Akron City Council rejects mayor's plan to change how police and fire chiefs are picked

Akron Mayor Shammas Malik's plan to change how the city hires the heads of its safety forces fizzled out in front of Akron City Council on Monday.

Council rejected putting Malik's proposed city charter amendment on the November ballot in a 7-to-4 vote, removing the opportunity for Akron residents to decide for themselves the merits of the amendment.

The proposed amendment would have defined the city's authority to include external candidates for consideration for the roles of chief and deputy chief in Akron's police and fire departments.

The proposal also would have removed the four-year term accompanying the chief role, instead making it an at-will position at the mayor's pleasure.

Additionally, it would have expanded eligibility to anyone, internal or external, "regardless of rank or years of service," and officially moved the chiefs from classified employees to unclassified employees in the mayor's cabinet. However, applicants would still be subject to eligibility qualifications set by the city's human resources director.

Council president advocates for full charter review

Council President and Ward 3 Councilwoman Margo Sommerville said while she was against the amendment, she is committed "to make sure that the conversation continues" with a full review of the charter.

"I do believe there's a lot of change that needs to happen in the city of Akron, but I'm also in favor of making sure that we get it right and we take our time," Sommerville said, adding that she'd asked the mayor to take more time considering how the charter can be altered.

"If we're serious, let's take some time, let's expand our committee — less of us elected officials and more community — so that come next November 2025, we can really present something to the community that's going to bring about real change, not something that's going to give false hope, not something that's going to be oversold and we can't deliver on," Sommerville said.

At one point, she compared the current charter amendment process to what she sees as the broken promises of Issue 10, the referendum approved by voters in 2022 that created the Citizens' Police Oversight Board.

The lack diversity at the top of the city's safety forces, she said, could be solved through "intentional" recruitment of Black officers and giving them with the support they need to rise through the ranks.

"That's the other thing that we're not talking about," she said. "Why is it that African Americans aren't making it through the process? Why are they not making it through the background checks? There's a lot of issues and things that we need to talk about."

In an emailed statement, Malik said: "I respect the role of City Council and, despite the outcome, I am grateful for the many conversations we’ve had over the past several weeks. I strongly believe in the merit of this proposed amendment as well as the voters’ right to decide on this change.

"Over more than 200 days in this administration, we’ve created a lateral hiring process to attract officers from other departments and improve staffing, launched a co-responder program to improve our responses to certain mental health calls, and made meaningful progress on the future location of the police station.  Our administration will continue working to improve our hiring processes and advancing public safety.”

Why was a charter amendment being considered?

Malik introduced the amendment in the wake of a controversial search for a new police chief.

In the early days of the search, Akron's law department determined there was a conflict between hiring practices outlined in the city charter and state law.

The mayor's decision to hire a new police chief from within the department rather than conduct a nationwide search, coupled with the impossibility of hiring a minority candidate into the role because the deputy chiefs were white, caused some controversy.

The Black Elected Officials of Summit County were upset by how the search was playing out, and wasted no time letting the mayor know it .

At a forum held by the group, along with the Akron NAACP and the Freedom BLOC, residents also expressed their frustrations with process.

Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreider@Gannett.com or 330-541-9413

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron City Council rejects mayor's plan to change how police and fire chiefs are picked