Sara Innamorato inaugurated as 1st woman Allegheny County executive

Sara Innamorato made history Tuesday, becoming the first woman sworn in as Allegheny County executive, one of the region’s most powerful political positions.

Innamorato, 37, of Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood was inaugurated at 12:30 p.m. She took the oath of office in a music-filled ceremony at the Byham Theater in Downtown Pittsburgh.

She is the fourth county executive and succeeds Rich Fitzgerald, a Democrat and 12-year incumbent who was term-limited and could not run for a fourth time.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Chelsa Wagner administered the oath of office on a bound copy from the county law library of the U.S. and Pennsylvania constitutions.

After the ceremony, Innamorato and Wagner hugged each other as cheers from more than 200 attendees reverberated in the concert hall.

In her remarks, Innamorato joked that she was likely the first county executive with tattoos — and vowed she would not be the last woman to hold the office.

She said she wants to honor the traditions that make Pittsburgh and Allegheny County great, but also move the county forward with new ideas and priorities.

“Embracing new ideas is what makes us better,” she said during a half-hour speech. “Welcoming new communities is what makes us stronger. Being open to a better path and being willing to imagine it, to design it and to make it real, that’s what will make us the best place to live in America for everyone.”

A progressive Democrat, Innamorato served as a state representative from 2019-23. She stepped down last summer to focus on her campaign.

Innamorato said her priorities will include affordable housing, equitable economic development, green energy jobs, transparency in government, workforce development, reliability in transportation, high-quality human services and safe communities.

Last fall, Innamorato squeaked past her opponent, Republican and former PNC executive Joe Rockey, defeating him by less than 3 percentage points in the heavily Democratic county.

Her election showcased the sometimes-fragile nature of Democratic power in Allegheny County, where progressives flexed their muscle just enough to win countywide, but Republicans showed that, with the right candidate, they are well within striking distance.

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, a longtime ally of Innamorato and one of several Southwestern Pennsylvania politicians who attended the inauguration, said she has always worked hard for working-class families and has focused her career on unifying people. He said he is confident she can help progress Southwestern Pennsylvania forward.

“It takes all of us. It takes everybody. It takes a vision of a better tomorrow,” Gainey said in his introductory remarks. “And now we have that person ready to provide that for Allegheny County, Sara Innamorato.”

Darrin Kelly, president of the Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council, said Innamorato has garnered the praise and support of organized labor because of her focus on ensuring the entire region thrives, not just the privileged few.

“This woman measures her success by the steps you go forward towards your American dream. That is a leader,” Kelly said. “She wants to be able to look up at all of you, never look down.”

In the run-up to her inauguration, Innamorato convened more than 200 people to participate in a community survey to help guide her transition. She said that was the largest community engagement effort ever completed by the county.

“It’s critical that we hear directly from community members about their experiences and their needs,” she said.

Other priorities

One of her first priorities, she said, would be to help make it easier to fill the more than 1,000 open positions available within Allegheny County government. She said she will eliminate degree requirements for many positions and review policies governing minimum wage and salary ranges.

Innamorato said she will bring a renewed focus to growing Allegheny County’s economy and attract more federal and state investment.

She acknowledged the county’s historically low unemployment rate but said the region is still having one of the slowest post-pandemic economic recoveries in the nation.

Innamorato said the county needs to do a better job at increasing its population and that immigration is one of the best ways to accomplish that. She added that, while the county’s average income is rising, almost 40% of households still are not making enough to cover basic necessities.

She said she wants to address these dichotomies.

“We consistently feature in lists of the ‘best places to live,’ but for too many people from too many communities, from Black women to people with asthma, that designation doesn’t always ring true,” she said.

Innamorato said she will create a new position — a director of Climate Resiliency and Green Jobs — in hopes to lure more federal and state investment in clean energy and sustainability projects.

She acknowledged the challenge in matching Fitzgerald’s prowess at bringing in federal dollars.

Fitzgerald will be moving on to director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, a regional planning cooperative, and Innamorato said she will be working with him to ensure the region’s transportation infrastructure will be fully funded and modernized.

First things first

Some immediate challenges facing the new county executive revolve around the Allegheny County Jail and the region’s homeless population.

Innamorato has vowed to find a new warden for the jail, which was run by Orlando Harper for 11 years before he retired in September. The jail has drawn controversy over the years, with inmate deaths, severe staffing shortage issues and accusations of inadequate mental health care.

And as Allegheny County’s homeless population has seen an uptick, county officials have had to continually expand shelter bed capacity — though not rapidly enough, critics say, to prevent some people from being left outside in winter.

Innamorato said one of her goals is to ensure those living on the margins in the county see improvements.

“Our friends who are suffering from addiction, our neighbors who are in financial crisis and homeless, those with chronic health conditions and are struggling, our community members who are incarcerated — they deserve our respect and investments so they can live full and dignified lives, too,” Innamorato said.

She said she will be expanding child care subsidies and creating an Office of Worker Protection in hopes of boosting rights for workers throughout the county.

She praised the county’s new discounted transit fare program for low-income residents and said she hopes to expand it to deliver free transit fares for low-income riders.

Innamorato said the best way for the county to move forward is to acknowledge its shortcomings and then work to fix them.

“We don’t need to be ashamed of where we fall short, but we do have to acknowledge it,” she said. “We have to be comfortable identifying injustices — naming and understanding them — because only then can we root them out, repair our foundations and rebuild on stronger footing.”