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. Balden, I. Boy, hi. Connor, hi. Davis, hi. Garrett, present. Hannah, hi. Kr. Hi, Lombardo. Hi, Mkhitrich. 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 are led in prayer by Reverend Robert Gro. Immediately following our prayer, I'm going to ask if Councilwoman Connor will lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

Those who'd like to please join me in an attitude of prayer. God of mercy and love, we pray to you this evening that this prayer will not serve as a pious veneer over cruel or inhumane policies. We pray that this council will not turn a blind eye to police brutality. We pray that this council will not cooperate with immigration and customs enforcement that prey upon the weak and vulnerable. We pray that they will not seek to undermine an already weak social safety net or further denigrate our public school system. We pray that they will not turn a blind eye to the genocide in Gaza. We pray that they will not ignore the problem of gun violence that kills 40,000 Americans every year. We pray that they will not act in a way that will cooperate with the foreign policy exemplified by Pete Hgse whose very prayers drip with blood lust and blasphemy. We pray that this council will fight discrimination against anyone due to color, creed, native language, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity. We pray that this body will not engage in those sins of both commission and omission that I have just mentioned and that if they do, you will give us the strength to replace them with those who will truly serve the people in your many names. We pray. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Have a nice meeting for Jesus. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We'll 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. Thank you.

Thank you. Just going to ask when you hear your name, if you'll please approach the podium. Just as a reminder, you will have three minutes to speak to this body. And we are going to begin with Mary Margaret Riley. Good evening, city council members. You may remember me. I'm Mary Riley. I live on Independence Avenue in Akran, Ohio. I came before you in February in hopes that I would see some kind of resolution in regards to the ARP ground I received over a year ago. I look at each and every one of you and know that there's somebody, just one of you, that knows somebody that can prove my case and bring this to a head in regards to the misappropriation and fraud of the ARPA grant money that I received. You city council know a hell of a lot of people and there is someone someone that can help me. I am imploring you to please stop this insanity of people taking advantage of folks like me and hold them accountable for their actions. I have tried and tried to get somebody just one of you to try to help me in this matter but I seem to get shuffled between papers on somebody's desk that never seem to rise to the top. So, I come before you in this matter again asking city council to please find some justice in this matter in which I had I was supposed to receive $7 to $10,000. It's missing. I was supposed to receive 25. 7 to $10,000 is missing and I can prove this. I just need someone to sit down with me and go over each item and I promise you I can prove my case. I have a question for city council members, each and every one of you. If somebody did work on your house and they really cut corners and did shoddy work and charged you for things that were not done, would you pay them? I think not.

So why should the city of Akran pay all this money out for shoddy work and work that was not done through the ARPA grant? I do believe I have the answer. It wasn't your money or the work done on your house. So what do you care? I truly hope this is not the case in this matter. I do believe that city council wants the people of Akran to come to you when seeking help in these certain matters. You are a team here in Akran, but so far not one person has come through for me in this matter. Is city council truly doing the people in background a service? Listening to us coming here and telling you of what is wrong and what we may need help in and in hopes that you may find some answers for us like correcting the unfortunate situation I find myself in. I truly hope that this time I will get some justification in this matter from somebody who is listening and taking this to heart so that I may get the other 7 to$10,000 to do the work done on my get the work done on my house. and gutters are coming down. It's going to ruin the foundation. We all know that what happens. There's other things that need to be done. They never got done. So, I want to thank city council for listening and hopefully taking this to heart to rectify all this cluster mess I have encountered. Thank you, city council members for your time and God bless.

Thank you. And Mrs. Riley, I'm going to ask after the meeting if you'll meet with me, Councilman Lombardo, and Mr. Lash. Okay. Sure. Thank you.

Thank you. And I apologize if I mispronounced the name. Last name is Kumar. Yes, I have a problem with my rental. I sorry. Yeah, I had this rental. It's in 752 Hazel Street. I getting this inspections. I have done the driveway real good. I have all the pictures, but I constantly getting this inspector's letters saying that they will charge $1,000. And last week he came to my rental and he says still something has to be done. It is a 100year-old rental and I do everything. It's no tenants complain to that. They all wrote the letter saying that they're fine with the parking the car. So, how should I solve the problem? More be more than happy if you can stay just a few minutes after the meeting and we'll see if we can find some resolution for

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Is Jack here with us? All right. Thanks for uh letting me speak. Um I'm actually speaking about what's going on downtown or what's not going on downtown. I'm sure everybody saw that the Lock View is now struggling and they're on the brink of closing. I've been a resident downtown for 5 years. Um, I spoke to this council two years ago about um, an issue that happened downtown and I'm back again because um, quite honestly uh, in the 5 years I've been a resident here. I feel downtown has been stagnant at best. Now I'm excited Crafty Stairs opening up, but there's also been a number of restaurant closings. You have the lock view which is directly across from lock three closing or or you know at risk of closing. I've seen other restaurants um Eddie's uh you know complaining about you know lack of business. Um the the people who run uh Lock View I know they they said they've reached out. Um but I'm wondering what does the city even have a vision or plan for downtown anything? Um because like I said, I'm an outsider looking in and I don't see any kind of vision. And I've remember when downtown Akran had a very vibrant night life because I worked down here. And I'm not saying we need bars from one end of Maine to the other between market and and uh and Cedar, but there's nothing uh you know, you have a handful of things. You have lock three, which is great. The city spent all of that money redoing Main Street, which is I think it's great. I find downtown very walkable. I walk all the time when the weather

doesn't suck. Um um and I I personally I think downtown is very safe. I think it's safer than some of the neighborhoods in Akran to be honest, like Highland Square. Um you know, so I find downtown to be very safe. Um, but there's also an image uh that people still feel an uncertainty uh don't feel somewhat safe because of the riots that happened three years ago. And I don't feel the city has really gotten uh a handle of that message to say, listen, downtown is safe. We have the downtown Akran partnership doing escorts and all this other stuff. But, you know, I've seen firsthand. And I hope I don't know if other council members have, but you know when there were two weeks ago, Daniel Tash had two shill out shows at the Civic because I was at one of them and that was also the home opener for uh the rubber ducks. There were tons of people down here last summer. There were tons of people down here for the concerts and then the ball games. Once all that stuff's done, they're gone. And I've actually heard some people I' I'd hear them say, "It's 10:30. What's there to do down here?" OB honestly nothing. So I have concerns as a resident. Um I'm a big advocate of downtown living which why I'm down here. But I have a big concern that there is not a plan for downtown Akran at all. I don't know what this person who was hired to work on downtown is doing. But I think the focus on retail at this moment is is misguided.

Jack, thank thank you so much. And I know we do have um Susie Graham Moore, not to put you on the spot, who's our economic development director. Could you just speak with uh Jack after the meeting for a few minutes? Okay. All right. Thank you so much. Uh Jason Johnson.

I'm Jason Johnson. I am vice president of Rubber City Rescue. We do animal rescue for all of Summit County, not just Akan. Um, when we first got our building, we were under the the impression that animal control would take things from us and we would help them and they would help us. They don't. They sent dogs to us. We have three, I believe, in our building right now from them. We called them the other day. I picked up a dog from Akran. I called them. Woman answered the phone. I don't remember her name. And I said, you know, I have a dog from you guys. Can I bring it down? She's like, oh yeah, bring it down. I walk through the door. uh the person that works in animal control, Micah, he's like, "You guys have a building. We're not taking it. You can leave." So I'm like, "Uh, okay." So I get back to our building and we have to have somebody else take the dog down for us. We have to pay $25, too, which we're under the impression that because we were working together, we wouldn't have to pay. But, you know, I have the receipt right here. We pay $25. Every time we send a log down, it's $25. And they will not take it from us. we have to find a third party to take the animal down to them. No matter if it's from Akran or one of the suburbs either way, it doesn't matter. They will not take it. And I didn't know if anything could be done. I know that the city, the council people have uh funds that they are giving out. We were told um you know, please come take a look at our building. Find in your hearts to help us fund it instead of out of our pockets. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Johnson for for sharing and we'll get in contact and see how we can how we can help. Okay. Aacia Reynolds. Good evening, council. Three minutes. That's all I need to tell the truth about what's happening on Main Street and what it says about who we are becoming as a city. Right now in downtown Akran, we are watching something dangerous unfold. Not just construction, but ongoing disruption without protection. According to the reporting from local media, beloved restaurants and small businesses along Main Street are struggling to survive. Some are openly asking for help, not because they failed, but because they are being buried under prolonged construction, blocked access, and disappearing foot traffic. These are places that define Akran, not corporations, not chains, but the small, locally rooted businesses that give this city its character. They are being suffocated in the name of revitalization. Now, let us talk about that word revitalization because too often what we call revitalization looks a lot like eraser. We've already seen it when the Firestone Plant one clock tower demolition came up. It's a that was a symbol, a physical reminder of the workers, the families, the generations that built this city with their blood, sweat, and tears. And people in this community spoke up. They said, "Preserve it. Honor it. Incorporate it into what comes next. But there are no plans for it. It's just getting torn down. Instead, we're tearing it down to build an homage. And now here we are again watching history and culture get pushed aside, not by demolition crews, but by drawn out construction projects that are

quietly forcing out the very businesses that carry our local identity forward. So we have to ask, what exactly are we revitalizing for? If we are stripping away the things that made this city worth revitalizing in the first place, what good is a polished Main Street if the legacy businesses are gone? What are we building toward if we keep building over our history? This is bigger than inconvenience. This is about priorities because right now we are asking small businesses to absorb the cost of public progress without meaningful support. We are investing in infrastructure but not in the people who give that infrastructure life. This is growth, not replacement. And it doesn't have to be this way. We can build and preserve. We can modernize and protect. We can invest in roads and the businesses that line them. But that requires intention. It requires leadership that sees small businesses and historic landmarks not as obstacles, but as assets. Because once they're gone, they're gone. We don't rebuild legacy. We don't recreate authenticity. And you don't get a second chance to preserve your history. So the question isn't whether Akran should grow. The question is who is that growth for? And the people and the history that built this city still have a place in it when we're done. When we're done, will that happen? Thank you.

Thank you, Aacia. Is Yanos online with us? He's coming in from the waiting room now. Yanos, can you hear us? Yes, I can hear you. Thank you. You can begin.

Huh. So, this is an interesting night to come upon Akran City Council. My first council speech without hearing from Jeff Fusco because lazy ass decided to retire after doing nothing valuable for this city. I swear the last time I really watched an a city council meeting was March 31st. And I have to say that did not look like a council meeting. That looked like a bunch of people basically jerking off Mr. Fusco. And I think frankly that's an insult to everybody who lives in this city. Fusco has left behind quite the ledger in the past few years as a city council president and really as the shadow mayor of Akran. He has left behind the ledger of more police funding, more black people being dead or brutalized by cops, and he has also left behind a new training facility that we are apparently funding. But let's just really call it what it is. It's cop city, Akan, isn't it? We are training policemen to be more violent towards black people. We are training this city to be more undemocratic. We just saw this with the way that Fusco's replacement is being selected. We had to you had to vote down a whole ass resolution making it more undemocratic. I think that's an outrage. I think the way that this whole city is being run is an outrage. And unfortunately that means that the ordinary people of Akran are paying for it. They are worried about whether their sons and daughters will come home safe at night. They're wondering if their kids will live to grow will grow up to be a good people, especially if the cops

don't put them 6 feet under. I thankfully have never had to bury a family member who was killed by the cops. But we all know somebody who has if we played long enough in these chambers. We all know somebody who's had to bury someone. And I don't think that's good. I think we need to change how this city is run. And that means we need to get the people who are ignoring the police brutality out of power. We need to get people like Sheamus Malik out. We need to get people like Marggo Somerville out because you are ignoring the needs of the people. You are ignoring these while people are dying and that I can't abide. Not in Trump's America, not in Biden's America, not in any sort of America. I think that's an outrage that we can't ensure that normal, decent people can go home at night without risking the chance of them getting blown to pieces by an assault rifle by Jasmir Tucker. So there it is. There's my speech.

Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our public comment period. We want to thank all those who took the time to participate. Council, we have no items on our consent agenda, so we'll move into old business. Oh, let's first handle our minutes. I'm sorry. Uh the minutes from our previously held meeting have been provided. Are there any additions or corrections? Is there a second? Second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. The eyes have it. The motion to approve the minutes passes 12 to zero. Thank you. We'll continue with old business planning and economic development. Councilman Kr,

continue time. Thank you. Public service. Councilman Kr. Uh, continue time. Public safety. Councilman McKitrich. Continue time, please. Thank you. That concludes our old business. We'll now move into new legislation. Item number one, offered by KR, ordinance authorizing the director of public service or his designate to enter into a contractor contracts without the formality of publicly advertising for bids with GPD group for the design of the gorge dam removal and declaring an emergency. Councilman Kr. Thank you, Madam President. Committee's report is consent agenda. Thank you. This item will be placed on the consent agenda.

Item number two offered by Mkhitrich. Ordinance authorizing the mayor or his designate to enter into a contractor contracts with national testing network after publicly advertising for bids to conduct promotional testing for the Akran Fire Department for the fire lieutenant, fire captain, and fire district chief ranks and declaring an emergency. Council McKitrich. Uh the committee's report is favorable. We are asking for suspension of the rules. Are there any objections to suspension of the rules? Seeing and hearing none, the rules have been suspended.

Uh the uh the chief, Chief Anderson and the department is being proactive uh in anticipation of future retirements. We've had several so far this year. Uh and so they want to have this testing so we have uh candidates available. Uh it's because it's also a domino effect causing more overtime in those positions if we don't have them. So, we are asking for passage so they can start this testing. Thank you. Councilwoman, do you have a comment?

I think it's more of a question. Um, and I'm sure Chief Henderson can answer it. Um, and I couldn't answer this afternoon because I wasn't prepared. I I guess I'm trying to understand this pro promotional examination. It's $180,000 plus. and is limited to certain individuals in a certain rank. Is that what it is?

Yes. And I'm just curious, and I've asked this question before, if individuals who work for the department who seem to think that they have the skills or abilities or whatever to take the test, do you have to pay for the individuals or you pay just for a group of folks that are taking the test? And you have to have a certain rank in order to be eligible to take the test. Okay, I'll try to address those one way one by one. That's a lot to unpack, but great questions. So, the first question, uh, this does encompass by each rank by the knowledge, skill, and ability. And for the first time in over 10 years, we are going to have a written test and we're going to have an assessment center. So, that's what's part of the package for each individual rank. And you have to have at least the minimum qualifications to even qualify for taking the test. For a lieutenant position, you have to have at least 5 years on the job and have to meet all the requirements as far as the professional development. And then you're eligible to take the exam. And based on where you rank as far as your score, that will be the eligibility list that will be established by HR. So individual members of your department just can't decide that they want to take the test even if they flunk it. I I mean it's paid for by the city. Correct.

That is correct.

Totally. And I I guess I' I've never quite understood why people, you know, I I'm licensed in my field and once you have certain credentials and experience and you have so many hours on the job for my license, you could take the test and many people do and they fail and take it again and that kind of thing, but they pay for themselves. I'm just curious, are other folks ever allowed to take it who are not in those ranks? So, you know, I can't get into the HR specifics component. Um, it's very unusual as far as our environment with the fire department. So, you know, regardless of how many people we have for us each rank. So, take for instance, we have 400 personnel on our fire department. And out of that 400 personnel, we have 81 lieutenants. We have 17 captains, 10 district chiefs, and we're authorized to have three deputy chiefs. And so based on those, you know, ranks, those are the personnel that will fill those spots based on going up that scalar system. And it's just like paramilitary or any other profession.

So how many people are scheduled to take the test when this So it depends on who is qualified to actually take the examination. So that can span from 50 for the lieutenant position to maybe 150. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. So, it's a vast amount depending on if they actually took the classes to sign up. Okay. But excellent questions. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments or questions at this time? Uh, seeing and hearing none, the rules have been suspended. The committee's report is favorable. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any oppose? The eyes have it. This ordinance passes 12 to zero.

Okay, that concludes our new legislation. will now move into committee assignments. Rules, Councilman McKitrich, 2 p.m. Public safety, Councilman McKitrich, 2:15. Budget and finance, Councilman Lombardo, 3 p.m. Parks and Recreation, Councilwoman Connor, Planning and Economic Development, Councilman Kr, 1 p.m. Housing and Neighborhood Assistance, Councilman Balden, 3:30. Public Service, Councilman Kr, 2 p.m. Health and Social Services, Councilwoman Davis, 2:30. Is there anything else coming before council at this time? Councilwoman Boy.

Thank you, Madam President. I just wanted to remind my colleagues and the community that April is cleanup Akran month, and I know W 3 had a great successful turnout for their cleanup last week. W 9 is having our cleanup this Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Apprentice Park on East Avenue. And if you register, you get free coffee and donuts, free t-shirt from Keep Akum Beautiful, as well as free zoo passes. I had no idea about this until I saw it on your flyer. So, if the community, you know, various uh volunteer groups, businesses, families, students would like to come down and pitch in. We're also having at 11:00 a.m. to celebrate Arbor Day, a tree planting, which I know from our uh meeting this afternoon with the tree commission that in Ward 3, they are also planting trees on Friday from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Lane Field. So, I would just encourage you, I do know that W 2 is having a cleanup as well, not in April, but in May. Um, but I just encourage the community. It's an easy way to give back and make a big difference. And you can get some free zoo passes. So, um, log on to keep beautiful.org/clean-upacran-month or if you'd like an easier way. I've got some flyers here and you can scan the QR code. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman, for sharing. Council person uh Wilson. Hi. Thank you, Madam President. I just wanted to take a quick moment. I am under the weather, so I'm virtual. But I have noticed, you know, a couple residents reach out to me about not being able to see the person speaking for public comment, period. I know I've had some back and forth with staff about this, but it is a little inconvenient not being able to see um residents uh give their public comment and that being, you know, their their visual and face being able to be, you know, on the record and on the recording. So, I just wanted to vocalize that. If if there's any conversation that can be had about changing that back to being able to see public commenters, um that would be excellent. Thank you so much.

Thank you, council person. Is there anything else coming before council at this time? We have a motion on the floor. If there are no objections, meeting adjourned. This concludes the live broadcast of Akran City Council. Marggo Somerville, president of council presiding.