A key city council member is waiting to hear from Akron’s Fraternal Order of Police, the city’s police union, before he’s willing to vote on a new rules package put forth by the Citizens’ Police Oversight Board.
The proposal would allow the board to conduct its own investigations into complaints against Akron police after the police department completes its inquiry. The board would also drop an earlier request to have subpoena power, so it won’t compel officers to testify during its investigations.
“I would like to hear from the FOP,” said Council Member Donnie Kammer, who represents Ward 7, during the Public Safety Committee meeting on Monday. “As a legislator, as a city councilperson, that’s how I vote. … I would like to hear from them, then I’ll make my decision then.”
On Monday, the members of the CPOB, established after Akron voters overwhelmingly approved Issue 10 in November of 2022 in the wake of Jayland Walker’s killing by Akron police, learned they would have to wait even longer to have the board’s first set of rules approved by City Council. The committee, and then the full council, voted unanimously to table any decision on the board’s rules.
Because of the Presidents’ Day holiday Feb. 19, council won’t meet again until Feb.26.
Current proposal seeks less power
This week’s CPOB proposal fared far better than the proposal that was rejected by nine of the 13 council members in early December. That proposal drew vehement opposition from the FOP, which repeatedly threatened litigation if the board was empowered to conduct investigations of police misconduct at the same time as the department itself and if the board subpoenaed officers. Those two sought-after powers violate the FOP’s collective bargaining agreement with the city, the union repeatedly claimed.
The CPOB’s new proposal no longer seeks parallel investigation power, and it said it will not seek to enforce subpoenas of APD officers.
“Pragmatically, that was something council was not going to agree to – we can’t compel it,” Board Member Bob Gippin told Signal Akron. “We have plenty to do without doing parallel investigations. … We’re happy to do it the way they’re comfortable doing it. Government only works when people are cooperating. We can make those changes without really impeding our ability to do what we need to do.”
This time around, with the CPOB willing to cut parallel investigation and subpoena power from its rules package, the city’s law department is on board and presented a unified front to the council committee.
“Once the new administration was in place, in particular, we began to have discussions about an amendment of the rules to hopefully conform to what the sentiment of council was, as expressed to us last time,” said Gippin, flanked by City of Akron Deputy Director of Law Brian Angeloni, as he presented the board’s case to the Public Safety Committee.
“We sent the rules to the FOP a week ago, I want to say, and there was some conversation primarily with the law department and our understanding is that they have no objection to these rules,” Gippin said to the committee. “Unless you’ve heard something to the contrary, my understanding is that these are OK with the FOP, they are OK with the administration, and they are certainly OK with us.”
Unlike when the FOP publicly blasted the previous rules proposal in City Council chambers, union leaders have not spoken publicly or to council about the new proposal. The FOP is under new leadership. Signal Akron reported in December that Brian Lucey narrowly beat out Clay Cozart in an election to become the union’s leader.
Council members want more time to consider rules proposal
Council Member Brad McKitrick said he wanted time to “digest” the new proposal before voting on it. Council Member Phil Lombardo said he wanted to write down the questions he had about the rules. Kammer agreed.
“I haven’t heard from the FOP, and I would like to hear from the FOP to give them a chance to verbally or in a written statement come out and say that they’re in favor of these rules and everyone can work together,” Kammer said.
The delay in approval of the CPOB’s rules means the board will have to wait even longer to hire its first full-time auditor.
“We are in the final stages of hiring a police auditor, which is vital to our operation,” Gippin told the committee after Lombardo asked if there were time concerns about getting the rules passed. The board needs to have its rules passed before it can extend an offer. “I mean, we’ve been struggling this year – for a long period of time we’ve had no staff. But we need an auditor.”
The new auditor, one the CPOB can actually hire for the position, is likely to be Anthony Finnel. The CPOB states in a news release he has “over 30 years of experience in all phases of law enforcement, public safety, oversight of law enforcement practices, investigations, police practices review and development of policies and procedures for government entities.”
The CPOB is hosting a town hall on Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Ellet Community Learning Center for community members to meet Finnel and ask questions.
