Undercover Boss (2010) s06e02 Episode Script
Mayor of Pittsburgh
(Male announcer) Since premiering to nearly 40 million viewers in 2010, more than 70 bosses [Snap.]
Oh, my God! (Announcer) Have posed as subjects on a fake show to get honest feedback from their employees.
All right.
(Announcer) It's been shocking.
[Cow moos.]
A lot of people smoke pot.
(Announcer) It's been challenging.
It's not the homeowner's fault that I get paid peanuts.
(Announcer) But it's inspired them to change their employees' lives forever.
I've decided to invest around $3 million because of you.
Thank you.
For real? Like, this is real? Without a doubt.
[Sobs.]
I am going to give you your own store.
Yay! Probably the best thing somebody ever did for me.
I have a check for $250,000.
Oh, my God.
(Announcer) Tonight the latest leader to take the plunge is Bill Peduto The mayor of Pittsburgh, one of America's most iconic cities.
Hello? I'm looking for Lawrence.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
(Announcer) By going undercover I'm ready, Marty.
All right, let's get at it.
(Announcer) The mayor will get out of city hall That's too tight.
It's not gonna move.
It's too tight.
(Announcer) To get down and dirty Like that smell? Oh, no.
Oh, come on.
It's a pretty smell.
(Announcer) And he'll meet the people who sacrifice it all to take care of the city he loves.
How many carpenters do you get working here? I'm pretty much it.
There's 400 housing units here.
There is.
It does get difficult at times because we help people buy homes, and I can't afford to buy a house right now.
Wow.
(Announcer) But what will happen when he meets a city employee who doesn't agree with his politics I'm probably out $8,000 in overtime just because of political affiliations.
(Announcer) And has suspicions about his true identity? I feel at home here.
Yeah? Let me see your hair.
What's, uh what say what? (Announcer) Find out next on Undercover Boss.
[Lively music.]
(Announcer) Known as the Steel City, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's massive steel industry built America.
World-famous for its beautiful rivers and bridges and home to the Pirates, Penguins, and the six-time super bowl champion Steelers, Pittsburgh is one of the United States' most iconic cities.
And calling the shots in this hardworking city is one man.
I am Bill Peduto, and I am the 60th mayor of the city of Pittsburgh.
My job as the mayor is to make sure that the essential services that the people need are provided in an effective, efficient, and equitable way.
- Oh, mayor? - Yep.
I need you to approve this one thing.
(Bill) Being the mayor is a 24-7 job.
- Hey.
- Hi.
In regards to Omar Hodges' funeral (Bill) Every day, my responsibilities change.
One day, I can be concentrating in on public safety and police services, the next, infrastructure, the next, finances.
Being the mayor of a major American city is like having a remote control with limitless channels.
I had a fantastic childhood.
I'm the fourth of four boys in an Italian family.
Italian [Speaking Italian.]
The mom mama's baby.
My dad was a schoolteacher, and my mom raised the four of us.
My grandfather worked all of his life at Columbia steel, and my dad's father passed away on the job at J&L Steel.
So I come from two sides of steelworkers, and we worked the mills.
Pittsburgh started out as the steel capital, a leader in the industrial revolution.
The steel that built the skyscrapers, the automobiles, and the bridges was all from right here in Pittsburgh.
We became one of the wealthiest cities in the entire United States until 1979.
That industry that we had put all of our eggs into that one basket Collapsed, and Pittsburgh died.
We had much higher unemployment than Detroit has today, and we lost more people than New Orleans lost after Katrina.
But there was no federal bailout for us; there were no programs.
The city had to pull itself up.
And over the past 30 years, that's what we've done, and we are now at that next great phase.
We've set our sails to one thing: To be the leader that other cities will follow.
My family was never involved in politics, but I had this love for government, and that's what spurred me.
I spent 20 years on the other side of the hall to then councilman, I worked hard.
I ran for mayor to clean up city government.
In 2013, I gave up my council seat to run against mayor Ravenstahl.
At that time, there were a couple different grand jury investigations.
We've cooperated from the beginning.
We'll continue to do that and, like I said, look forward to the revelation of all the facts.
(Reporter) Are you a target? That's all I'm gonna say, guys.
(Bill) The mayor withdrew from the campaign under allegations, federal investigations, and the inevitable arrest of the police chief.
And then in November, I was able to win in the primary with 84% of the vote, the largest majority in modern political history in Pittsburgh, because I had the support of the people.
I've been the mayor of Pittsburgh for ten months.
And whether it's a great day and you get to celebrate this wonderful city of Pittsburgh or whether it's a really rough day and you're dealing with homicide and infrastructure that's falling apart, I realize every day that I go to work that this will be the best job I have in my life Appreciate it.
I'm single.
I don't have kids.
Just make sure that Tim calls the P.
G.
about it.
You know, earlier in life, I started putting everything towards career.
I just did what I felt I needed to do at that time to get where I am today, and I'm happy where I am today.
Hi, Tina.
So you got your work cut out for you.
Yeah, what are we doing today? Everything that I have right now, think the opposite.
Totally different.
All right.
In the past ten months, we've made a lot of changes.
I want to go undercover to see if these changes are actually having an effect and to hear directly from the employees themselves.
I haven't had long hair, gray hair, or a wig.
While I'm undercover, I'm gonna be posing as Ed, a reality show contestant from Loretto, Kentucky.
Definitely.
Oh, yeah.
We promised the people that we would clean up city government.
We have to reverse the low morale from the previous administration and let the workers themselves believe they're part of the solution.
[Country rock music.]
Today I'm gonna be working with our environmental services department A refuse worker.
The basics of city government comes down to public safety and public works.
And if you're not picking the trash up right, chances are you're not doing anything else right either.
I want to learn firsthand how we can make it better.
Is James here? Yep.
Hey, James, I'm Ed.
[Hoarsely.]
I'm Jim.
How you doing? Nice to meet you.
They call me âwhispersâ 'cause I had throat cancer.
Your friends must have a funny sense of humor.
When I first saw this guy, thought he was a redneck by his beard and long hair.
But I'm probably just as much a redneck as him.
[Laughs.]
Let's get out of here.
Let's go get some rubbish.
Kind of tight up here.
(James) Ed, this is Lonnie.
Lonnie, this is Ed.
(Bill) Yep, all right.
I'm a little bit nervous about the physical part.
I've been working out this year, but putting in a full day is going to be interesting.
I brought Tylenol.
(James) All right, this is gonna be our first stop.
Ready, Grizzly Adams? That's your new nickname, Ed.
I've been growing this since I was in high school.
Grab that can.
Got it.
(James) Don't give it no mercy, 'cause it ain't alive.
[Laughter.]
[Grunts.]
(James) All right, the lord gave you two hands.
Use 'em both.
Oh, what in the hell did they put in here? Smells pretty, don't it? This is a little bit more work than I was expecting.
I keep stretching.
I'm using my legs.
Come on.
Throw it up there like you got a pair.
Oh, shoot.
Like that smell? Oh, no.
[Laughs.]
No, no, no.
Aw, come on.
It's a pretty smell.
(Bill) I got garbage hands.
And I got this hair in my mouth.
And I want to pull the hair back, but I don't want garbage hands to get the hair out of my mouth.
Smells pretty, don't it? Whoo! Take a good whiff.
[Grunts.]
(James) Oh, sound like you're getting old.
(Bill) I know.
(James) Come on.
You ain't that old.
He needs to pick up his pace a little bit.
He's a little slow, like a snail.
Hey, you gonna back up? I'm making sure he ain't a girly girl.
When he leaves here today, he's gonna be sore.
Whoo! Legs on fire yet? Yep.
(Bill) Trucking up those hills Oh, man.
It's impossible.
You'll feel it tomorrow.
Oh, I'm feeling it today.
(James) The reason we have to back up there and get two stops there There's a border where Wilkinsburg and the city separate.
So you pick up 2 houses and leave 20 houses, and you pick 'em up another day? No, another rubbish company picks them up.
So this is Wilkinsburg.
Yeah, and then on that side And this is Pittsburgh.
(James) Yep.
And two different companies come two different days to pick up the garbage.
Yep.
That's a little crazy.
(Bill) The thing that was upsetting is the inefficiency of having to back up and go down an entire road in order Just to pick up two houses and not to have a cooperation agreement with the neighboring municipality.
What we need to do is find a way to create route-smart systems with our neighboring bureaus.
Up here, we have a couple doggies I feed.
I don't know if they'll be out.
But I usually leave 'em biscuits.
And what are you barking at, huh? Oh, my goodness.
He's so bad.
I have a little pit bull I found out here in the rubbish.
Rescued him.
My dream is just to get my house paid off and have a bunch of animals.
Yeah.
If I ever had a chance like you, to win the money, I'd donate a bunch of money to the no-kill shelter.
When did you first find out that you had throat cancer? How many years ago? Five years.
Never smoked a day in my life.
My mom had the same thing.
How do you hold yourself together? I have to for my mom.
My mom's all I got.
My mom's always been there for me.
That's why I try to keep strong.
You know? (Bill) My mom is the pillar of my life, so there's a lot in common between me and whispers.
All right, I guess the truck's full.
We're gonna head to the landfill, teach you out there how to dump.
Well, let's go dump.
All right.
Go ahead, Lonnie.
Fire her up.
(Bill) He's a big guy with a big heart.
And he's spreading that love to wherever he can find it.
Those are the type of guys I want to make sure that we keep.
(Announcer) Coming up That's too tight.
It's not gonna move.
It's too tight.
(Announcer) The mayor's carpentry skills are put to the test.
Hold it.
Whoo! I almost lost my finger.
Yeah, we don't want to do that.
(Announcer) And later I'm probably out $8,000 in overtime just because of political affiliations.
(Announcer) He meets a worker who has suspicions about his true identity.
I feel at home here.
Yeah? Yeah.
Let me see your hair.
What's, uh what say what? [Upbeat music.]
(Bill) Today I'm in the hill district in Bedford dwellings.
I'll be working with a carpenter from the housing authority.
We have to have affordable housing for people.
It's what gives people an opportunity to break out of poverty.
It gives people that sense of pride, that they want to be able to succeed.
Hello? I'm looking for Lawrence.
I'm Ed.
Hey, Ed, how you doing? I'm Lawrence.
Nice to meet you.
I'm gonna be with you today.
What I do is pretty much I fix doors, cabinets.
I hang kitchens, countertops This is your office.
This is one of my offices.
All right.
Today what we're gonna be focusing on There's a vacant unit across the street.
We're gonna build a door here that we're gonna install over there when we get there.
Have you ever hung a door before? Never built Never hung a door before.
All right, here we go.
We have a 30-inch door over here.
(Bill) Yep.
So what we're gonna do is, we're gonna cut this door down to 29 5/8.
I'm gonna show you how to do this, and then I'm gonna let you do it, okay? Put this at 29 5/8, right where I want it.
Hold that tight here.
Okay.
Push this lever down.
Lock it in.
Then you lay it on.
When you're cutting this, you want to make sure you're flush over there.
You stay tight over there, your cut has to be good.
Understand? Yep.
Okay.
Now I'm gonna let you do it, okay? Well, I got to loosen it.
And I'm measuring from Let me think.
Let me think.
Other way.
Flip it around.
Come on, baby.
There we go.
Open nope.
Listen.
Listen, that's too tight.
It's not gonna move.
It's too tight.
There you go.
Come on, now.
I showed you.
And now, 5/8 See what you got.
You are not at 5/8.
You're at 1/2 heavy.
You're at 9/16.
You need to be over there.
Right.
So loosen that and just bump it a little bit.
Just a little bit, not a lot.
Is it this line right here Or this line right here? (Lawrence) Ed, I think he's really uncomfortable in a carpenter shop.
I think he's really uncomfortable with drills and saws.
Hold it.
Whoo! I almost lost my finger.
Yeah, we don't want to do that.
This is not Ed's normal environment.
[Drill whirring.]
Careful.
Careful.
Got to be dead on it.
Okay, I'm gonna finish this part, okay? All right.
Ed is not a carpenter.
Can I help you carry it? You can carry it.
All right.
There's a unit across the street right over here.
That's where we're taking this.
(Bill) How many carpenters do you get working here in this area? I'm pretty much it.
They told me there's There is.
You're in charge of 400 housing units? (Lawrence) [Laughs.]
They're looking for it to be quick with one guy.
Couldn't you hire one of these young kids out here and teach them and make them a carpenter? See, that's one of those things that we suggest.
Yeah? But it ends up being, âif we have to get somebody else, "what do we need you forâ" yeah.
(Bill) Kids that live here could be trained to learn his trade, as a carpenter.
He'd not only be able to have the help that he needs but at the same time, create the opportunity for a young person living in public housing to have a career.
[Drill rattles.]
[Clicking.]
That's a door.
That's it.
So look, we're gonna get some water? Yeah.
You like your job? I like my job.
I really, really do.
But, you know, I don't want to build structures anymore.
I want to build people now.
I do ministry.
I'm licensed.
I'm ordained.
So I would like to see myself running my own ministry.
What stops you from doing that right now? The last part of it is getting a church.
So I more want to fix people now.
You know, my wife and I are fostering kids right now.
There are children out here that are raising themselves.
They don't feel safe.
You know, my life, even, was like that for a period of time.
And I ended up getting strung out on drugs.
Really? Yeah.
Yeah, really.
What kind of drugs? Crack cocaine.
Oh, man.
And that was the thing that ended up, you know, basically almost punching my ticket.
You know, I went to, like, 18 rehabs.
Wow.
How did you find the courage to quit? I got tired of hurting.
I got tired I got tired of being in pain.
And I got tired of putting people in pain who loved me.
Yeah.
And now all my mistakes, all my mess-up, all my mess, has now become my message.
Yeah.
And it is the thing now that is causing me to be effective in other people's lives.
If I can get one person to make a different decision than I did, if I can get one kid to not go down the road that I went down, then it is totally worth all of it.
(Bill) So many city employees, they're involved in people's lives well beyond whatever their job is.
They're the civic glue that holds the city together.
Without people like Lawrence, no city could operate.
And I am very proud of the employees that are a part of our team.
We got a lot of work to get done still in that unit.
So why don't we head back over to the unit, all right? [Upbeat acoustic music.]
(Bill) Today I'll be working with the city's forestry division.
When we took office in January, we cleaned house within public works, and we eliminated many positions.
We can do reports to tell us about the health of our urban forest, but I need to know about the health of the people working there in order to make sure that we meet our mission to create the greatest urban forest in the United States.
I'm looking for Marty.
Hey, how you doing? Are you Marty? I'm Marty.
How are you, bro? Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
I'm Ed Chadwick.
So what we're gonna do today, we're gonna be working in the park.
We're gonna chop some trees.
All right.
And later, we're gonna go clean a field.
Are you ready? I'm ready, Marty.
All right, let's get at it, brother.
One, two, three.
(Marty) All right? Yep.
Did you go to school in the city? I went to north catholic high school, which is in the city, and then I continued education, and when I was about when I was 20, I was actually assaulted with brass knuckles.
I was put in the hospital for, like, two months.
They almost I almost died.
Didn't really have the money to go back to school, so just decided to not go that route.
Probably a bad mistake.
It was the worst mistake I ever made.
But, you know, it, uh Mistakes are only decisions you make that are permanent.
But wouldn't have met my wife or had my children probably so.
I don't regret it.
But it would have been nice to finish.
Would have made life easier.
And now, your kids, are they in school? They will go to a catholic school after next year, once we're a little more financially stable.
How much does it cost to go to a catholic school? $3,200 per one child and $6,000 for three, so Wow.
But, yeah, I look into everything.
I try to make a little bit of a future for my kids.
That's all that matters to me.
You think you'll stay in Pittsburgh? I'll stay in Pittsburgh till the day I die.
Yeah.
I'll never leave.
I love this city.
Let's hop out.
Gonna show you a little bit about what we do here every day.
Thank you.
(Marty) You see all the other trees have leaves? (Bill) Yeah.
(Marty) This one's dead.
We get a good breeze, what it'll do is, it'll just fall over.
So we're gonna go cut us an ash tree.
Do you have any experience on a chain saw? Very little, from my grandpa.
Very little? Okay.
Shove on this one.
Bring the safety hatch in, okay? Okay.
Choke button is here.
Pull the choke up.
Hand on the trigger.
Sure.
[Motor puttering.]
[Metal clanking.]
Here, let's see.
There, you can set it down, if you want to do one knee.
That's a little bigger saw.
[Metal clanking.]
[Saws buzzing.]
(Marty) Wasn't as good as I thought he was gonna be on the saw from being from the backcountry.
Just make a nice line here and cut straight up into the tree.
[Saw buzzing.]
Here.
Let me show you real quick.
When you work the saw, work it this way, not this way.
I was trying to give him directions, see if he would respond to them.
He didn't respond the greatest to them.
[Saw buzzing.]
Bring it in.
Let the saw do the work.
(Marty) The way he's carrying himself, the way he doesn't really know how to run or do anything, you could tell maybe he's an office type of person.
But I don't know.
[Wood splintering and cracking.]
Good job, man.
Thanks.
So the saws are dull.
Sometimes we don't The city doesn't always have the budget to order us new blades or new saws.
How old are these? They're a couple years old.
The blades are worn.
So if you want to start and just cut some of these branches (Bill) Marty's right.
Those blades are dull.
It makes the work twice as hard.
All right.
Now, so on these branches, we could throw these over here.
So what made you want to make the change, man, to do this? Been thinking about it for about 20 years of my life.
Why never before? Never really had the opportunity.
I guess I say that, but part of it's true.
(Marty) There's just something Something that's off about what he looks like, the way he's built to be a backcountry guy and don't know how to do any of this stuff, so I'm a little suspicious of everything going on now.
You could fit in Pittsburgh with your hair and bandanna.
I feel at home here.
Yeah? Yeah.
Do you like your job? I love my job.
But, you know, I mean, it's not all what it's crac toe sometimes here.
So a lot of political stuff goes on.
At one point, I worked for a branch of public works that all we did was green lots.
You know what I mean? If there was an abandoned house that was ripped down, we'd go in; we'd plant nice plants.
Now with the new mayor, that stuff got cut out.
(Bill) In Pittsburgh politics, the Hatfields and the Mccoys are my administration and the previous administration.
Marty was hired by the previous administration to work in a crew that was selected because they were friends of the mayor.
We disbanded that operation.
You know, I'm probably out $8,000 in overtime and extra pay, so I'm out painting all the time on the side.
I run a small company.
Why'd they cut out Just because of political affiliations, you know? (Bill) Here's a person sitting next to me who doesn't respect me not trying to help him.
It made me wonder if he knows and he's just sort of prodding me along.
In a big city, a lot of stuff is politics.
Doesn't matter if you're qualified or do a good job at your job.
[Scoffs.]
It made me feel uncomfortable.
Ed, I got to tell you, I know you're really Bill Peduto.
What's, uh what say what? Ed, I got to tell you, I know you're really Bill Peduto.
What's, uh what say what? Yeah? What? So what? Let me see your hair.
You're the mayor of the city of Pittsburgh.
I'd know you to see anywhere.
Yeah? He's the height, the weight.
I know his eyes.
I've seen him at 20 different political events.
Yeah, you busted me, brother.
Yeah.
It's a pleasure, you working with us.
So you are on Undercover Boss.
There's a reason I wanted to do this, and it was really to get to know what could I be doing better.
A big thing, I know, with some of the workers in things that have gone on here lately has been the hours switch from 6:00 to 2:00 to 7:00 to 3:30.
I've had to switch from this job to the fourth division because of the hours 'cause I can't afford to get care for my kids, even if it's for two hours out of the day.
Is there a reason that they said Of course, they're saying productivity, but in the morning You're in rush hour.
It doesn't matter.
Yeah, you're in rush hour anyway.
Yep.
(Bill) The hours that we've changed for our workers has an effect on morale.
Also, we could actually become more productive if we were to consider going back to the 6:00 to 2:00 shift.
That's something that I'm gonna have to investigate.
Other than that, there's nothing really I have to say about it.
You know what I mean? I'll see what I can do.
Yeah, that would be great.
I promise you that.
(Bill) Marty's the type of person that we need in city government.
It doesn't matter what political side you're on.
If your heart is in doing the right thing and you work hard, there's a place for everyone at that table.
All right.
Marty, thank you today.
Yeah, no, thank you.
I appreciate it, man.
Takes a lot of guts to come down and do that.
Thank you.
Let's hop down.
Don't get hurt.
(Bill) Today I am in the historic hill district of the city of Pittsburgh, where I'll be with a self-sufficiency coordinator in the Pittsburgh housing authority.
Hi.
I'm Ed.
Hi.
I'm looking for Kelly.
(Bill) A self-sufficiency coordinator helps people break the chains of poverty.
How they do that, I really don't know, and I'm gonna have an opportunity to learn.
Miss Kelly? You have someone here for you.
Hi.
Are you Kelly? Hi.
I am.
And you are? I'm Ed Chadwick.
Come on in.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
Have a seat.
Thank you.
Family self-sufficiency is it is what it is: Helping people become self-sufficient.
We have a lot of hardworking people that live here in our communities and just need that little extra push, and that's what I do, give them that extra push.
I got you.
All right, we're going to do two home visits today.
All righty.
First young lady is Nicole.
You ready? I'm ready.
All right.
(Bill) Oh, I thought the clients would be coming to us, not that we'd be making house calls.
Never done this before, and I'm really nervous, but that's the type of hands-on approach I want to see.
(Nicole) Hi, miss Kelly.
How you doing? Hey, Nicole.
How are you? Come in.
Thanks.
How you doing today? I'm okay.
Great.
So a couple things that I did bring with me today.
One of the things I looked at was your escrow savings account.
Ed, what we do is set aside money every month in an escrow savings account on Nicole's behalf to help her with any further goals.
You create the nest egg.
We create the nest egg.
We want to help anybody who wants to help themselves.
So in your escrow savings account, there is $929.
That's a good little Yeah.
Good little start.
[Laughter.]
(Bill) There was a companionship basically between her and Nicole, and I love that.
Nicole's not her client.
Nicole is her friend.
Miss Nicole is one of my hardworking folks.
So you're just wanting a job.
Yeah, just want a job so I can maintain and take care of my son.
He's 14 years old.
I have a 15-year-old son, so I relate to Nicole in that, 'cause I'm a single parent as well.
Has Kelly been helpful? Very helpful.
I could call her anytime, and she's right there âNicole!â she knows I'm calling.
"I'll be happy to say, âbye, Nicoleâ" as long as I get invited to the housewarming.
Girl, yeah.
It takes a certain person to be able to do Kelly's job.
Unless you can empathize and have an ability to actually feel what that person's feeling, I don't know how successful you could be in this job, and Kelly's got that.
Do you think you're gonna be able to help her? Oh, absolutely.
My walk is maybe different than Nicole's, but, you know, at the end of the day, our goals are the same.
We want, you know, success for our kids and to be able to live comfortably, and, you know, it does get difficult at times because we help people buy homes, and because of the sacrifices that I'm making financially for my son to be in private school, I can't afford to buy a house right now.
Wow.
Which is, you know How much does that end up costing you? It is $10,200 per year.
$10,200 per year.
It's like sending him to college.
Yes, it is.
So I do I work two jobs.
Oh.
It's hard.
I imagine.
It's hard.
It drains you.
But he's my priority, and I just feel like it's my responsibility to give him the best start possible.
But actually I am up for a promotion at work, and if, in fact, I am promoted, then I won't have to work a second job.
What have you had to sacrifice for you in order to give your son that type of education? I have, for a long time, wanted to go back to law school.
But that has to be on the back burner, 'cause it's just real important that he gets what he needs right now.
You put the priority on your boy.
Right.
Absolutely.
So the next young lady, she is in her 40s, and she cannot find a job because she doesn't have her G.
E.
D.
We have a G.
E.
D.
instructor that provides instruction, and she's made leaps and bounds, but her mom passed away.
Oh, jeez.
So she sort of lost some of her drive to get it done.
So we're going to meet (Kelly) Onessa.
[Knocking at door.]
It's Kelly.
How you doing? Hi! How you doing? Good.
(Onessa) Okay.
(Kelly) So Ed's working with me today, and so what I thought would be neat is if we let him do this home visit.
Okay.
We're gonna see if I can do it.
That's for sure.
Good luck with that.
Well, Kelly told me on the ride up you lost your mama recently.
Yeah, I lost my mom a few weeks ago, so I'm kind of alone.
(Bill) Yep.
Except for my kids.
Oh, there he is.
Hey, Jamont.
This is my son Jamont.
Ed Chadwick.
Jamont.
Nice to meet you.
No, you got somebody like Kelly who's gonna help you.
You're lucky.
She's great.
I am lucky.
She tells me she's proud of me all the time, and she always tells me about my progress, and so I'm so grateful, because if it hadn't have been for Kelly and the program, I might not be where I'm at right now.
(Bill) What I'm proud of is that there are people like Kelly who do her job People that find the resources to help people that otherwise wouldn't get help.
People like Kelly prove the worth of government workers every day.
You know, your mama would be really proud of you, to know that you keep moving on even though she's not here to help you, and I would say that once you get that G.
E.
D.
, you're gonna have a foundation that you don't even know right now, and those other dreams are gonna become easier.
Okay.
Sounds good.
Sounds good.
That's what we do.
We never give up.
(Bill) Today's visit with Kelly was, I would say, the best visit that I've had.
Instead of doing the other jobs of picking up garbage or cutting trees, we dealt with people and the real-life problems that keep people in poverty, and that's why I ran for office: To try and come up with solutions.
Kelly's reward is the ability that she has to make people's lives better.
That is something that Kelly and I share.
So what did you think? I think she's a real nice lady.
I think she needs a little bit of help to get that G.
E.
D.
Well, let's go on to the next stop.
All right.
(Announcer) Coming up, the employees think they're going to decide if Ed deserves to win prize money.
How will they react when he reveals his true identity? I'm Bill Peduto, the mayor of the city of Pittsburgh.
I'm also Ed.
Oh, my God! You got me good.
(Bill) I've had a wonderful undercover experience, and I had a lot of opportunity to see firsthand how our workers are going far beyond the call of duty.
I would love to be able to help every employee in the city of Pittsburgh, but the reality of it is, I'm not a corporate ceo with $1 billion to be able to give away.
In fact, I can't even use taxpayer dollars.
I had to pick up a phone and raise money from friends in order to be able to help the employees that I met this past week.
Whoa.
Hi.
Hi.
You know who I am, right? You're the mayor.
I'm the mayor.
I voted for you, yeah.
I'm Bill Peduto.
Right.
Nice to meet you, sir.
Nice to meet you.
And you worked with a guy named Ed Chadwick.
Yes.
On a scale of one to ten, how do you rank Ed's ability to do the job? Probably a five.
A five.
I give him an 8 1/2.
I got to tell you something.
I'm Bill Peduto, the mayor of the city of Pittsburgh.
Right.
I'm also Ed.
Oh, my God! Are you serious? Have you ever seen the show Undercover Boss? Yes.
I've watched it.
You're on it.
My God.
Well, you got me good.
Martin, you're a good guy.
Thank you.
When did you figure it out? When did you bust me? A little bit after we were running the saw.
[Saw buzzing.]
I know you're really Bill Peduto.
What say what? When we were trying to cut that tree The chain saws.
Yeah.
The blades.
Yeah.
Is this something you have to deal with often? I mean, yeah, pretty often.
We're gonna need to make sure that you have the equipment you need to do your job.
Yeah, absolutely.
One of the other things that you talked to me about: The hours being changed.
You really do think that it's affecting productivity.
It's easier to get there when there's not rush hour.
Well, we are gonna work with our public works director to see if we can get those hours changed.
That would be appreciated.
Thank you.
I know you lost $8,000 when I shut down your previous division, so some friends of mine are going to make up those lost wages.
Over these next two years, they're going to be contributing $15,000 to you.
Oh, my God.
Wow.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So you can be with your kids.
Thank you.
That's unbelievable.
Something else I want to do.
More than that? [Laughs.]
You told me you had to leave school before you finished your degree.
Now, I'm not sure if you know this, but the city offers a scholarship to our city employees, and they'll pay up to 70%, and my friends are going to pick up the remaining $9,000 so it won't cost you anything to get your degree.
Oh, my God.
Wow.
It's an investment, Marty.
I believe in you.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
My family thank you.
I never thought that I would ever be able to have the money or the resources to finish school and to live out my dream as being a have a college degree.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
(Marty) Absolutely more proud of Pittsburgh than ever.
My opinion of mayor Bill Peduto has changed drastically here today.
Not only am I proud to call him my mayor, but I was proud to call him my friend today.
Kelly, when I met with you, I felt that I met somebody who went beyond the job description.
Thank you.
I can call her anytime, and she's right there.
"I'll be happy to say, âbye, Nicoleâ" as long as I get invited to the housewarming.
Girl, yeah.
Personally, you're working two jobs right now.
Yes.
So the housing authority salary is not enough.
No.
Unfortunately.
Yeah.
Well, I want to help with that.
I want to congratulate you.
You've been promoted to supervisor Are you serious? And that includes a raise of $20,000.
Are you serious? Oh, my God.
You earned it.
Thank you! Thank you! Oh, my gosh.
Thank you.
You told me that you left law school to make sure that the priority went to your son.
That just was what was important.
I spoke to some friends of mine, and they want to give you $15,000 Oh, my goodness.
To get you back in law school.
Oh, my God.
Wow.
That's phenomenal.
That's life-changing for me.
You've also told me that you had made a choice to put your son into private school.
Yes.
You're not gonna have to worry about that anymore, because he's gonna have a scholarship of $20,000.
Oh, my God.
[Laughs.]
Wow.
I just got a text message from my son's school on the way over here saying tuition is due.
[Crying.]
Well, we got that covered.
I feel like I'm dreaming right now.
It's not a dream.
That changes my life.
That will help me be in a better position to be able to own our home.
That's an ultimate goal of mine, and this will absolutely help me get in that direction.
It's kind of ironic, right? You're helping people to be able to own their home, but you yourself have to rent.
Right.
That problem is going to be solved.
You're gonna be getting a check: $20,000 for the down payment and the ability to purchase.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
Oh! I don't know what to say.
"I just aside from âthank youâ" this is incredible.
Thank you.
I am so overwhelmed right now.
You've done so much for the most vulnerable of our city, and I can't wait to see what you do with the rest of your life.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my God.
This is not something that I thought I would be able to do until after my son got out of high school, and hopefully, you know, getting a scholarship to college that I would be able to do, and to know that I can do that right now, for myself and my son, just feels it's an incredible feeling.
I can't even describe this.
James, that was a lot of work.
[Grunting.]
Come on, throw it up there like you got a pair.
[Grunting.]
You took your work very seriously.
You took it very professionally.
That's what they put me out there for: To do my job.
There was one time on the trail where we had to back up all the way down to a street just to pick up two houses.
That takes a lot of time off the route.
I'm gonna find where we have these inefficiencies and then start to work to create more efficient routes.
That'd be good.
I saw your love of animals firsthand.
How many pets do you have? I have three dogs at home and three cats.
Two of them I found in the rubbish.
My aunt works at a no-kill shelter.
I took them out there, and then she helped me patch 'em up.
Well, thanks to everything you've told me, you're gonna be given a check for $5,000 for your aunt's shelter.
Wow.
She'd really appreciate that.
They could use the help out there.
You also take care of your mom.
Yes, I do.
You will be receiving $10,000 to help with her most pressing needs.
Wow.
I always like to see my mom happy.
She's been through a lot.
Now I can help take a lot of burden off her.
I don't know what to say.
I thank you.
When I had the surgery, I almost lost my house.
I'm just about ready to have a foreclosure.
I might lose it.
I got to meet with a guy tomorrow.
How much do you have to pay in order to get out of foreclosure? About 6 grand.
Well, you're going to be receiving $20,000 to get your house out of foreclosure and pay down your mortgage.
Wow.
I'm getting butterflies.
Ah I can't I don't know what to say, sir.
I don't I thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
(James) I didn't think dreams ever come true.
I mean, I feel like I got wings on my feet.
Keep doing great things.
I will.
(James) I don't have to worry so much about a lot of things now.
[Sighs.]
Lawrence, I knew I was disappointing you.
I haven't been out of my comfort zone in a long time.
Oh, okay.
(Lawrence) Other way.
Flip it around.
Took it too tight.
That's too tight.
Would you say that right now we're understaffed? Absolutely.
Okay, so here's what we're gonna do.
I want to create a program to mentor youth within our housing development areas and to give them the opportunity for a workforce development program.
Lawrence, I want you to head that.
I'd be honored.
I would be honored.
I want you to give them more than a summer job.
I want you to help give them a career.
Yes, sir.
You inspired me when we spoke.
I think you were made for this position.
Yes, sir.
Lawrence, you're a family man.
You raised your own kids, and then you and your wife brought in foster kids, and with the care that you're giving, I'm sure things get tough.
They get very tough.
Well, my friends want to give you $5,000 to help them in any way you want.
Thank you, mayor.
Thank you.
Lawrence, I know your dream is to have your own church.
Yes, sir.
I know that this is your vision.
My friends want to invest $20,000 to build your church.
[Exhales deeply.]
[Yelling.]
Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus! Oh, my God! Give me a hug.
Give me a hug.
Oh, my God! My life has totally changed today.
To have the mayor see in me what I thought was in me all the time is overwhelming.
Just totally takes you to a whole nother place.
I just feel a lot of accomplishment, a lot of purpose.
You made me cry, man.
Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, God.
Thank you, city of Pittsburgh.
Thank you, mayor, for allowing change to really begin to take place.
Oh, my God! (Announcer) Have posed as subjects on a fake show to get honest feedback from their employees.
All right.
(Announcer) It's been shocking.
[Cow moos.]
A lot of people smoke pot.
(Announcer) It's been challenging.
It's not the homeowner's fault that I get paid peanuts.
(Announcer) But it's inspired them to change their employees' lives forever.
I've decided to invest around $3 million because of you.
Thank you.
For real? Like, this is real? Without a doubt.
[Sobs.]
I am going to give you your own store.
Yay! Probably the best thing somebody ever did for me.
I have a check for $250,000.
Oh, my God.
(Announcer) Tonight the latest leader to take the plunge is Bill Peduto The mayor of Pittsburgh, one of America's most iconic cities.
Hello? I'm looking for Lawrence.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
(Announcer) By going undercover I'm ready, Marty.
All right, let's get at it.
(Announcer) The mayor will get out of city hall That's too tight.
It's not gonna move.
It's too tight.
(Announcer) To get down and dirty Like that smell? Oh, no.
Oh, come on.
It's a pretty smell.
(Announcer) And he'll meet the people who sacrifice it all to take care of the city he loves.
How many carpenters do you get working here? I'm pretty much it.
There's 400 housing units here.
There is.
It does get difficult at times because we help people buy homes, and I can't afford to buy a house right now.
Wow.
(Announcer) But what will happen when he meets a city employee who doesn't agree with his politics I'm probably out $8,000 in overtime just because of political affiliations.
(Announcer) And has suspicions about his true identity? I feel at home here.
Yeah? Let me see your hair.
What's, uh what say what? (Announcer) Find out next on Undercover Boss.
[Lively music.]
(Announcer) Known as the Steel City, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's massive steel industry built America.
World-famous for its beautiful rivers and bridges and home to the Pirates, Penguins, and the six-time super bowl champion Steelers, Pittsburgh is one of the United States' most iconic cities.
And calling the shots in this hardworking city is one man.
I am Bill Peduto, and I am the 60th mayor of the city of Pittsburgh.
My job as the mayor is to make sure that the essential services that the people need are provided in an effective, efficient, and equitable way.
- Oh, mayor? - Yep.
I need you to approve this one thing.
(Bill) Being the mayor is a 24-7 job.
- Hey.
- Hi.
In regards to Omar Hodges' funeral (Bill) Every day, my responsibilities change.
One day, I can be concentrating in on public safety and police services, the next, infrastructure, the next, finances.
Being the mayor of a major American city is like having a remote control with limitless channels.
I had a fantastic childhood.
I'm the fourth of four boys in an Italian family.
Italian [Speaking Italian.]
The mom mama's baby.
My dad was a schoolteacher, and my mom raised the four of us.
My grandfather worked all of his life at Columbia steel, and my dad's father passed away on the job at J&L Steel.
So I come from two sides of steelworkers, and we worked the mills.
Pittsburgh started out as the steel capital, a leader in the industrial revolution.
The steel that built the skyscrapers, the automobiles, and the bridges was all from right here in Pittsburgh.
We became one of the wealthiest cities in the entire United States until 1979.
That industry that we had put all of our eggs into that one basket Collapsed, and Pittsburgh died.
We had much higher unemployment than Detroit has today, and we lost more people than New Orleans lost after Katrina.
But there was no federal bailout for us; there were no programs.
The city had to pull itself up.
And over the past 30 years, that's what we've done, and we are now at that next great phase.
We've set our sails to one thing: To be the leader that other cities will follow.
My family was never involved in politics, but I had this love for government, and that's what spurred me.
I spent 20 years on the other side of the hall to then councilman, I worked hard.
I ran for mayor to clean up city government.
In 2013, I gave up my council seat to run against mayor Ravenstahl.
At that time, there were a couple different grand jury investigations.
We've cooperated from the beginning.
We'll continue to do that and, like I said, look forward to the revelation of all the facts.
(Reporter) Are you a target? That's all I'm gonna say, guys.
(Bill) The mayor withdrew from the campaign under allegations, federal investigations, and the inevitable arrest of the police chief.
And then in November, I was able to win in the primary with 84% of the vote, the largest majority in modern political history in Pittsburgh, because I had the support of the people.
I've been the mayor of Pittsburgh for ten months.
And whether it's a great day and you get to celebrate this wonderful city of Pittsburgh or whether it's a really rough day and you're dealing with homicide and infrastructure that's falling apart, I realize every day that I go to work that this will be the best job I have in my life Appreciate it.
I'm single.
I don't have kids.
Just make sure that Tim calls the P.
G.
about it.
You know, earlier in life, I started putting everything towards career.
I just did what I felt I needed to do at that time to get where I am today, and I'm happy where I am today.
Hi, Tina.
So you got your work cut out for you.
Yeah, what are we doing today? Everything that I have right now, think the opposite.
Totally different.
All right.
In the past ten months, we've made a lot of changes.
I want to go undercover to see if these changes are actually having an effect and to hear directly from the employees themselves.
I haven't had long hair, gray hair, or a wig.
While I'm undercover, I'm gonna be posing as Ed, a reality show contestant from Loretto, Kentucky.
Definitely.
Oh, yeah.
We promised the people that we would clean up city government.
We have to reverse the low morale from the previous administration and let the workers themselves believe they're part of the solution.
[Country rock music.]
Today I'm gonna be working with our environmental services department A refuse worker.
The basics of city government comes down to public safety and public works.
And if you're not picking the trash up right, chances are you're not doing anything else right either.
I want to learn firsthand how we can make it better.
Is James here? Yep.
Hey, James, I'm Ed.
[Hoarsely.]
I'm Jim.
How you doing? Nice to meet you.
They call me âwhispersâ 'cause I had throat cancer.
Your friends must have a funny sense of humor.
When I first saw this guy, thought he was a redneck by his beard and long hair.
But I'm probably just as much a redneck as him.
[Laughs.]
Let's get out of here.
Let's go get some rubbish.
Kind of tight up here.
(James) Ed, this is Lonnie.
Lonnie, this is Ed.
(Bill) Yep, all right.
I'm a little bit nervous about the physical part.
I've been working out this year, but putting in a full day is going to be interesting.
I brought Tylenol.
(James) All right, this is gonna be our first stop.
Ready, Grizzly Adams? That's your new nickname, Ed.
I've been growing this since I was in high school.
Grab that can.
Got it.
(James) Don't give it no mercy, 'cause it ain't alive.
[Laughter.]
[Grunts.]
(James) All right, the lord gave you two hands.
Use 'em both.
Oh, what in the hell did they put in here? Smells pretty, don't it? This is a little bit more work than I was expecting.
I keep stretching.
I'm using my legs.
Come on.
Throw it up there like you got a pair.
Oh, shoot.
Like that smell? Oh, no.
[Laughs.]
No, no, no.
Aw, come on.
It's a pretty smell.
(Bill) I got garbage hands.
And I got this hair in my mouth.
And I want to pull the hair back, but I don't want garbage hands to get the hair out of my mouth.
Smells pretty, don't it? Whoo! Take a good whiff.
[Grunts.]
(James) Oh, sound like you're getting old.
(Bill) I know.
(James) Come on.
You ain't that old.
He needs to pick up his pace a little bit.
He's a little slow, like a snail.
Hey, you gonna back up? I'm making sure he ain't a girly girl.
When he leaves here today, he's gonna be sore.
Whoo! Legs on fire yet? Yep.
(Bill) Trucking up those hills Oh, man.
It's impossible.
You'll feel it tomorrow.
Oh, I'm feeling it today.
(James) The reason we have to back up there and get two stops there There's a border where Wilkinsburg and the city separate.
So you pick up 2 houses and leave 20 houses, and you pick 'em up another day? No, another rubbish company picks them up.
So this is Wilkinsburg.
Yeah, and then on that side And this is Pittsburgh.
(James) Yep.
And two different companies come two different days to pick up the garbage.
Yep.
That's a little crazy.
(Bill) The thing that was upsetting is the inefficiency of having to back up and go down an entire road in order Just to pick up two houses and not to have a cooperation agreement with the neighboring municipality.
What we need to do is find a way to create route-smart systems with our neighboring bureaus.
Up here, we have a couple doggies I feed.
I don't know if they'll be out.
But I usually leave 'em biscuits.
And what are you barking at, huh? Oh, my goodness.
He's so bad.
I have a little pit bull I found out here in the rubbish.
Rescued him.
My dream is just to get my house paid off and have a bunch of animals.
Yeah.
If I ever had a chance like you, to win the money, I'd donate a bunch of money to the no-kill shelter.
When did you first find out that you had throat cancer? How many years ago? Five years.
Never smoked a day in my life.
My mom had the same thing.
How do you hold yourself together? I have to for my mom.
My mom's all I got.
My mom's always been there for me.
That's why I try to keep strong.
You know? (Bill) My mom is the pillar of my life, so there's a lot in common between me and whispers.
All right, I guess the truck's full.
We're gonna head to the landfill, teach you out there how to dump.
Well, let's go dump.
All right.
Go ahead, Lonnie.
Fire her up.
(Bill) He's a big guy with a big heart.
And he's spreading that love to wherever he can find it.
Those are the type of guys I want to make sure that we keep.
(Announcer) Coming up That's too tight.
It's not gonna move.
It's too tight.
(Announcer) The mayor's carpentry skills are put to the test.
Hold it.
Whoo! I almost lost my finger.
Yeah, we don't want to do that.
(Announcer) And later I'm probably out $8,000 in overtime just because of political affiliations.
(Announcer) He meets a worker who has suspicions about his true identity.
I feel at home here.
Yeah? Yeah.
Let me see your hair.
What's, uh what say what? [Upbeat music.]
(Bill) Today I'm in the hill district in Bedford dwellings.
I'll be working with a carpenter from the housing authority.
We have to have affordable housing for people.
It's what gives people an opportunity to break out of poverty.
It gives people that sense of pride, that they want to be able to succeed.
Hello? I'm looking for Lawrence.
I'm Ed.
Hey, Ed, how you doing? I'm Lawrence.
Nice to meet you.
I'm gonna be with you today.
What I do is pretty much I fix doors, cabinets.
I hang kitchens, countertops This is your office.
This is one of my offices.
All right.
Today what we're gonna be focusing on There's a vacant unit across the street.
We're gonna build a door here that we're gonna install over there when we get there.
Have you ever hung a door before? Never built Never hung a door before.
All right, here we go.
We have a 30-inch door over here.
(Bill) Yep.
So what we're gonna do is, we're gonna cut this door down to 29 5/8.
I'm gonna show you how to do this, and then I'm gonna let you do it, okay? Put this at 29 5/8, right where I want it.
Hold that tight here.
Okay.
Push this lever down.
Lock it in.
Then you lay it on.
When you're cutting this, you want to make sure you're flush over there.
You stay tight over there, your cut has to be good.
Understand? Yep.
Okay.
Now I'm gonna let you do it, okay? Well, I got to loosen it.
And I'm measuring from Let me think.
Let me think.
Other way.
Flip it around.
Come on, baby.
There we go.
Open nope.
Listen.
Listen, that's too tight.
It's not gonna move.
It's too tight.
There you go.
Come on, now.
I showed you.
And now, 5/8 See what you got.
You are not at 5/8.
You're at 1/2 heavy.
You're at 9/16.
You need to be over there.
Right.
So loosen that and just bump it a little bit.
Just a little bit, not a lot.
Is it this line right here Or this line right here? (Lawrence) Ed, I think he's really uncomfortable in a carpenter shop.
I think he's really uncomfortable with drills and saws.
Hold it.
Whoo! I almost lost my finger.
Yeah, we don't want to do that.
This is not Ed's normal environment.
[Drill whirring.]
Careful.
Careful.
Got to be dead on it.
Okay, I'm gonna finish this part, okay? All right.
Ed is not a carpenter.
Can I help you carry it? You can carry it.
All right.
There's a unit across the street right over here.
That's where we're taking this.
(Bill) How many carpenters do you get working here in this area? I'm pretty much it.
They told me there's There is.
You're in charge of 400 housing units? (Lawrence) [Laughs.]
They're looking for it to be quick with one guy.
Couldn't you hire one of these young kids out here and teach them and make them a carpenter? See, that's one of those things that we suggest.
Yeah? But it ends up being, âif we have to get somebody else, "what do we need you forâ" yeah.
(Bill) Kids that live here could be trained to learn his trade, as a carpenter.
He'd not only be able to have the help that he needs but at the same time, create the opportunity for a young person living in public housing to have a career.
[Drill rattles.]
[Clicking.]
That's a door.
That's it.
So look, we're gonna get some water? Yeah.
You like your job? I like my job.
I really, really do.
But, you know, I don't want to build structures anymore.
I want to build people now.
I do ministry.
I'm licensed.
I'm ordained.
So I would like to see myself running my own ministry.
What stops you from doing that right now? The last part of it is getting a church.
So I more want to fix people now.
You know, my wife and I are fostering kids right now.
There are children out here that are raising themselves.
They don't feel safe.
You know, my life, even, was like that for a period of time.
And I ended up getting strung out on drugs.
Really? Yeah.
Yeah, really.
What kind of drugs? Crack cocaine.
Oh, man.
And that was the thing that ended up, you know, basically almost punching my ticket.
You know, I went to, like, 18 rehabs.
Wow.
How did you find the courage to quit? I got tired of hurting.
I got tired I got tired of being in pain.
And I got tired of putting people in pain who loved me.
Yeah.
And now all my mistakes, all my mess-up, all my mess, has now become my message.
Yeah.
And it is the thing now that is causing me to be effective in other people's lives.
If I can get one person to make a different decision than I did, if I can get one kid to not go down the road that I went down, then it is totally worth all of it.
(Bill) So many city employees, they're involved in people's lives well beyond whatever their job is.
They're the civic glue that holds the city together.
Without people like Lawrence, no city could operate.
And I am very proud of the employees that are a part of our team.
We got a lot of work to get done still in that unit.
So why don't we head back over to the unit, all right? [Upbeat acoustic music.]
(Bill) Today I'll be working with the city's forestry division.
When we took office in January, we cleaned house within public works, and we eliminated many positions.
We can do reports to tell us about the health of our urban forest, but I need to know about the health of the people working there in order to make sure that we meet our mission to create the greatest urban forest in the United States.
I'm looking for Marty.
Hey, how you doing? Are you Marty? I'm Marty.
How are you, bro? Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
I'm Ed Chadwick.
So what we're gonna do today, we're gonna be working in the park.
We're gonna chop some trees.
All right.
And later, we're gonna go clean a field.
Are you ready? I'm ready, Marty.
All right, let's get at it, brother.
One, two, three.
(Marty) All right? Yep.
Did you go to school in the city? I went to north catholic high school, which is in the city, and then I continued education, and when I was about when I was 20, I was actually assaulted with brass knuckles.
I was put in the hospital for, like, two months.
They almost I almost died.
Didn't really have the money to go back to school, so just decided to not go that route.
Probably a bad mistake.
It was the worst mistake I ever made.
But, you know, it, uh Mistakes are only decisions you make that are permanent.
But wouldn't have met my wife or had my children probably so.
I don't regret it.
But it would have been nice to finish.
Would have made life easier.
And now, your kids, are they in school? They will go to a catholic school after next year, once we're a little more financially stable.
How much does it cost to go to a catholic school? $3,200 per one child and $6,000 for three, so Wow.
But, yeah, I look into everything.
I try to make a little bit of a future for my kids.
That's all that matters to me.
You think you'll stay in Pittsburgh? I'll stay in Pittsburgh till the day I die.
Yeah.
I'll never leave.
I love this city.
Let's hop out.
Gonna show you a little bit about what we do here every day.
Thank you.
(Marty) You see all the other trees have leaves? (Bill) Yeah.
(Marty) This one's dead.
We get a good breeze, what it'll do is, it'll just fall over.
So we're gonna go cut us an ash tree.
Do you have any experience on a chain saw? Very little, from my grandpa.
Very little? Okay.
Shove on this one.
Bring the safety hatch in, okay? Okay.
Choke button is here.
Pull the choke up.
Hand on the trigger.
Sure.
[Motor puttering.]
[Metal clanking.]
Here, let's see.
There, you can set it down, if you want to do one knee.
That's a little bigger saw.
[Metal clanking.]
[Saws buzzing.]
(Marty) Wasn't as good as I thought he was gonna be on the saw from being from the backcountry.
Just make a nice line here and cut straight up into the tree.
[Saw buzzing.]
Here.
Let me show you real quick.
When you work the saw, work it this way, not this way.
I was trying to give him directions, see if he would respond to them.
He didn't respond the greatest to them.
[Saw buzzing.]
Bring it in.
Let the saw do the work.
(Marty) The way he's carrying himself, the way he doesn't really know how to run or do anything, you could tell maybe he's an office type of person.
But I don't know.
[Wood splintering and cracking.]
Good job, man.
Thanks.
So the saws are dull.
Sometimes we don't The city doesn't always have the budget to order us new blades or new saws.
How old are these? They're a couple years old.
The blades are worn.
So if you want to start and just cut some of these branches (Bill) Marty's right.
Those blades are dull.
It makes the work twice as hard.
All right.
Now, so on these branches, we could throw these over here.
So what made you want to make the change, man, to do this? Been thinking about it for about 20 years of my life.
Why never before? Never really had the opportunity.
I guess I say that, but part of it's true.
(Marty) There's just something Something that's off about what he looks like, the way he's built to be a backcountry guy and don't know how to do any of this stuff, so I'm a little suspicious of everything going on now.
You could fit in Pittsburgh with your hair and bandanna.
I feel at home here.
Yeah? Yeah.
Do you like your job? I love my job.
But, you know, I mean, it's not all what it's crac toe sometimes here.
So a lot of political stuff goes on.
At one point, I worked for a branch of public works that all we did was green lots.
You know what I mean? If there was an abandoned house that was ripped down, we'd go in; we'd plant nice plants.
Now with the new mayor, that stuff got cut out.
(Bill) In Pittsburgh politics, the Hatfields and the Mccoys are my administration and the previous administration.
Marty was hired by the previous administration to work in a crew that was selected because they were friends of the mayor.
We disbanded that operation.
You know, I'm probably out $8,000 in overtime and extra pay, so I'm out painting all the time on the side.
I run a small company.
Why'd they cut out Just because of political affiliations, you know? (Bill) Here's a person sitting next to me who doesn't respect me not trying to help him.
It made me wonder if he knows and he's just sort of prodding me along.
In a big city, a lot of stuff is politics.
Doesn't matter if you're qualified or do a good job at your job.
[Scoffs.]
It made me feel uncomfortable.
Ed, I got to tell you, I know you're really Bill Peduto.
What's, uh what say what? Ed, I got to tell you, I know you're really Bill Peduto.
What's, uh what say what? Yeah? What? So what? Let me see your hair.
You're the mayor of the city of Pittsburgh.
I'd know you to see anywhere.
Yeah? He's the height, the weight.
I know his eyes.
I've seen him at 20 different political events.
Yeah, you busted me, brother.
Yeah.
It's a pleasure, you working with us.
So you are on Undercover Boss.
There's a reason I wanted to do this, and it was really to get to know what could I be doing better.
A big thing, I know, with some of the workers in things that have gone on here lately has been the hours switch from 6:00 to 2:00 to 7:00 to 3:30.
I've had to switch from this job to the fourth division because of the hours 'cause I can't afford to get care for my kids, even if it's for two hours out of the day.
Is there a reason that they said Of course, they're saying productivity, but in the morning You're in rush hour.
It doesn't matter.
Yeah, you're in rush hour anyway.
Yep.
(Bill) The hours that we've changed for our workers has an effect on morale.
Also, we could actually become more productive if we were to consider going back to the 6:00 to 2:00 shift.
That's something that I'm gonna have to investigate.
Other than that, there's nothing really I have to say about it.
You know what I mean? I'll see what I can do.
Yeah, that would be great.
I promise you that.
(Bill) Marty's the type of person that we need in city government.
It doesn't matter what political side you're on.
If your heart is in doing the right thing and you work hard, there's a place for everyone at that table.
All right.
Marty, thank you today.
Yeah, no, thank you.
I appreciate it, man.
Takes a lot of guts to come down and do that.
Thank you.
Let's hop down.
Don't get hurt.
(Bill) Today I am in the historic hill district of the city of Pittsburgh, where I'll be with a self-sufficiency coordinator in the Pittsburgh housing authority.
Hi.
I'm Ed.
Hi.
I'm looking for Kelly.
(Bill) A self-sufficiency coordinator helps people break the chains of poverty.
How they do that, I really don't know, and I'm gonna have an opportunity to learn.
Miss Kelly? You have someone here for you.
Hi.
Are you Kelly? Hi.
I am.
And you are? I'm Ed Chadwick.
Come on in.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
Have a seat.
Thank you.
Family self-sufficiency is it is what it is: Helping people become self-sufficient.
We have a lot of hardworking people that live here in our communities and just need that little extra push, and that's what I do, give them that extra push.
I got you.
All right, we're going to do two home visits today.
All righty.
First young lady is Nicole.
You ready? I'm ready.
All right.
(Bill) Oh, I thought the clients would be coming to us, not that we'd be making house calls.
Never done this before, and I'm really nervous, but that's the type of hands-on approach I want to see.
(Nicole) Hi, miss Kelly.
How you doing? Hey, Nicole.
How are you? Come in.
Thanks.
How you doing today? I'm okay.
Great.
So a couple things that I did bring with me today.
One of the things I looked at was your escrow savings account.
Ed, what we do is set aside money every month in an escrow savings account on Nicole's behalf to help her with any further goals.
You create the nest egg.
We create the nest egg.
We want to help anybody who wants to help themselves.
So in your escrow savings account, there is $929.
That's a good little Yeah.
Good little start.
[Laughter.]
(Bill) There was a companionship basically between her and Nicole, and I love that.
Nicole's not her client.
Nicole is her friend.
Miss Nicole is one of my hardworking folks.
So you're just wanting a job.
Yeah, just want a job so I can maintain and take care of my son.
He's 14 years old.
I have a 15-year-old son, so I relate to Nicole in that, 'cause I'm a single parent as well.
Has Kelly been helpful? Very helpful.
I could call her anytime, and she's right there âNicole!â she knows I'm calling.
"I'll be happy to say, âbye, Nicoleâ" as long as I get invited to the housewarming.
Girl, yeah.
It takes a certain person to be able to do Kelly's job.
Unless you can empathize and have an ability to actually feel what that person's feeling, I don't know how successful you could be in this job, and Kelly's got that.
Do you think you're gonna be able to help her? Oh, absolutely.
My walk is maybe different than Nicole's, but, you know, at the end of the day, our goals are the same.
We want, you know, success for our kids and to be able to live comfortably, and, you know, it does get difficult at times because we help people buy homes, and because of the sacrifices that I'm making financially for my son to be in private school, I can't afford to buy a house right now.
Wow.
Which is, you know How much does that end up costing you? It is $10,200 per year.
$10,200 per year.
It's like sending him to college.
Yes, it is.
So I do I work two jobs.
Oh.
It's hard.
I imagine.
It's hard.
It drains you.
But he's my priority, and I just feel like it's my responsibility to give him the best start possible.
But actually I am up for a promotion at work, and if, in fact, I am promoted, then I won't have to work a second job.
What have you had to sacrifice for you in order to give your son that type of education? I have, for a long time, wanted to go back to law school.
But that has to be on the back burner, 'cause it's just real important that he gets what he needs right now.
You put the priority on your boy.
Right.
Absolutely.
So the next young lady, she is in her 40s, and she cannot find a job because she doesn't have her G.
E.
D.
We have a G.
E.
D.
instructor that provides instruction, and she's made leaps and bounds, but her mom passed away.
Oh, jeez.
So she sort of lost some of her drive to get it done.
So we're going to meet (Kelly) Onessa.
[Knocking at door.]
It's Kelly.
How you doing? Hi! How you doing? Good.
(Onessa) Okay.
(Kelly) So Ed's working with me today, and so what I thought would be neat is if we let him do this home visit.
Okay.
We're gonna see if I can do it.
That's for sure.
Good luck with that.
Well, Kelly told me on the ride up you lost your mama recently.
Yeah, I lost my mom a few weeks ago, so I'm kind of alone.
(Bill) Yep.
Except for my kids.
Oh, there he is.
Hey, Jamont.
This is my son Jamont.
Ed Chadwick.
Jamont.
Nice to meet you.
No, you got somebody like Kelly who's gonna help you.
You're lucky.
She's great.
I am lucky.
She tells me she's proud of me all the time, and she always tells me about my progress, and so I'm so grateful, because if it hadn't have been for Kelly and the program, I might not be where I'm at right now.
(Bill) What I'm proud of is that there are people like Kelly who do her job People that find the resources to help people that otherwise wouldn't get help.
People like Kelly prove the worth of government workers every day.
You know, your mama would be really proud of you, to know that you keep moving on even though she's not here to help you, and I would say that once you get that G.
E.
D.
, you're gonna have a foundation that you don't even know right now, and those other dreams are gonna become easier.
Okay.
Sounds good.
Sounds good.
That's what we do.
We never give up.
(Bill) Today's visit with Kelly was, I would say, the best visit that I've had.
Instead of doing the other jobs of picking up garbage or cutting trees, we dealt with people and the real-life problems that keep people in poverty, and that's why I ran for office: To try and come up with solutions.
Kelly's reward is the ability that she has to make people's lives better.
That is something that Kelly and I share.
So what did you think? I think she's a real nice lady.
I think she needs a little bit of help to get that G.
E.
D.
Well, let's go on to the next stop.
All right.
(Announcer) Coming up, the employees think they're going to decide if Ed deserves to win prize money.
How will they react when he reveals his true identity? I'm Bill Peduto, the mayor of the city of Pittsburgh.
I'm also Ed.
Oh, my God! You got me good.
(Bill) I've had a wonderful undercover experience, and I had a lot of opportunity to see firsthand how our workers are going far beyond the call of duty.
I would love to be able to help every employee in the city of Pittsburgh, but the reality of it is, I'm not a corporate ceo with $1 billion to be able to give away.
In fact, I can't even use taxpayer dollars.
I had to pick up a phone and raise money from friends in order to be able to help the employees that I met this past week.
Whoa.
Hi.
Hi.
You know who I am, right? You're the mayor.
I'm the mayor.
I voted for you, yeah.
I'm Bill Peduto.
Right.
Nice to meet you, sir.
Nice to meet you.
And you worked with a guy named Ed Chadwick.
Yes.
On a scale of one to ten, how do you rank Ed's ability to do the job? Probably a five.
A five.
I give him an 8 1/2.
I got to tell you something.
I'm Bill Peduto, the mayor of the city of Pittsburgh.
Right.
I'm also Ed.
Oh, my God! Are you serious? Have you ever seen the show Undercover Boss? Yes.
I've watched it.
You're on it.
My God.
Well, you got me good.
Martin, you're a good guy.
Thank you.
When did you figure it out? When did you bust me? A little bit after we were running the saw.
[Saw buzzing.]
I know you're really Bill Peduto.
What say what? When we were trying to cut that tree The chain saws.
Yeah.
The blades.
Yeah.
Is this something you have to deal with often? I mean, yeah, pretty often.
We're gonna need to make sure that you have the equipment you need to do your job.
Yeah, absolutely.
One of the other things that you talked to me about: The hours being changed.
You really do think that it's affecting productivity.
It's easier to get there when there's not rush hour.
Well, we are gonna work with our public works director to see if we can get those hours changed.
That would be appreciated.
Thank you.
I know you lost $8,000 when I shut down your previous division, so some friends of mine are going to make up those lost wages.
Over these next two years, they're going to be contributing $15,000 to you.
Oh, my God.
Wow.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So you can be with your kids.
Thank you.
That's unbelievable.
Something else I want to do.
More than that? [Laughs.]
You told me you had to leave school before you finished your degree.
Now, I'm not sure if you know this, but the city offers a scholarship to our city employees, and they'll pay up to 70%, and my friends are going to pick up the remaining $9,000 so it won't cost you anything to get your degree.
Oh, my God.
Wow.
It's an investment, Marty.
I believe in you.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
My family thank you.
I never thought that I would ever be able to have the money or the resources to finish school and to live out my dream as being a have a college degree.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
(Marty) Absolutely more proud of Pittsburgh than ever.
My opinion of mayor Bill Peduto has changed drastically here today.
Not only am I proud to call him my mayor, but I was proud to call him my friend today.
Kelly, when I met with you, I felt that I met somebody who went beyond the job description.
Thank you.
I can call her anytime, and she's right there.
"I'll be happy to say, âbye, Nicoleâ" as long as I get invited to the housewarming.
Girl, yeah.
Personally, you're working two jobs right now.
Yes.
So the housing authority salary is not enough.
No.
Unfortunately.
Yeah.
Well, I want to help with that.
I want to congratulate you.
You've been promoted to supervisor Are you serious? And that includes a raise of $20,000.
Are you serious? Oh, my God.
You earned it.
Thank you! Thank you! Oh, my gosh.
Thank you.
You told me that you left law school to make sure that the priority went to your son.
That just was what was important.
I spoke to some friends of mine, and they want to give you $15,000 Oh, my goodness.
To get you back in law school.
Oh, my God.
Wow.
That's phenomenal.
That's life-changing for me.
You've also told me that you had made a choice to put your son into private school.
Yes.
You're not gonna have to worry about that anymore, because he's gonna have a scholarship of $20,000.
Oh, my God.
[Laughs.]
Wow.
I just got a text message from my son's school on the way over here saying tuition is due.
[Crying.]
Well, we got that covered.
I feel like I'm dreaming right now.
It's not a dream.
That changes my life.
That will help me be in a better position to be able to own our home.
That's an ultimate goal of mine, and this will absolutely help me get in that direction.
It's kind of ironic, right? You're helping people to be able to own their home, but you yourself have to rent.
Right.
That problem is going to be solved.
You're gonna be getting a check: $20,000 for the down payment and the ability to purchase.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
Oh! I don't know what to say.
"I just aside from âthank youâ" this is incredible.
Thank you.
I am so overwhelmed right now.
You've done so much for the most vulnerable of our city, and I can't wait to see what you do with the rest of your life.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my God.
This is not something that I thought I would be able to do until after my son got out of high school, and hopefully, you know, getting a scholarship to college that I would be able to do, and to know that I can do that right now, for myself and my son, just feels it's an incredible feeling.
I can't even describe this.
James, that was a lot of work.
[Grunting.]
Come on, throw it up there like you got a pair.
[Grunting.]
You took your work very seriously.
You took it very professionally.
That's what they put me out there for: To do my job.
There was one time on the trail where we had to back up all the way down to a street just to pick up two houses.
That takes a lot of time off the route.
I'm gonna find where we have these inefficiencies and then start to work to create more efficient routes.
That'd be good.
I saw your love of animals firsthand.
How many pets do you have? I have three dogs at home and three cats.
Two of them I found in the rubbish.
My aunt works at a no-kill shelter.
I took them out there, and then she helped me patch 'em up.
Well, thanks to everything you've told me, you're gonna be given a check for $5,000 for your aunt's shelter.
Wow.
She'd really appreciate that.
They could use the help out there.
You also take care of your mom.
Yes, I do.
You will be receiving $10,000 to help with her most pressing needs.
Wow.
I always like to see my mom happy.
She's been through a lot.
Now I can help take a lot of burden off her.
I don't know what to say.
I thank you.
When I had the surgery, I almost lost my house.
I'm just about ready to have a foreclosure.
I might lose it.
I got to meet with a guy tomorrow.
How much do you have to pay in order to get out of foreclosure? About 6 grand.
Well, you're going to be receiving $20,000 to get your house out of foreclosure and pay down your mortgage.
Wow.
I'm getting butterflies.
Ah I can't I don't know what to say, sir.
I don't I thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
(James) I didn't think dreams ever come true.
I mean, I feel like I got wings on my feet.
Keep doing great things.
I will.
(James) I don't have to worry so much about a lot of things now.
[Sighs.]
Lawrence, I knew I was disappointing you.
I haven't been out of my comfort zone in a long time.
Oh, okay.
(Lawrence) Other way.
Flip it around.
Took it too tight.
That's too tight.
Would you say that right now we're understaffed? Absolutely.
Okay, so here's what we're gonna do.
I want to create a program to mentor youth within our housing development areas and to give them the opportunity for a workforce development program.
Lawrence, I want you to head that.
I'd be honored.
I would be honored.
I want you to give them more than a summer job.
I want you to help give them a career.
Yes, sir.
You inspired me when we spoke.
I think you were made for this position.
Yes, sir.
Lawrence, you're a family man.
You raised your own kids, and then you and your wife brought in foster kids, and with the care that you're giving, I'm sure things get tough.
They get very tough.
Well, my friends want to give you $5,000 to help them in any way you want.
Thank you, mayor.
Thank you.
Lawrence, I know your dream is to have your own church.
Yes, sir.
I know that this is your vision.
My friends want to invest $20,000 to build your church.
[Exhales deeply.]
[Yelling.]
Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus! Oh, my God! Give me a hug.
Give me a hug.
Oh, my God! My life has totally changed today.
To have the mayor see in me what I thought was in me all the time is overwhelming.
Just totally takes you to a whole nother place.
I just feel a lot of accomplishment, a lot of purpose.
You made me cry, man.
Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, God.
Thank you, city of Pittsburgh.
Thank you, mayor, for allowing change to really begin to take place.