A nominee for Akron’s Housing Appeals Board was apparently rejected by members of City Council because she publicly criticized Akron police in the wake of Jayland Walker’s killing, objected to the White Pond Drive development plan and advocated for abortion rights.
Alyssa Figueroa’s name was stricken from the resolution that would have appointed her to the board after a motion from Council Vice President Jeff Fusco at the Feb. 26 City Council meeting. The city’s Department of Neighborhood Assistance had nominated Figeuero for the role.
A second candidate on the resolution, John Valle, was approved by council members who believed that, despite several vacancies and inactive members on the Housing Appeals Board, they only needed one more to have enough for a quorum.
“I would like to make a motion that we, from the legislation that we currently have, that we strike the name Alyssa Figueroa from the title clause,” said Fusco, who stood at his desk in the City Council chambers. He was amending, on the fly, the resolution that would have appointed Figueroa and Valle.
Akron Mayor Shammas Malik, who sat along the wall behind Fusco, immediately shot his hand in the air to alert Council President Margo Sommerville that he wanted to speak.
Fusco continued, “… and that we eliminate Section One… and then just cross out the name Alyssa Figueroa.”
Sommerville spoke next about why City Council should remove one candidate while keeping the other.
“There are some issues, possible concerns with one of the appointments that we will talk about and address,” she said, “but we want to sit, we want to make sure the board has enough members so they can continue to do the city’s business and that’s why we are moving in this direction.”
Related: Interview with Alyssa Figueroa, nominee for Akron’s Housing Appeals Board
Akron’s Housing Appeals Board hears cases from the Department of Neighborhood Assistance Housing Compliance Division, reviewing residential properties that the division recommends demolishing and reviewing appeals of Environmental Health Housing Code orders.
The Akron City Charter states candidates for the board are named by the mayor and need approval from City Council. The board had several vacancies and, apparently, was one member away from forming a quorum.
Sommerville allowed the mayor to speak.
“I just want to kind of clarify for folks what’s going on,” Malik said from the lectern a few feet away from Fusco. The city’s Department of Neighborhood Assistance, he said, recommended two people to fill vacancies in the Housing Appeals Board.
“We put forward those two names and Mr. Fusco had an issue with Ms. Figueroa,” Malik continued, “and we asked that those concerns be shared with the administration. There were, I believe, five links to YouTube clips of which Ms. Figueroa spoke to council that were shared earlier today.
“I have only been able to watch one of them so far, but the first one was a comment about abortion after the Dobbs case that I didn’t see any concern with and I can’t understand any concern.”
Sommerville and Fusco appeared reluctant to talk specifically about why Figueroa was unacceptable, only about how important it was to approve the other candidate so the Housing Appeals Board could have enough members for a quorum.
“This is not about this particular individual, and we want to have some more conversations regarding those video clips, the emails, and other things of that nature,” Sommerville said.
“Right now, this is all about council moving forward to make sure there are enough members where there is a quorum so that this body can address the city business. And that’s all we’re trying to do at this moment with this amendment.”
City Council ultimately voted 9-2 to approve the resolution with Fusco’s amendment removing Figueroa as a candidate for the board. Only Council Members Linda Omobien and Eric Garrett voted against the amendment; James Hardy and Donnie Kammer weren’t there.
It was more important, some members said, to approve the legislation with one candidate than to spend time debating the merits of a second candidate.
Fusco, Malik exchange information
During the Feb. 26 debate in City Council chambers, Malik said he had two meetings with City Council leadership about Figueroa, one earlier that day and one a week prior.
“Council leadership shared that there were concerns, and I asked what those concerns were,” Malik said. “And those were not shared. And so today, in the meeting, I again asked if those could be shared. Around midday they were shared.”
Moments after Malik mentioned receiving an email from Fusco about concerns with Figueroa joining the Housing Appeals Board, Signal Akron submitted a public records request for email correspondence between the two about the issue. That correspondence was obtained on March 6.
Fusco’s email, sent earlier on Feb. 26 before the City Council meeting, was simple:
Mayor,
If you wish to discuss this, please feel free to call.
Thanks
Jeff
Included in Fusco’s email are links to four timestamped YouTube videos of City Council Meetings from 2022 when Figueora spoke during public comment periods.
Fusco shares videos from public comment periods
These videos appear to be the basis for Figueroa’s rejection from the Housing Appeals Board.
The first video, from June 27, 2022, three days after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, features Figueroa advocating for abortion rights: “I want to urge City Council here to do everything they can to keep folks safe, work with other levels of government and make sure no one in Akron is prosecuted for seeking an abortion,” she said.
The second video is from July 11, 2022, two weeks after Jayland Walker was killed by Akron police officers after a car chase and brief foot chase. Figueroa introduces herself as the co-chair of the Akron Democratic Socialists of America and says, among other things, “I am demanding Council use their power to end police chases and minor traffic stops immediately.”
The third video is from July 18, 2022, when City Council held its meeting virtually following an alleged bomb threat the previous week. Figueroa criticized City Council for not telling protesters outside City Hall there was a bomb threat. She also lambasted Akron police for removing name tags from their uniforms.
She advocated for housing, education, and healthy food as solutions to public safety rather than police. She criticized “helicopters circling Black neighborhoods all night, creating noise pollution and terror, police stopping cars for equipment failure, cross-city police chases.”
Figueroa advocated for police dash-cams and criticized how long it took for City Council to enact citizen oversight of the police department. “Our elected officials need to act in a manner consistent with making this city whole and delivering justice,” she concluded.
The final video is from Nov. 21, 2022, when City Council was considering a controversial development proposal on White Pond Drive. Figueora spoke out against it: “Please, preserve this space.” The plan was narrowly approved weeks later.
Sommerville and Fusco did not respond to emails sent by Signal Akron on Wednesday and Thursday, requesting a comment for this story.
Malik issued a statement to Signal Akron:
Alyssa Figueroa was originally suggested by Department of Neighborhood Assistance personnel based on her past advocacy around housing issues. I ok’d her name being submitted along with John Valle.
The videos were shared on February 26th – as of that Council meeting, I had watched the first one, and have since viewed them all. I don’t view the referenced comments as disqualifying. As I mentioned on the floor of Council, I disagreed with striking a nominee without having open dialogue about why she was being removed. It was a very uncommon move and I felt that the proper thing to do was to have Council openly discuss their concerns if they had them and then make a decision one way or another.
Since February 26th, I have had an opportunity to sit down with Council leadership in what I believe was a very healthy discussion about moving forward. The administration and City Council won’t always agree and that’s part of the way that government functions, but finding common ground and being able to move important legislation through the proper channels is vital for our residents and to keep our city moving smoothly. I look forward to the work ahead with Council leadership and all of our City councilmembers.
Update: City Council leadership emailed the following statement to Signal Akron at 12:01 p.m. Monday:
“There were concerns brought to Council regarding Ms. Figueroa, and Council leadership has an obligation to look into those concerns. The concerns have been addressed so we look forward to bringing in Ms. Figueroa’s name along with those of other individuals in order that a full board may be seated and able to do the business of the City of Akron.”
Figueroa‘s involvement in housing policy began in 2020
Figueroa told Signal Akron she had no clue there would be any issue with her appointment to the board until Fusco raised “concerns” about her on the floor of council chambers during the Feb. 26 meeting.
“Quite frankly, I was very surprised,” she said. “I was at work that evening – I work at Summa, I’m a nurse – and my shift was just starting when I was getting all these messages about what was happening at the meeting.”
Later, a friend filled her in on what exactly went down.
“I honestly don’t know” what the issue was, she said. “I understand that sometimes, like in the videos, I am a passionate person, I feel that I spoke passionately. But I don’t know. Whether here or in the community I grew up in, when I was in college, I have spent most of my spare time being committed to my community, wanting to give back and really just trying to serve my community in the best way possible. That’s a thing that’s near and dear to my heart, that I feel is very important to me. So, I honestly don’t know.”
Figueora’s involvement in housing policy started in 2020 when she was working on her practicum as part of her master’s degree in public health. Her focus was on eviction and housing equity in Akron.
“I had come up with some suggestions for different policy-related measures that might be helpful to addressing our high eviction rate, but also some of the other issues that we have with our housing stock here in Akron,” she said. “I spoke in front of City Council about that, and I also spoke to the eviction task force as well. Through that, I got connected with other folks who work in housing here in the city.”
In 2022, she said she spent time in a group organized by Malik, when he was a council member, that was focused on the housing code “to see if there were changes that could be made to it that would kind of bring it up to date as far as looking at it through a health lens.”
It was during this time that she met City Housing Administrator Duane Groeger.
“We went over the housing code with a fine-tooth comb,” she said, “we had a lot of back-and-forth about what’s feasible and what’s not.”
Groeger called Figueroa a couple months ago to ask if he could nominate her for the Housing Appeals Board, she said.
“He felt that I had a foundational level of knowledge about the housing market here in Akron but also, when we worked together in that group, he was impressed with my attention to detail, my willingness to go the extra mile while working on the housing code, which is not exciting for most people.”
Groeger described the role to her and she said yes.
“A lot of the work is focusing on looking at demolition orders or the possible enforcement of repairs and things like that,” she said about the board. “But to me, that really kind of keyed in on the housing safety component. I know we have a lot, and a long back log, of vacant properties that create a huge safety issue for a lot of our residents.… I thought it would be a way to help my community.”
But she will not be on the board, at least for now.
“That’s not up to me,” she said. “That’s up to City Council and the way they end up voting. If my name is brought forth again, that’s not a decision I can make.”
Since the Feb. 26 meeting, she said, she has had good conversations with some City Council members and re-shared her resume, which includes her current role as president of the board of trustees of the Northeast Ohio Coalition of the Homeless, with one member who asked more about her background.
“I’m just trying to defend myself, in a way, and also just figure out what questions I can answer, what it is that I can do that might move the needle if possible,” she said. “If not, and my name isn’t brought back forward, then at least I’ve made some connections with folks that I hadn’t met before.”