straight. Otherwise, it goes in circles." Education: Sharon High School; Community College of Allegheny County; University of Pittsburgh. Family: Three daughters, two grandsons.

Kennedy, who Murphy named in November 2001 to lead seven task forces studying the city's disaster preparedness needs, will take over similar city emergency management work from Sirabella. He will also take over Sirabella's efforts to merge the city and Allegheny County 911 communications services.

His other top priority will be implementing Murphy's proposed merger of the city Fire and Emergency Medical Services bureaus, which the mayor is counting on to save $7.5 million in this year's fragile city budget. Despite the thicket of personnel, pension, safety and training issues the merger poses -- not to mention the elimination of more than 200 jobs -- Murphy wants it finished by June 30.

In an interview Friday, Kennedy said the merger will be easier now that he's not directly involved with the paramedics bureau.

"It helps facilitate movement in my mind. I don't have to be as parochial for EMS. Hopefully now that I'm responsible for all departments, I'll have a more global approach and I'll be better accepted," Kennedy said.

Fire union President Joseph King, who will be on the other side of the negotiating table when the merger talks start later this week, said he has a "mutual respect" for Kennedy, partially tied to their service in Vietnam. King was a Marine and Kennedy an Army infantryman who earned a Bronze Star, among other medals.

"I've always looked at Bobby as a gentleman and a reasonable person," said King.

Kennedy grew up in Sharon, Mercer County, where his father worked for Wheatland Tube Co. He moved to Pittsburgh after his Army service in 1970, staying with friends at the University of Pittsburgh. He worked at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic and got an associates degree from Community College of Allegheny County in a brand new field called emergency medical technology.

He got the degree in 1975 and joined the new city paramedic squad. When late Mayor Richard S. Caliguiri formed the city's Public Safety Department in 1986 -- overseeing police, fire, paramedics, communications and building inspection -- he made Kennedy the chief of the EMS Bureau.

"That makes me feel really old. Now I'm drinking with [Caliguiri's] son," Kennedy joked.

Kennedy is a convivial guy, known for his easy way with other city staffers and his closeness to other paramedic chiefs, many of whom joined the bureau the same time he did. The new job will require him to be a taskmaster, squeezing performance out of a dozen city departments and 3,900 employees.

It won't be easy. He will have to contend with other city administrators who were in the running for his job, including Public Works Director Guy Costa, Pittsburgh Parking Authority Director Ralph Horgan and General Services Director Dale Perrett, and answer to Murphy's right-hand man, Executive Secretary Tom Cox.

Still, Kennedy had wanted the responsibility for years. About five years ago, he told Murphy that someday he wanted to be executive secretary or deputy mayor, and last week Murphy called him on it.

"It's time," Kennedy said. "There are bigger challenges for me and I have a lot to offer. I've been at this for many years and I'm familiar with the problems of city government and the nature of the city's communities. I know the neighborhoods."