Nicknamed "Honest Pete" because he refused to take city funds from financial decisions made as Treasurer, he broke from the tradition of his predecessors.

Kiołbassa came from the Silesian village of Świbie with his family when he was 17 years old,[2] arriving in the town of Panna Maria, Texas, which was a new Polish immigrant settlement.

In 1888, he ran as a Democrat for alderman of Chicago's 16th Ward, which contained a highly Polish constituency, against Republican August Kowalski, another Pole.

Reportedly, organizing the church alongside his police duties had been so difficult, he took a year off, in 1871–72, and moved back to Panna Maria, Texas.

Kiołbassa served in the Customs Department, and in 1891, he ran for Chicago Treasurer, as a part of a slate of Democratic candidates, making him the first Pole in that position.

His public image tarnished, Carter Harrison IV (the mayor of Chicago) defended Kiołbassa, saying he had been "scandalously wronged" by problems that occurred under his predecessors' watch.