A photo depicts Mayor Gabriel J. Campana and President Donald Trump playing pickleball and implies the words “Make America White Again.” The photo was found crumpled in the trash where it was put after City Council sent a statement decrying its placement in the mayor’s secretary’s office in City Hall. MARK MARONEY/Sun-Gazette

An altered photograph depicting Mayor Gabriel J. Campana playing pickleball with President Donald Trump and implying the words “Make America White Again” earned disdain from City Council, which demanded the photo’s removal on Wednesday.

The material, displayed in the mayor’s secretary’s office, immediately was taken down after council sent a joint statement to Campana.

The mayor said his office was sent the photograph without the offensive words attached.

“I am pro-multiculture,” he said. “My children are bi-racial, Asian and American, and I would never condone anything like that and I won’t tolerate any racist comments,” he said. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” referring to the words on the photo.

Council said there was no reason why such material should be on the wall of a government building.

“How this material found its way to a prominent, public space in the administrative suite of the mayor in City Hall defies all reason, good values and any semblance of sound judgment,” reads the statement, which Councilman Randy Allison confirmed was issued by council as a whole.

“The existence of this material in the halls of our municipal government tarnishes our city’s past history of support for diverse cultural centers of people that helped form the city,” the statement said.

“It also negatively affects present efforts to create a city whose people value treating each other with respect and understanding and that seek to recognize our commonalities regardless of differences,” council said.

Campana said the complaints are bogus because he knew nothing about the phrase attached to the picture.

His secretary said she considered the photo and the phrase “a joke.”

However, Robert Iacuzio Jr., of Williamsport, said he created the image in 2016, including the lettering in the background, in response to Campana’s declaration of support for Trump and in the wake of his decision to replace basketball courts with pickleball courts in Memorial Park.

An image Iacuzio provided to the Sun-Gazette, shows the exact photo posted to his Facebook account, time-stamped March 5, 2016.

“This picture was made as a satirical commentary on our mayor’s inability to understand his community,” Iacuzio said. “I included the banner behind them that clearly says ‘Make America White Again’ as a jab at that Memorial Park situation, which I viewed as a backhandedly racist initiative and not in the best interests of the city. It was my hope that anybody who viewed it would see it as an indictment on Campana’s accomplishments as mayor.

“The fact that the mayor or anyone in his office viewed this as funny or complimentary in any way just shows you how tone deaf his inner circle is to the needs and complaints of his own community,” he added. “I’m honestly in shock that I’m even discussing this over two years later.”

Ironically, the mayor was invited to a meeting of the nation’s mayors to hear the president and meet with his staff earlier this year.

Sun-Gazette staffer Katelyn Hibbard contributed to this report.