Mayor Martin O'Malley presented his retiring finance director, Peggy J. Watson, with the first Richard A. Lidinsky Sr. Award yesterday for excellence in public service.
Friends and family members of Watson and Lidinsky gathered in the City Hall rotunda to honor both longtime public employees for their commitment.
Lidinsky died last December. He had served as deputy comptroller under eight Baltimore mayors. A plaque in his honor was installed on the rotunda wall.
Watson's name will be the first added to the plaque. Yesterday O'Malley praised her efforts as finance director, a position he coaxed her out of retirement to take when he was elected in 1999. She had worked for the finance department since 1976 before retiring in 1997. She is retiring again early next month.