As officials present the city’s operating budget to Akron City Council, Council Member James Hardy is questioning the proposed size and cost of Mayor Shammas Malik’s cabinet, along with the explanation he’s received about why the office is so much larger than in the past.
During a budget hearing on Tuesday, the first-year council member pressed Chief of Strategy Nanette Pitt about how the administration can justify hiring so many people. Pitt is part of Malik’s brand new “strategy” team, one of the eight additional full-time employees the first-year mayor is seeking for his new administration.
“We’re at over $3.5 million in total spend [for the mayor’s office], and 23 FTEs which, if I’m reading it correctly, makes it the largest cabinet and the largest mayor’s office budget in Akron history,” Hardy said. “So, when I get the inevitable phone call from a constituent asking me what they are getting for that significant increase in the mayor’s office budget and staff, what should I tell them?”
Pitt, in City Council chambers, responded.
“I would submit that rather than an expense, one might argue that we are making an investment in the future of Akron and the change that members of the community voted for when they voted for Mayor Malik,” she said. “In order to see those initiatives come to life, we use human resource, mostly, to collaborate and bring those initiatives out and run them in the community.”
In an interview with Signal Akron on Wednesday, Hardy, a former chief of staff to then-Mayor Dan Horrigan, said he was not satisfied with that answer.
He’s pleased with Malik’s plan to increase the budget for the Akron Police Department and Akron Fire Department — each will have its largest staffing level in decades — but not the expansion of the mayor’s office. Hardy said those resources could be spent elsewhere.
Unlike the federal budget, which can have a deficit, Akron’s budget is a “zero-sum game, meaning if you put more money in one pot, you’re taking it from another,” Hardy said.
“How are any of those eight people and the extra million dollars going to help our neighborhoods?” Hardy said. “In my opinion, as you can probably tell, they won’t. They’re meant to be — I’ll be generous — thought leaders on particular issues that are important for the mayor. Fine. But when basic needs aren’t covered yet, how can we justify having such a resource for the mayor when we can’t ensure that we’re mowing every lawn in all of our neighborhood parks or that we have enough housing inspectors to handle the case load.
“Basic city services are still so grossly understaffed,” he continued. “I don’t know how you can justify the largest cabinet in Akron history when those things are not met.”
When Malik took office in January, he cut several positions in the mayor’s office, reshuffled some roles and added others, most notably the strategy team.
That team, led by 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. He also added a two-person sustainability office, a three-member diversity, equity inclusion office, and additional communications staffers.
Signal Akron asked the mayor’s office for a response to Hardy’s premise that there’s no justification “to having the largest cabinet in Akron history” when “basic services are still so grossly understaffed.” Malik responded in a statement:
We are proud to present a budget that invests in Akron’s future. It includes 488 uniformed Police Officers, the highest level in at least 20 years, and 402 uniformed Firefighter/Medics, which is the highest level in 30 years. In addition, we have restructured the mayor’s office – eliminating some roles, moving others, and adding eight net new roles in key areas. The city doesn’t have an education department, but for Akron to succeed we must have someone who wakes up everyday thinking about education issues and how we’re going to make universal pre-K and other initiatives happen. The same is true when it comes to public safety and violence intervention initiatives, environmental sustainability, federal and state funding that we’re aggressively going after – these roles are critical to moving Akron forward. I look forward to continuing to discuss the budget with City Council, and I invite all residents to attend our budget town hall next Wednesday at 6PM at Firestone CLC.
The budget needs to be approved by City Council by the end of the month.
“I’ve voiced my concerns to council leadership,” Hardy said when asked what he’s going to do with his vote and what he can do about his objections. “I think they’ve received it incredibly well. We’re not done with the budget hearings yet, so my hope is, at the very least, is that when these budget hearings are done, we’ll have a conversation as a council about everyone’s concerns, not just mine.…
“[But] 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.”
