A year ago this week, more than 30 people packed the public comment portion of a two-hour-plus City Council meeting.
Newly trained Documenters Rick Bohan and Jackie Jantzi, both Akron residents, sat in the wood-paneled City Council chambers on the third floor of the Akron Municipal Building, observing the meeting and taking notes.
Their efforts marked the first government meeting covered by Akron Documenters. Their published notes became the first in a new public record chronicling government meetings in the city and county.
“People were tense and nervous,” Jantzi remarked in her notes. She also described people lined up to get in 45 minutes ahead of the 7 p.m. meeting.
No action was taken that day on the commenters’ request for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. But a couple of weeks later, Jantzi noted, council passed a resolution that “condemns violence, offers support to both Israeli and Palestinian people in Akron and those affected by this conflict, and affirms Akron’s commitment to be a welcoming city to all.”
Documenters live in every Akron-area ZIP code
Since that first meeting a year ago, Akron Documenters have attended and taken notes at more than 260 Akron and Summit County government meetings. The group has grown from two dozen who attended the first orientations in fall of 2023 to more than 160 today. Akron Documenters hail from every ZIP code in the city in addition to a dozen other municipalities in Greater Akron.
The main idea behind the Akron Documenters program is that it trains and pays residents to cover government meetings and to provide news and information to their neighbors. The notes from these meetings are all published here.
In addition, Signal Akron editors have published 82 stories in the last year that were informed and fueled by Documenters’ notes.
Akron Documenters focus on Akron and Summit County government meetings and attend eight to 10 meetings each week.
In the past year, Akron Documenters have attended the following meetings:
- Akron government
- Board of Education
- Board of Zoning Appeals
- Citizens’ Police Oversight Board
- City Council
- Civil Rights Commission
- Housing Appeals Board
- Planning Commission
- Public Art Commission
- Tree Commission
- Urban Design and Historic Preservation Commission
- Vacant Buildings Board
- Ward council meetings (all 10 of them)
- Summit County and other agencies
- Akron-Canton Airport Authority Board
- Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study (AMATS)
- Akron-Summit County Public Library Board of Trustees
- County of Summit ADM Board of Directors
- Summit County Board of Control
- Summit County Board of Elections
- Summit County Council
- METRO RTA Board of Trustees
- Summit County Planning Commission
- Summit Soil and Water Conservation District
- University of Akron Board of Trustees
- Veterans Service Commission of Summit County
This week, Akron Documenters can be found at meetings of the Akron Citizens’ Police Oversight Board, Ward 1’s monthly meeting, the Akron Vacant Buildings Board and the Akron Public Art Commission.
If you are 16 or older and want to join a civic-minded group of people committed to re-inventing local journalism, sharing information and holding government officials accountable, go here for more information. Documenters is open to all and always seeking new members.
