City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. We're going to call the meeting for Akran City Council to order. At this time, our clerk will read the role. Olden I. Boy, hi. Connor, hi. Davis, hi. Busco, hi. Garrett, present. Hannah, hi. Kr, hi. Lombardo, hi McKitrich. I Amobian I Somerville I Wilson I

All members are present. Thank you. For those who voluntarily wish to do so, would you please stand at this time as we're led in prayer by Dr. Peggy Holmes, ordained elder of the Firstborn Church of the Living God. Immediately following our prayer, I'm going to ask if Councilwoman Amobian will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Gracious Father, we are so grateful again for this day. For this is a day that we will never see again. But we come into your presence at this time asking for your blessings upon the city council of the city of Akran. And we pray, Father God, that you will give them guidance and directions as they make decisions to make a decision for the city of Akran. Help us to hear your voice and lean not to our own understanding but in all our ways. Help us to understand and lean and depend on you. Bless them. Give them wisdom. Give them direction. Oh God. Let them know today that they are your servants and they serve the people that you most love. Bless us today and we will be blessed. keep us and we will be kept and we'll ever be mindful to give your name the glory, the honor and the praise in your immaculate name, Jesus. Amen.

Amence to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The minutes from our previously held meeting have been provided. Are there any additions or corrections? Motion to approve. Is there a second? All in favor signify by saying I. I. I.

The motion to approve the minutes passes 13 to zero. Okay, before we move into our regular scheduled agenda, we do want to take one item out of order on our new legislation number five. And I'm going to ask if our clerk can read that in. Item number five, offered by Mayor Mollik and Councilwoman Davis, resolution congratulating city employee Melvin Blake for his selection as the recipient of the 2026 NFHS Ohio Service Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to intercolastic athletics and declaring an emergency. Councilwoman Connor,

we're proud of Mr. played in all of his work um bringing the um softball tournament to a played at the Firestone Stadium. Um he's been with the city for quite a long time. Formerly at Mason at the community center where I was had the pleasure to meet him a number of years ago. Um our committee report is favorable and we're asking for suspension of the rules.

Are there any objections to suspension of the rules? Seeing and hearing none, the rules have been suspended. Councilman Davis, do you have something you like to add? Yeah, I just want to echo what I said this afternoon over there. Congratulations again on that remarkable achievement. Uh you you've been great in everything that you do since I've been on this council and I really really appreciate you. I appreciate what you're doing for the kids, you know, previously now and going forward. We really need more people like Melvin Blake. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments at this time? Councilwoman Amobian,

I'd like to congratulate you, Mr. Melvin Blake. I called your sister and I told her that I've never seen you so humble and so appreciative. Uh, his family is here. All of them are Delta girls, and I want to acknowledge that. And I talked about your mother would have been here had the weather been better. Didn't think to ask Madame President and the clerk to put your brother on virtual. I'm sure he would have had a few remarks to make. Well, congratulations and thank you for all the work that you've done and and I'm sure your sister hopefully Madam President will give her a minute to talk about the uh outstanding program in in Dayton this weekend where they celebrated you in Dayton. So, thank you so much for your work.

Thank you, Councilman Fusco. Just really quick, uh had the pleasure of working with Melvin Blake uh a num just a couple years ago, a long time ago. And the thing about Melvin is is that he kind of epitomizes uh what we look for in a civil servant. Um he in the recreation bureau, many folks in the city are like this. Some may not be, but you go to them with a problem or you go to him with an idea and they say, "Yeah, how do we do that? Let's roll up our sleeves, figure it out, and get it done." And that's the exact kind of guy you are. And we're blessed to have somebody like that on our team. Thanks.

Thank you. Any other comments? Councilman Hannah. Thank you, Madam President. Uh this afternoon I did speak about Mr. Blake and uh all the accolades that you've received. You deserve more than that and thank you for all that you've done for the city of Akran.

Thank you, Councilman Garrett. Uh thank you Madam President for the opportunity uh to speak today about uh an amazing individual. Um a lot of times we talk about uh having role models in a community. Uh there's one quote that I really like. Although it's easy to dream, it is hard to achieve that which you have never seen. What Mr. Blake has done for the people in our community, for those little young black boys to see a black man do some of the phenomenal things. And it's not just a black man. It It's for the white, brown, everybody get a chance to see an amazing individual, but for the most part, we always see a lot of blacks in entertainment, sports, but this is a gentleman who has the recreation in mind for our young kids. So, it's amazing what you're doing. I'm so happy, proud, and uh the community is is standing up clapping for for your achievement today. So, thank you, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Councilman Garrett. Any other comments? So, we do have Mr. Blake's award here. What I'm just going to read it says state award for outstanding service. And Mr. Blake, we want to congratulate you. We want to thank you for all your hard work, your dedication. Again, as a war council person, I appreciate you more than you know. I'm always calling with complaints and again you're solving them and you know getting things handled. Again, thank you so much and we would love an opportunity to hear from you.

Well, um I'm not the speaker in my family. The speaker in my family is sitting back there. My brother, he's the guy who does all the speaking. But uh I just want to thank you all for the opportunity of receiving this recognition. Uh we do a lot of work over at Firestone Stadium uh with the help of uh a lot of people. Uh Chris Letole and Mr. Lash and Britney Smokco have always u when I come to them with a issue or I come to them for more money to get something they seem to be able to find it for us to get it done. But just to see those young ladies who come down there to play softball from the state tournament, from the MAC tournament, from the GMAC tournament, and from all the weekend tournaments that we have down there, uh it's amazing to see their faces when they come here to uh to play ball at Firestone Stadium. So, um thank you very much. I appreciate this and um thank you Okay, council, we will move into our Oh, yes. We have to vote on the piece. You can't leave yet until we vote on it. That's the most important piece to make it official. So,

so Councilman Kar has made a motion for uh mayor and council as a whole and we have a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? The eyes have it. This resolution passes 13 to zero. Thank you. Council will now move to our public comment period. I'm going to ask all those who have signed up to participate, if you'll please stand at this time so that you may be sworn in by our clerk. Could you please raise your right hand? Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you give will be the truth? If so, please say I do. I do. Thank you.

Thank you. So just going to ask when you hear your name if you'll please approach the podium and you will have three minutes to speak to this body and we're going to begin with Abigail. Is Abigail here? How about Becky? Hey friend. Um, I sent a letter this past week to uh the members of council, but I just want to reit reiterate that I live in the village green. I don't live there. I own a home there. Um, I've moved to a condo, but my uh son has raised his family there and it might have a townage zip code, but I'm just across the street from Eastwood Pool. I've been a very good friend to uh Akran and Goodyear Heights my entire life. Um when I go out of my development, I turn to the right and I go through Goody Your Heights. So I don't see this as just a townage issue about the Eastwood tactical facility that you're bringing there. Um, this affects not only Good Heights, it affects Talmage. We're friends and we're neighbors. Um, I went to school in Akran. I worked at First Energy for 30 years. I have spent my money in Gooder Heights. I've educated my children at Enunciation School in Goodger Heights. Um, I even hosted a very large event at the Bankwood uh the bank uh when it first opened this late summer. I could have taken it to Townage, but I wanted to support the endeavors that my friend Sharon Connor is making in the East End.

Uh, and it was lovely. So, you see, I think that this tact tactical facility is not a great idea. We have the metro park all around that. You know, I sat here last week and I listened to people talk and some of them are here today and we were talking about how there was gun violence and people were getting hurt and they weren't being listened to. A baseball field butts right up to that property. So, you know, we can't control everything, but if you're going to come in there with guns and train or dogs that could get away, you have children there. We don't want to face that again. Also, you have a church on the other side of you and you have our property values that are going to go down. Not only mine across the street in Talmage, but partial of Goodger Heights, which is Ward 10 for Sharon. And I think that that needs to be looked at. I think that we could come together and help them build something, but let's not reiterate out there shooting and what's going on. I we know that Akran is not going to use this to train their uh police officers because I just read that you're going to um you're asking for $6 million in your budget for the Dan Street facility where um you uh are training people. Please, I ask you give this some thought. I've crossed the board. I've helped Sharon with her uh campaign. Jeff, I've watched you from the beginning and the dog and f fund dog and suds fundraisers back in the enunciation days and congratulations. You're retiring, but don't let this be what you've worked so hard to build in

Good Your Heights. Don't take it down. I ask all of you please to really think this through. Thank you so much, Becky, for sharing. Is Sterling Shriber here? Sterling? No, we do have uh Mayor Kilway. Hello. I'm Carol Cisano Kilway and I'm the mayor of the city of Talmage. But I am not here um representing the city of Talmage. I'm representing myself as a resident of Talmage and a resident of the neighborhood directly across the street from where this tactical training um defense education training facility is is proposed to be located at 1928 Eastwood Avenue. Um, I've lived in this neighborhood for 35 years and have been members of the Eastwood Swimming Park for years, both as a child and as a parent, where I brought my kids to the um the swimming pool and had wonderful times there. It was a great addition to the neighborhood. This um defense education training facility is not anything that is going to be cohesive to that neighborhood. It is surrounded on three sides by the metrop park. Um, as Mrs. Crow had mentioned that there is there are baseball park or baseball fields right adj adjacent to it. There's wildlife everywhere. Um, as I mentioned, I've lived there for 35 years and we have a a wonderful neighborhood with hundreds of homes and we get wildlife walking through our yards at all times. I have deer that walk through my yard almost on a nightly basis. Um, we've seen foxes. I've even had coyotes walk across my front yard. So there is wildlife that will be directly affected by this um defensive education training facility. So please, we are not Akran, we are Talmage, but we're your neighbors

and we'll be directly affected by this um facility being put into that location with the metrop parks being surrounded on three sides of it and a really wonderful neighborhood directly across from it. So please, I urge you to not allow the conditional use for the defensive education training facility. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing,

Reverend John Batty. just trying to be a good citizen. Madame President and members of the council, I just heard about this tactical training center and it reminds me of the militarization that's going on in our police departments. often advised by the Israeli um f uh people uh who are carrying out this genocide in um in um Gaza. Uh I came uh to be positive. Our United States Constitution, our individual freedoms, our rule of law are all under attack by very rich and powerful corporations and individuals. The wealth gap is greater than ever. Our very right to vote is being debated in the Senate. We must speak out. I urge all of us to call our US senators and urge them to defeat the so-called Save America Act, which is really a voter suppression act. Even more, I urge all of us to come out this Saturday, March the 28th. Think about what your plans are this Saturday. I hope it will include this most

important opportunity from 1 to 3:00 p.m. at the downtown federal building to participate along with the largest protest in American history, the No Kings Protest. Invite your family. Invite your friends, your fellow citizens. If you're going to be busy from 1 to 3:00 p.m., hopefully with something very important, go to the Crooked River Indivisible Protest from 11 to 1 this Saturday, March the 28th, at the corner of Front Street and Broad Avenue in Kyogre Falls. Make history. Save our country. Save democracy. Save respect for our constitution. Go be there. Save our country on his 250th birthday year. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Reverend Batty. Thank you. That concludes our public comment period. We do want to thank all those who took the time to come out and participate. Council, before you is the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? The eyes have it. The consent agenda passes 13 to zero. We'll now move to our old business starting with budget and finance. Councilman Lombardo. Uh, continue time please. Thank Thank you. Time will be granted. Planning and economic development. Councilman Fusco.

Time on the agenda. Thank you. Time will be granted. Public safety. Councilman McKitrich. time on the older piece and uh the piece that was had been placed on the consent agenda and pulled out uh has come out of committee today uh for a vote from council. Okay. Thank you so much. And I don't know if the clerk would like to read it again. Sure. This is a resolution in which city council and the administration commit to working together to establish a pre-activation look back requirement for all body warn cameras utilized by officers of the Akran Police Department and declaring an emergency.

Thank you. I don't know if the uh sponsors have anything they would like to say. Councilman Garrett.

Thank thank you Madam President uh for the opportunity to speak about this today. Um it is it is a pleasure to be able to be on a piece of legislation with the president of council and also the mayor uh of the city. Um I'd like to lend my support to this um 60-second look back. It is so critical that we take the opportunity to support our officers in this endeavor. Uh, one of the things that I know that our community is interested in doing is going down and becoming the police department an accredited agency. And there are 32 different standards that they would actually have to adhere to. And so it's making them better. Uh, some of those standards are um the use of force, crisis intervention, bias-free policing, uh, employee misconduct. Um, and so these are some of the things that that would make our law enforcement a lot better. in the in our city we had over 288 use of force cases. A lot of times in these cases um you have an opportunity with the 60-second look back for officers to be exonerated in these particular cases. Say they are wrongly accused for a particular situation. This is an opportunity for us to be able to look back and say, "Hey, this officer did the right thing." to be able to watch their their calm tone, how they use their verbal commands, how they're working in the community to being making it a more of a community policing as opposed to a militarized space. These things for this is this for the safety of police officers. One of the things that really helps me to really um feel comfortable with the 60-second look back is that um encouraging the professionalism, reinforcing proper procedures. These are

some of the things that we'll be able to utilize this 60-second look back. Lastly, Madame President, there's over $7 million that the police force is asking for, and I'm suggesting that they work their butts off and perhaps they deserve a lot of these funds. But when you take a look at out of the $7 million, one of the line items for $664,000 is for management, software, hardware, training. And if you read in the description, Madame President, it talks about various software solutions and upgrades. In addition to that, Madame President, one of the other items that they're asking for is for $453,000. This is for bodywn cameras. And if you read in the description, Madame President, uh, for additional infrastructure and support expansion. So, these things are sort of critical in terms of the dollar amount being able to support it. Um, I'm hoping that my colleagues see an opportunity to support our safety forces and these things that I outlined are so critical and so important to it. I hope we can get the rest of council to support it. Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you, Councilman Garrett. Councilman Lombardo.

Thank you, Madam President. Um, I do not feel comfortable with this piece of legislation. And as I said this afternoon, you know, uh we do not know the total cost that this is going to, you know, cost the city. And um you know, the more I just feel that those body wararm cameras, they're not going to be able to capture what the officer maybe saw or attended to um what he perceived, what he or she believed or physically felt as far as resistance from the the suspect. So, um, I just, you know, as I said this afternoon, the more and more we pick and pick and pick at this profession, I think that's going to hurt our, you know, hiring capabilities and our retention. So, uh, I just really feel that we should just, you know, what we have in place is sufficient. We don't have that that PEF uh, study completed yet. We don't know the results of that. So, let's just, you know, keep everything as as it is right now. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Busco.

Yeah, thank you. Um, I understand that the mayor can and does have the ability to change it from 30 to 60. That's his call. It's not our call. Um, also I'm just curious and maybe the sponsor, the primary sponsor may know just a question. Uh, can you name any situation? Um like for example I know Columbus has a longer look back but any situation where it's changed the trajectory of the investigation whenever there was a longer look back this is basically um things that occur beforehand. Um and again the uh in also mentioning uh further training for the police department. We have heard here on council the many folks that step up during the uh public comment. they would like more training and it sounds like the police department is actually uh committed to more training uh through the budget. The um excuse me and as mentioned by our uh chair of finance uh in terms of the cost for be it 30 seconds or 60 seconds whatever the mayor finds out and works with the police department on what is that cost for storage storage going to be? We don't know. We we we don't have an answer on that. But in this time during this budget when we're there's so much uncertainty around overtime, around hiring, uh there's quite a bit of uncertainty. I think uh what we should do is be very cautious about adding more uh to our budget that we we don't know the answer to.

Thank you, Councilwoman Moian.

Uh thank you, Madam President. Uh, as I indicated this afternoon, um, I don't know if we could put a price tag on the life of a human being. And I don't know how much we will learn from a look back or not. I've never heard of this. But one thing I do know is that we have purchased body wararm cameras and we know on many occasions the officers don't turn them on right away. We know that it's been reported to us repeatedly. If we can get more information about what is happening, the interaction between the officers and the citizen, I don't know why we wouldn't want to do this. and we keep framing it in such a negative way and we don't have to look at it that way. It's more information that could be helpful to the officer. Someone could be falsely accusing them and it's also information that could shed more light on what actually happened. You know, 30 seconds, one minute, whatever amount of time, it could be helpful. And I think it's worth us investing in that. But not only that, we also learned from our safety uh director last week. We don't know how much storage we will gain from some of these cases that fall off, these traffic violations that don't need much storage time. Some of those things are going to fall off. So that creates more storage space. I don't know how much it's going to cost for the additional um time if we do the look back. All I know is that anytime we can learn more about the incident that would shed more light on it and give us more information, positive, negative, whatever, it could

be very helpful. I also know that from our independent auditor, he said last week that of the cases that he has reviewed, 97% of those cases he concurs with what the officers did. So I think that speaks volumes about what he's doing and what he's learning from reviewing these cases where you have this you know use of force. So I am all for anything we can do to shed more light on the interaction and I believe you know as the as the auditor has found out it's probably more information that's on the positive side than on the negative and I think it's helpful to us to know that it's helpful to the citizens to know that and I am all for it. I don't know how much it's going to cost us, but I can't put a price on a life or any kind of physical incident. And it's not about picking on the officers. It's about learning more about these incidents that are happening. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Uh, Councilwoman Connor, thank you. Just a couple things. One, we don't know how much it's going to cost. Two, we don't know how much storage space we're going to have and how much storage space we're going to need. Three, if we're having trouble with people not turning them on, then it doesn't matter if it's 30 seconds or 60 seconds. If it's not on, it's not going to matter. So, let's look at what we're doing to make sure they get turned on first before we worry about how long we need them on. So, that's my only concern. Thank you, Councilman Davis.

Thank you, Madam President. I rise in support of this resolution and that's what it is, a resolution just to commit to working together and I think um we're at that point where we need to uh do that. I think it's good not just for the police officers but also good for the residents and so a commitment to working together is not legislation. So again, I support this. Thank you so much. Uh Council Person Wilson,

thank you. But I also rise and support and appreciate the dialogue. We've had a lot of conversations about this piece. I think some of the things that I've been hearing in conflict with this are around cost and storage and enforcement. And I would say those conversations belong with this resolution, right? Um even if you're opposed to the idea of some of the cost and things, um that's the next step. That's what happens after we pass this resolution. And I would I would implore people who even vote no on this to continue to be a part of the dialogue because we do need to look at our policy and we need to have a full breath conversation and reality check about how this equipment is used, what is happening with this equipment, how much it costs, um and enforcement. So I I definitely I definitely have notes about cost enforcement and and storage for sure. Um, but it for me this is a no-brainer and I hope we can I hope we can just move past this. I know this is a heated topic and a lot of us take it very you know with a lot of tension and I get that but this is just a resolution about working together and if we can't do that right now I have a a hard time about what's on our plate in the coming year with with so much coming before us with the Perf review. Thank you,

Councilwoman Boyce. Did you have your hand up?

Thank you, Madam President. Um, I have to concur with some of my colleagues across the board. Um, Councilwoman Connor, I agree. Like, if we're not turning the camera on, that's the problem. And if we can if we can make that a stronger policy, I think that will solve a lot of the issues. I also agree with the cost issue. people come and show up and write us emails all the time about the cost of data centers and what that does to the environment. The more data we're using on this sort of thing, the more we have that problem. So, you know, this is a very generic resolution, but I feel like we've gotten into a lot of specifics. If we were not quite to the specifics, I may be supportive of that, but for that reason, I am not in favor of this. Thanks.

Thank you, Councilman Balding.

Thank you, Madam President. Um, I guess I in theory I I I'm opposed to this and and not that we don't talk about it. Uh, a couple weeks back we talked about this in the public safety meeting and I asked the mayor point blank, "If we don't pass this resolution, are you going to continue to talk about it?" His answer was yes. I don't understand passing a resolution to talk with the mayor about something. I've talked with the mayor about issues I didn't pass a resolution for. I didn't ask for a resolution. I went and talked with them about it. Do I have legislation for it yet? No, I don't. When we have legis legislation, we'll talk about it. I think that's something that we need to do. We need to foster that that relationship with the second floor and have these conversations. We are doing it. We've already obviously already had some of these conversations with the mayor and it's ongoing. But do we need a resolution to say we're going to talk about it? To me, it becomes more political at that point, letting everybody know we're going to talk about this and then we're going to talk about it. Then we talk pass a resolution and then when it comes through, we're going to talk about it again. Let's put the legislation together and let's vote on it and have real conversation that matters. Thank you, Councilman Balden. Well, I would like to say I am proud to be a sponsor of this piece. I think too often on this floor and around this horseshoe, we hear words like accountability and transparency, but do we really know what it means and how we can really implement it and make those things happen? Council, this is a resolution. And as a council person, as each of you, you have a right to bring forth a resolution. I represent war three. This is an issue that is important to my constituents and that is why I have brought this forward so that we can talk about it. Me as president of council, I knew nothing about a look back period. Never heard of

it. And it was not until we held these community conversations around community policing when we were informed that this is a way that we can move forth with really trying to be transparent and that we can really make sure that we are holding officers accountable. It's a resolution. We're asking the mayor to look at best practices. What works? What doesn't work? What is a good fit for here in Akran? That's what a resolution is about. What should the appropriate time be? Should it be 30 seconds, 60 seconds? Should it be a minute? That's what a resolution is about. It gives us an opportunity to talk, but also an opportunity to educate our residents. The look back feature ensures that crucial, often contentious initial moments are recorded and captured. It strengthens evidence for investigations. Again, we got a lot of things that are unsolved. More information is going to help us solve a lot more in this city to make it safer. And again, it increases public trust, which is important. Taxpayers have paid for these body cameras, not us. They have. And if there is new technology out there that we can pay a little bit more money for to strengthen and to do better and to be more accountable and to have the best police force, it's worth every dime.

It's worth every dime. And so I just want to say I am complete support to this. I want to thank Mayor Han for willing to listen because there's this notion that there's no communication. There is communication and that is why we're working together to make sure this happens. But in the means of that, we also want to make sure that council members understand this. Most important, we also want to make sure the public understands this. So thank you, Councilman Garrett. Thank you again, Madam President, for the opportunity. Um to my colleague, uh Mr. Bowden, it's it's been um it's been an eye openener to sit down with our current mayor Shamus to go over and have conversations about how we can move this forward. I know we've had heated conversations because I'm passionate about this, but he and I had a chance to sit down and talk and and just show I was able to share with him some of my concerns um and how we would like to work together. So, I don't want you to think that for one second these conversations aren't happening. This dialogue is moving forward. Um as it relates to uh wart nine. Um and and rounding off to my colleague uh Musco. Um there was an incident with Mike Jones in Ward 9 who was tragically shot and killed. And one of the things that the officers suggested that they thought they saw a gun, but there was no gun there. and and during the end of the arrest, they discovered they went inside the gentleman's pocket and put the weapon on the front seat of the vehicle, which gave an appearance of there was a gun on the front seat. And so my colleague in Ward 9, it is really important that you understand how important the entire duration of these body cams can really

help the training, get the right information out, and back up all officers when there's something missing so that it doesn't continue to happen. This is what this body cam is all about. And to my colleague uh in in war 10, it is so important that you understand and that you share with your colleagues there um your your constituents, the gentleman who got shot in the hand, the young kid who who didn't have a actual gun. Um but but actually in in War 10, when you really sit back and think about what's happening in terms of the use of force cases, and this is an opportunity for us to look back for one full minute. And so let's just say in those cases where officers forget to turn on their body cam, we have the ability now to assist them. You didn't, you were busy. You were you were in the middle of doing something. Great. Listen, we have a one minute look back that we can help you by recovering this information. And I just want to make sure that we also understand that we're able to redact or get rid of any personal or private information that may be recorded. And so this is something to move our community forward. Nearly 70% of the of the citizens said that they wanted some real police reform. This is an opportunity for us to move this thing forward. This is a at large issue. This is a ward issue. This is an issue that really is important to a lot of community, a lot of constituents. Thank you once again, Madam President.

Thank you, Madam President. Um, I know it's been said before, but also a lot of uh my colleagues get it wrong. It's it's it's a resolution, not legislation. And I hope uh folks will be able to decipher between those two. Uh I said it a few weeks ago, it's political. We all know that. Uh sometimes uh there are folks if it's on the second floor or the third floor, they need help. and uh sometimes a resolution might help them out in the real world instead of doing the hard work. Uh so moving forward is uh I I think the important part of about this is I've heard it around this horseshoe especially from the sponsors that uh the conversation is happening and it's continuing and I'm glad it's happening. I'm glad it's continuing, but uh I'm not sure if I'm going to support this or not tonight. So, obviously I probably have another few minutes to think about it. But the uh when it comes down to the funding, that's what is going to be the big decision maker for me. Uh one thing that I'm going to continue to watch is how we move our city forward in regards to spending. We we right now are uh working through the operating budget and uh it's kind of amazing how the priorities of our spending uh are just so different uh with our operating budget. So I just wanted to rise and make my comments that uh you know it's just a resolution. Uh I'm a huge advocate of the police department and the fire department. They do a wonderful job, both of them. And uh

you know, if this resolution continues that conversation and uh our public wants that conversation, then I might be in favor of it. But what it comes down to is that dollar amount. Uh I believe that the mayor should be very cautious about how he's spending money. Thank you. Thank you. and Councilman Fusco. Mhm.

I just I just uh have one more question uh for the primary sponsor here. And that is how in the two situations that you referred to, one uh in the one in Kenmore and then the one in W nine, I'm sorry, in W 10 heights. Uh in those two situations, how would the look back change the trajectory of the investigation? Would it have made a difference? I don't believe it would have made a difference. it would not have made a difference. Talk to police officers and you'll find out. Council person will see your hand.

Yes. Thank you. Um I just wanted to add I appreciate the continued robust discussion and and uh hopefully we can convince a couple more people uh to simply have a conversation is what this resolution is about. It's to have a conversation. Um, I I understand that a lot of this is heavy. Um, but really, if you just read it point by point, the enacting clauses are very simple. It's us acknowledging that there are concerns around this issue, us wanting to talk about this issue and formulate a policy alongside the administration. and somebody's point earlier about um that it is for sure the power of the administration to set this and and Mr. Balden is correct. This conversation will go forward probably regardless. My fear consistently is that when we have these kind of issues that we cause a stir and sometimes it's needed to have these conversations. We cause a stir, but then because of the drama that happens and plays out on this floor in relationship with things with the administration, we might not be brought into conversations where we should be because we're known to bring drama because we're known to not be able to get to a certain amount of consensus. the one thing that I wanted to, you know, I I appreciate the critique because it's making us think better, right? Um, but I also think if we truly, and some of us really bat hard for some of our force, and I understand that, right? I understand that. But if we truly trust that they're doing their job and are able to withstand the critique,

then 30 more seconds on a look back should probably be okay. My last point is is that any dollar amount over $50,000, Madame President, comes before city council. This is a resolution to have a conversation about policy that needs to be worked on and could be worked on without us at the table until it gets on our desk with a dollar amount. Just wanted to bring those thoughts forward. Thank

Thank you so much. And the one thing that I do want to mention because I we hear cost a lot and again it's a resolution, right? We're going to do our research. We're going to find out what it really does cost, right? And then that way we can even have more conversations. But the one conversation that no one's having, right, is that our police department spends a lot of time on public records requests from YouTubers, right, who want body cam footage to put on their personal sites of our Akran residents where they make thousands and thousands of dollars off of that footage. So again, there's an opportunity, right, to make some money, charge these YouTubers a fee for this, right? And so that is a way that can offset the cost of a look back camera.

And in all sincerity, I I think we all uh would like to see our police department improve and it could be another 30 seconds may not be that costly. It could be uh not that burdensome to uh the police department. Um I'm just not convinced personally that it's going to shed more light from talking to a number of people. I don't believe it's going to shed more light on investigations. Um, but having the conversation, I do agree and talking it through and figuring it out and this and that, but it's going to be on that that decision is going to be on the second floor, not on the third until we until it's vetted out. And I got to also believe that's probably going to be part of the Perf uh report that we're about to see whenever we do see it. I suspect that was is going to be part of it. So I think myself and I don't want to speak for anyone else is just that it is a resolution and it is you know and I understand having meetings and and and asking people uh you know what their thoughts are or being told you know that's okay and that's not a bad thing but again like I said this is we do spend a lot of time on these type of situations versus the ordinance piece whereas true change does occur. Thank you.

It takes work to get to the ordinance piece. That's what we're trying to do. But I will tell you, if I have a family member who is a police officer, if I have a family member that has an encounter that is life-threatening, I'm going to appreciate that look back period. And I just hope that you don't find yourself or your family in that position. Okay. So, at this time, the committee's report is favorable. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Roll call. Olden. No. Boys, no. Connor, Davis, hi. Fusco, no.

Garrett, yes. Hannah, hi. Kmart. Lombardo. Nay. Mkhitrich. Nay. Ammoian. I. Somerville. I. Wilson. I.

The motion passes 7 to six. public safety. Do you have anything else, chair? No, we're good. Okay. Thank you. That concludes our old business. We'll now move into new legislation starting with planning and economic development. Item number one offered by Fusco, ordinance authorizing a conditional use to expand parking at 839 South Arlington Street and 1037 WY Avenue and declaring an emergency. Councilman Fusco, referred. This item will be referred.

Item number two offered by Fusco. Ordinance authorizing a conditional use to establish a tire sales business at 21 North Arlington Street and declaring an emergency. Councilman Fusco,

this item will be referred. Item number three offered by KR, resolution declaring it necessary to improve various off- streetet parking facilities in the Kenmore business district and the Canton Road business district by sealing, resurfacing and repairing, painting parking stripe parking space stripes, sweeping, removing snow, cleaning sewer openings, providing lawn, turf, shrub and tree maintenance, litter and other general cleanup, and otherwise improving and maintaining the same all and when and where necessary and declaring an emergency. Councilman Kr agenda and I also point to order. Uh I still have stuff on the old agenda. Did we pass you? Yeah. Okay. We'll we'll we'll get through this time. Thank you.

Item number four offered by KR ordinance ratifying the actions of the director of public service or his designate in entering into a contractor contracts with Kenmore Construction Company Incorporated without publicly advertising for bids for the emergency repair of a water mane and declaring an emergency. Okay, Councilman Kamer, consent agenda. Thank you. This item will be placed on the consent agenda and we have actually already dealt with item number five in parks and recreation. So, that concludes our new legislation. We're going to move into our committee assignments, rules, Councilman Kitrich, 2 p.m. Public safety, Councilman Kitrich, 2:15. Budget and Finance, Councilman Lombardo, 3 p.m. Parks and Recreation, Councilwoman Connor.

Planning and Economic Development, Councilman Fusco, Housing and Neighborhood Assistance, Councilman Balden, 2:30. Public service, Councilman Kr, 2 p.m. Health and Social Services, Councilwoman Davis, Is there anything else coming before council at this time? Seeing and hearing none, is there a motion for adjournment? If there are no objections, meeting adjourned. This concludes the live broadcast of Akran City Council. Marggo Summerville, Somerville, President of Council presiding.