Akron City Council’s most vocal police critic is escalating his feud with the city law department after he accused its lawyers of collaborating with the police union to undermine his effort to have the officer who killed 15-year-old Jazmir Tucker fired.
At-large City Council Member Eric Garrett submitted a “grievance” earlier this week against City of Akron Law Director Deborah Matz. It alleges that city lawyers immediately, and improperly, alerted the Fraternal Order of Police about draft legislation he submitted Dec. 10 calling for the firing of Officer Davon Fields.
That day, at 12:58 p.m., Garrett emailed the law department, submitting legislation “calling for the termination of Officer D. Fields for shooting and killing 15-year-old Jazmir Tucker who did not brandish a weapon and failure to render aid.”
The law department is responsible for analyzing and preparing proposed legislation before it can be presented at City Council meetings.
Less than an hour later, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President Brian Lucey sent an email to Akron police union members indicating he was aware of the legislation and urging them to show up to the next council meeting to oppose it, according to a screenshot of the email Garrett shared with Signal Akron.
“I heard a rumor that a council member is attempting to bring a resolution before the council to fire an officer,” Lucey wrote to his members at 1:56 p.m. “His hopes (sic) is that this resolution will put pressure on the Mayor… We must show up and show the city and council how strong our Union is. We must not be out organized.”
Lucey did not respond to an email from Signal Akron asking how he became aware of the resolution.
On Sunday, Dec. 15, Garrett sent a letter to Malik and Matz accusing the law department of the “hostile act” of sharing his draft legislation “without my knowledge or consent. This action not only undermines the process but also represents a breach of trust and professionalism.”
At the City Council meeting the next day, FOP members packed council chambers, as Lucey had called for, to oppose the legislation, which Garrett rescinded prior to the meeting.
At the end of the meeting, Garrett stood up and railed against what he said was the “hateful, disrespectful regard by the law department” for sharing his legislation “with their cronies, undermining our trust.”
The city’s human resources department received Garrett’s grievance against Matz, which he sent in letter form to Akron Mayor Shammas Malik, and will investigate his claims. This is standard procedure when any employee files a complaint, city spokesperson Stephanie Marsh said.
Matz denies allegations of wrongdoing
In a Jan. 3 letter to Garrett, which Garrett shared with Signal Akron, Matz criticized the council member for the assertions he made in his letters and at City Council meetings.
“First and foremost, anything submitted to the Legislation email is a public record,” she wrote. “Therefore, if it was disseminated to anyone as a result of a request for a public record, there would be nothing illegal or improper about that fact. The Law Department would not need your permission for the release of that record.
“Your letter, however, contains a false implication that Law Department staff shared this legislation request with the Fraternal Order of Police. This is not accurate – no one in my Department shared or ‘leaked’ this information to the police union.”
Matz, in her letter to Garrett, said the FOP could have found out about his legislation because of what he said at the previous City Council meeting.
“I would remind you that you announced your intention to introduce such legislation of the floor of council on 12/9 in a public meeting that was being streamed live on YouTube, so you are the most likely source of the information as the FOP President was at Council that evening and in fact spoke during public comment,” Matz wrote.
During the Dec. 9 meeting, days after body camera footage of Fields killing Tucker was released as required by city law, Garrett said the officer should be gone and he wanted City Council to pressure the mayor to terminate him to do so.
“I ask that my colleagues support me in asking for the firing of Officer Fields today,” he said. But Garrett did not explicitly mention the draft legislation that he would submit the next day.
Grievance letter lists Garrett’s allegations against Matz
Garrett provided Signal Akron with the letters he sent to Malik and Matz. The correspondence details a fiery exchange between the council member and the law director outside City Council chambers Dec. 9, Matz’ strong denial of any wrongdoing, and a deep rift between the two in the wake of the fatal police shooting of Tucker on Thanksgiving night.
Garrett was not swayed by Matz’ insistence that the law department did not alert the FOP about his legislation and that it would not have been improper regardless, since emails to the law department’s legislation@akronohio.gov email address are considered public records.
Garrett’s Jan. 20 grievance letter to Malik also accused the law director of:
- Attempting to intimidate him in a heated exchange outside City Council chambers on Dec. 9.
- Threatening to not submit his legislation calling for Fields to be fired unless he watered down his language.
- A conflict of interest because of her perceived deference to the police union instead of prioritizing “the public interest.”
- Acting in bad faith and committing ethical lapses that hindered City Council’s work.
Garrett ended his letter calling for a “formal review” of Matz’s actions and steps to ensure that what he said happened won’t happen again in the future.
Asking for records related to the alleged leak
After Garrett publicly accused the law department of leaking his legislation, Signal Akron submitted a public records request for all email and text correspondence between three of the city’s top lawyers — Matz, Deputy Director of Law Brian Angeloni and Chief City Prosecutor Craig Morgan — and FOP leader Lucey since Tucker was killed on Nov. 28.
The law department responded: “The City of Akron does not maintain or possess records responsive to your request.”
On Jan. 22, Signal Akron filed a public records request for copies of all public records requests submitted to the city on Dec. 10 about City Council legislation — the same day Garrett submitted his resolution. If a member of the police union submitted a request for the resolution as Matz said they could have, there should be a record of it. Signal Akron also requested all emails sent to and from the law department’s legislation email address that day.
Marsh, the city’s spokesperson, told Signal Akron that there is no timeline for the human resources investigation set in motion by Garrett’s complaint.
