Penn Hills attorney joins councilman in mayoral bid

A Penn Hills attorney has thrown her name in the race to become the municipality’s next mayor.

Pauline Calabrese, 57, a Democrat, joins Penn Hills Councilman John Petrucci, also 57 and a Democrat, as a candidate for the open seat. Current Mayor Sarah Kuhn will not seek re-election.

Calabrese practices family law for Notaro & Associates in Downtown Pittsburgh. She said she served for more than a decade as a professor at Carlow University teaching employment discrimination law and business law. She also serves on the faculty for CCAC.

The attorney served as a Penn Hills school board member from 2014-17 and ran unsuccessfully to be a judge on the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas in 2015 and 2017.

If elected as mayor, Calabrese wants to revitalize Penn Hills.

“We need to make Penn Hills both a throughway and a destination,” she said, referencing Rodi Road and Allegheny River Boulevard as “natural gateways” she wants to use to create a robust economic base.

“Our residents continue to go elsewhere to work, shop and dine — even go elsewhere to buy a shirt and pants — and I would like to bring all of that back to Penn Hills,” Calabrese said.

She said she is in favor of resuming twice monthly council meetings and having two town hall meetings “at least twice a year.”

Calabrese lives in Penn Hills with her husband, also an attorney, and five children.

The primary for municipal elections is May 21.