This article is part of the Voters Guide produced in partnership with the League of Women Voters of the Akron Area.

Description of Race/Referendum:

Vote for no more than one — term commencing Jan. 1, 2025.

The Summit County Executive manages a budget of nearly a half billion dollars and ten departments including: Administrative Services, Administration and Public Information, Community and Economic Development, Finance and Budget, Human Resources, Job and Family Services, Law and Risk Management, Sanitary Sewer Services, Public Safety and the Medical Examiner.

Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro.
Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro is running for re-election.

Ilene Shapiro

Democrat

Candidate Email: KeepShapiro@gmail.com

Training / Experience: Small business owner, entrepreneur, corporate executive, County Council member 

Current occupation: Summit County Executive

Campaign phone: 330-416-6889

Website: www.electshapiro.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/electshapiro

Education: Attended University of Akron

Why are you the best candidate for the office?

Since I first took office in 2016, I have demonstrated strong leadership skills, enhanced community relationships and upheld fiscal responsibility. In addition to ensuring the day-to-day functions of Summit County government are accessible to our constituents, I have also developed creative and innovative projects that benefit all 31 communities in our County. In leading the County through challenges such as the opioid epidemic, COVID-19, and a changing economic landscape, I have proven I can navigate our community through turbulent moments. 

What are the top priorities you seek to address once in office?

My top priorities for my next term are to continue to provide high-quality services to our community, grow and strengthen public safety initiatives, and implement transformational projects made possible by the federal American Rescue Plan Act. We have earned a reputation in Ohio as a leader in service delivery. Our teams excel in assisting residents and connecting them with programming, and we will continue to identify opportunities to better serve our residents. To support public safety, we opened the Summit Emergency Communications Center, a regional, state-of-the-art 9-1-1 dispatch center that now serves over half of all residents. We hope to expand this operation to additional communities. Additionally, we have now invested over $16 million from our landmark settlement to stem the tide of the opioid epidemic. Our  ARPA funds give us a special opportunity to invest in projects we could never have previously supported. I look forward to completing these projects in my next term.

What strategies will you use to accomplish those priorities?

To accomplish our priorities, my team and I rely on strong relationships with our 31 cities, villages and townships, our state and federal partners, business and nonprofit leaders and the philanthropic community. We leverage the best assets of our community, facilitate dialogue and harness the power of collaboration to achieve significant outcomes for Summit County. We do all this while always keeping fiscal responsibility top of mind. 

Editor-in-Chief (she/her)
Zake has deep roots in Northeast Ohio journalism. She was the managing editor for multimedia and special projects at the Akron Beacon Journal, where she began work as a staff photographer in 1986. Over a 20-year career, Zake worked in a variety of roles across departments that all help inform her current role as Signal Akron's editor in chief. Most recently, she was a journalism professor and student media adviser at Kent State University, where she worked with the next generation of journalists to understand public policy, environmental reporting, data and solutions reporting. Among her accomplishments was the launch of the Kent State NewsLab, an experiential and collaborative news commons that connects student reporters with outside professional partners.