Court must decide if Schenley Park Columbus statue stays or goes

For the Italian Sons and Daughters of America, their fight over the removal of the Columbus statue from Schenley Park is about process as much as it is about preserving heritage.

“The mayor can’t wake up one morning and decide he’s king, he’s a tyrant and he can do whatever he wants, it doesn’t matter what the legislature has to say,” said attorney George Bochetto. “That’s not how democracy works.”

Bochetto appeared before Commonwealth Court on Wednesday to argue against a lower court decision from last year authorizing removal of the 13-foot-tall bronze and granite statue unveiled at the park in 1958 — three years after City Council passed an ordinance allowing the statue to be displayed there.

Common Pleas Judge John T. McVay Jr. threw out a complaint filed by the Italian Sons and Daughters in September 2022, finding that they failed to present any case law to show the mayor does not have authority to remove city-owned monuments on city-owned land.

The lawsuit, McVay said, infringed on the city’s right to free speech.

But in argument before the seven-judge panel on Wednesday morning, Bochetto said that the city of Pittsburgh is more than just the mayor, and city council has never said that it agrees with the statue’s removal.

In the summer of 2020, as government entities across the country reckoned with public outcry over statues and monuments considered to connote systemic racism, the Columbus statue in Pittsburgh entered the spotlight.

Then-Mayor Bill Peduto recommended the removal of the statue, and following public comment and hearings, the Pittsburgh Art Commission voted unanimously to remove it from public view.

But Bochetto said that the art commission members are appointed by the mayor, and that they were bullied by him to vote the way he wanted.

The Italian Sons and Daughters filed a lawsuit to stop the statue’s removal in October 2020. Basil Russo, the president of the organization, said Wednesday that the statue is “a symbol of all the sacrifice and contributions Italian-Americans have made to the city of Pittsburgh over the years.”

Pittsburgh officials ordered that the Columbus statue be wrapped in plastic early in the morning of Oct. 11, 2020, to protect it from being defaced. Some of the wrapping remains.

At Wednesday’s argument, Bochetto said that the statue’s installation was governed by a 1955 ordinance passed by city council, and it’s removal requires that ordinance be repealed.

“City Council also has a right to government speech, which they exercised in enacting the ordinance allowing construction of the statue,” he said.

Bochetto told the court that city council has taken no action to remove the statue.

“You’re not saying they can never remove it, but they haven’t followed the proper process?” asked Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough.

“That’s exactly right,” Bochetto said.

But Julie Koren, who represented the city at argument, said there was a formal process followed before the decision was made to remove the statue.

“The city of Pittsburgh took great care with this,” she said.

Koren said that the legislation passed in 1955 authorizing the construction of the statue is more akin to a resolution accepting a gift than it is an ordinance.

Therefore, she continued, no action by city council to rescind it is necessary.

The city, Koren said, fulfilled its obligation under the 1955 action to build the statue and care for it. Nothing, she said, requires the city to display it forever.

“It is not an ordinance of ongoing, permanent display,” Koren said.

“Who owns it?” asked Judge Michael Wojcik.

“I believe the city owns it,” Koren answered.

She said the Sons of Columbus — the predecessor organization to the Italian Sons and Daughters, Bochetto said — had the right to erect the statue.

“That is where their rights ended,” Koren said.