Before Akron City Council votes on Mayor Shammas Malik’s proposed $815 million operating budget on March 25, his office still has some convincing to do. There will be no rubber stamp this year.
“I don’t know where I stand on voting for this,” said Ward 7 Council Member Donnie Kammer during Monday afternoon’s Budget and Finance Committee meeting. “This could be the first operating budget that I ever voted against since I’ve been on City Council.”
At issue for some City Council members is the size and cost of the first-year-mayor’s cabinet, which is believed to be the most expensive in Akron’s history. Malik is seeking approval of a budget for 23 positions in his office, eight more than his predecessor had.
Read more: List of Akron Mayor Malik’s proposed positions as part of the city’s $815 million operating budget
Malik axed three jobs traditionally in the mayor’s office and added 11 new positions, including a brand new “strategy” team tasked with working on the mayor’s “strategic initiatives and priorities” for the city. That team, led by Chief of Strategy Nanette Pitt, has an education and health strategist, a grants manager, a policy and grants strategist, a public engagement strategist (currently unfilled), a public safety strategist and a youth opportunity strategist.
Kammer and Council President Margo Sommerville on Monday joined Ward 8 Council Member James Hardy in publicly criticizing the mayor’s office budget. At the first budget hearings last Tuesday, Hardy first openly questioned the rationale for the larger administration. After that hearing, Hardy told Signal Akron that there’s not a justification “to having the largest cabinet in Akron history” when “basic services are still so grossly understaffed.”
“Where is the equity in distribution of resources across all departments?” Sommerville asked Malik staffers on Monday. “That’s the thing that kind of bothers me – we’re very top-heavy on the budget as it relates to the mayor’s office.”
Kammer agreed. After a late-night shooting outside of a bar this weekend, he wants more funding to create a vice division in the Akron Police Department (Malik’s budget does fund the largest APD roster in decades) to shut down “nuisance bars” and “gambling places.”
Kammer also wants more enforcement of speeding violations. He wants more staff so residents don’t think neighborhood parks look so “horrible.”
“I need an answer to this question,” he said. “Moving forward, how do I go back to Ward 7 and explain to the residents that I approved a budget to staff the mayor’s office when we have some real issues in Ward 7 and throughout the city?”
Sommerville suggested that the mayor’s office not get funding for all of the 23 positions.
“We just can’t do it all at one time,” she said on Monday. “I think that’s the reality we all know, all departments know. We’ve asked departments to do the best they can with the staff they have. We’ve done that particularly on Akron City Council. As far as I’m concerned, every single ward person should have a paid staff because of the work that needs to be done, that our constituents expect of us.
“But the reality of it is there’s no way that we can pay for that right now. That’s an expensive cost.… There are a lot of opportunities here when we look at the mayor’s budget, that maybe everything doesn’t have to be hired right away, but over time he can build out his cabinet to do a little bit more, just like everybody else is trying to do across the city.”
The mayor’s office responds
Pitt pushed back on Sommerville.
“With respect, Madam President, to the comments that you are making – I agree that we want to be judicious about the time we take, but there are certain matters on which we do not have the time to take,” Malik’s chief of strategy said.
“If one thinks about community violence intervention, given what happened in our community with the killing of Jayland Walker, and so many other issues – Councilman Kammer mentioned a shooting just this last weekend … we desperately need a violence intervention plan.
“We definitely need the hospital-based violence intervention plan that our health strategist would help us work out, that our public safety strategist would help us work out, that would make a meaningful change to the residents in our neighborhoods. We desperately need our climate – it’s not giving us time – we desperately need to make a difference now when it comes to our sustainability and our resiliency measures.
“And we desperately need to make better efforts in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion. Our city desperately needs to see those measures shift and change.”
Pitt concluded that the additional staffing makes up just a small portion of the proposed $815 million budget.
“So I would urge the council to see the ways in which those positions, as one team, would aid you in the work that you are doing in your council wards,” she said, “and aid the city in moving the needle forward in some very, very important initiatives on which we do not have time, unfortunately.”
Council plans to vote on the budget next Monday – it must be approved by the end of the month at the latest.
In last week’s interview with Signal Akron, Hardy, at the time the lone council member to speak out publicly about the mayor’s office cost, doubted his opposition would impact it: “Short of six other colleagues coming to me and saying, ‘You know what, I have a concern about that, too, I think we need those eight positions and that million dollars elsewhere,’ it’s futile for me to introduce a substitute bill.”
Since then, Sommerville and Kammer have joined him. It is unknown how other council members will vote.