Mayor faces decision on new chief of staff

least five other senior management positions, including the police chief, have turned over during Mr. Peduto’s mayoral tenure.

In the chief-of-staff job, he will need someone with “absolute loyalty and absolute competence,” said former Mayor Tom Murphy. His own chief, Tom Cox, stayed in the position for Mr. Murphy’s 12-year run.

“That person can’t have their own agenda. If they have their own agenda, then you’re really going to have a mess,” Mr. Murphy said. “It requires an unusual level of skill and personality, I think, to be a good chief of staff.”

Mr. Acklin pledged to remain in his unpaid role as the Urban Redevelopment Authority board chairman, leaving the next chief of staff to face Mr. Peduto’s other priorities. Those include strengthening PWSA, slimming the city’s environmental impact and fostering a partnership with large nonprofit organizations to address targeted community goals, such as early childhood education.

Mr. Peduto, a former councilman, said he’s thought about a lot of people for the job. He didn’t name any names Friday. He said he had been looking locally, both in governmentand beyond.

“Different chiefs of staff have different strengths, and you try to play toward that and then build around it,” the mayor said. “With Kevin, I was fortunate that there were no weaknesses.”